Player #882 for Aston Villa, Mark John Bunn played as a goalkeeper for the club between 2015-16 and 2018-19 making 21 appearances. Mark was the 94th custodian of the Villa goal in professional football.

Mark was born in Camden on 16 November 1984.

Tim Sherwood had signed Mark from Norwich City on a free transfer on 9 July 2015 and he made his debut appearance for Villa in their Second Round 5-3 League Cup win over Notts County on Tuesday, 25 August 2015 aged 30.

Bunn had joined a squad marked by its lack of goalkeeping prowess with only the frequently fallible Brad Guzan, and the youth team player Brad Watkins as alternatives.

Guzan was however consistently favoured over Bunn and he would only make a single appearance under Sherwood until the latter’s departure in October 2015.

Sherwood’s replacement Rémi Garde continued to favour Guzan and played the USA international for 9 successive games that brought no wins, five losses and four draws with seventeen goals conceded.

Garde acted and brought in Bunn for three consecutive games which saw Villa’s form immediately improve, remaining unbeaten with one win and just two goals conceded.

Inexplicably Garde would bring Guzan back only to see him conceded four goals on his reappearance as Bunn sat on the bench once again.

By this point Villa were beyond salvation and goals against speedily racked up, following the error of bringing Guzan back into the starting XI, Garde reinstated Bunn but the rot had set in and in four consecutive appearances Bunn conceded 10 as Villa lost three and won just one game.

Garde reacted by once again bringing Guzan back and he responded with four losses and another ten conceded in four games, Garde left the club soon after.

Garde’s replacement, caretaker Eric Black, continued to favour Guzan and he added a further four appearances with another four losses and eleven conceded.

Guzan would not play for Villa again and Black returned Bunn to the starting line up for the final three games of Villa’s torrid 2015-16 season and drawing one and losing two saw him concede a further seven goals.

In total across the season Guzan had played 32 games, conceding 64 goals whilst Bunn appeared in 12 games, conceding 22.

For the 2016-17 and the overhaul of the most abject of Villa squads, Guzan had been moved on and Bunn faced fresh competition in new arrivals Pierluigi Gollini and later Sam Johnstone as well as the re-emergence of Jed Steer and the youthful potential of Matija Šarkić.

With Gollini initially favoured under Roberto Di Matteo and his excellent figures of just 19 goals conceded in 20 games restricted Bunn to a single appearance in each of the EFL Cup, and Championship.

With Di Matteo’s short spell as Villa boss over and his replacement Steve Bruce in post, Gollini remained number one before inexplicably being sent out on loan having made his final appearance of 20 for Villa. Bruce immediately installed Bunn as Gollini’s replacement and he kept goal for four consecutive matches winning two, drawing one and losing one whilst conceding three.

Bruce then recruited on loan goalkeeper Sam Johnstone from Manchester United and Bunn acted as back up with no further appearances for the club in 2016-17.

With Sam Johnstone retained for the 2017-18 season and Jed Steer promoted to substitute goalkeeper, Bunn would initially feature only as a back up to Jed Steer in the EFL Cup before Bruce sent Steer out on loan and Bunn was promoted to be back up to Sam Johnstone from January 2018 to the season end.

Bunn made a single appearance - in the final game of the regular Championship season - as Johnstone was rested ahead of the Play Offs and conceded in Villa’s 0-1 defeat to Millwall on Saturday, 12 May 2018.

The following season, with Johnstone gone, and new arrivals Ørjan Nyland and André Moreira rivalling Bunn and Steer for the goalkeeper’s shirt, Bunn was used as back up until making his first appearance of the season - and his final appearance for Villa in the 3-3 Championship draw with Preston North End on Tuesday, 2 October 2018 that also saw Steve Bruce’s final game as Villa boss.

New boss Dean Smith would use Bunn as substitute goalkeeper through his first fourteen games was back up to Ørjan Nyland before buying Croatian international goalkeeper Lovre Kalinić and installing him as first choice with Jed Steer as back up. Kalinić’s time in goal was a disaster however, conceding 15 in 8 games before being dropped.

Thereafter Jed Steer was made Villa’s number one and he led Villa on a record run of 10 consecutive league wins and promotion to the Premier League via the play offs.

Bunn however made no further squad appearances after New Year’s Day 2019 and across his four seasons and 21 appearances Bunn conceded 38 goals at a ratio of 1.81 goals per game whilst keeping 5 clean sheets.

Bunn was released by Villa in May 2019 aged 34 before retiring from football.