Villa's injury crisis continues unabated as they are forced to raid the reserves again and field a side of whom seven are under the age of 21. 

Such is the desperate need for bodies that centre back Noel Blake 🇯🇲, 18, is selected to make his Villa debut after joining from Sutton Town in December 1978. Blake, on the very periphery of the youth set up becomes the 614th player to play for Villa in first team League or Cup football in one of the most unexpected promotions in Villa's history.

Villa 🟩 win for the second time in five and record their 🟩 first win in four to make it 🟩 fifteen wins, 🟨 fourteen draws and 🟥 eleven defeats in 🕒 forty League matches this season under Ron Saunders.

Villa remain joint 5th with five games to play, three points clear of 6th and three points behind fourth.

Midfielder Gordon Cowans 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 scores his ⚽ 20th goal in a Villa shirt on his 🕒 157th appearance (142 Starts) to make it 🟩 W66 🟨 D45 🟥 L46, ⚽ 20 Goals and 🔥 18 Assists at a goal involvement rate of one for every 4.13 games he has played so far in his Villa career.

Colin Gibson 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 makes his 🕒 50th appearance in a Villa shirt.

Villa's ongoing injury crisis sees a hugely edifying battle of youngsters unfold. 

Villa field a team with an average outfield age of 20, whilst Coventry have five under 21 players in their side - with both Midlands clubs eschewing the norm of imported and ageing squads. 

Both teams put on a fine attacking display that Villa 🟩 win to remain joint fifth in the first division table with one game left to play. 

Villa 🟩 win for the second game in succession and make it 🟩 sixteen wins, 🟨 fourteen draws and 🟥 eleven defeats in 🕒 forty one Division One matches this season under 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Ron Saunders.

Colin Gibson 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 scores his ⚽ second goal in a Villa shirt on his 🕒 51st appearance.

Villa finish the campaign with 🟩 sixteen wins, 🟨 fourteen draws and 🟥 twelve defeats in 🕒 forty two Division One matches under Ron Saunders 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿. 

Losing players of the calibre of Andy Gray 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 and John Gidman 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 early in the season before losing John Deehan's goalscoring credentials 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 was always going to mean a challenging season.

But suffering an injury crisis in the latter stages of the campaign so severe that the club were forced to play peripheral reserve team players Robert Hopkins 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 and Noel Blake 🇯🇲 meant that any top ten finish was something to behold.

Villa actually sat 5th in the table on the final day but fixture congestion meant Forest and Wolves had games still to play and following their final round of matches Villa had fallen to 7th,

Right back Kenny Swain 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 makes his 75th 🕒 appearance in a Villa shirt.

A third successive League defeat and Villa are a "faded force", "running around in circles" and "getting nowhere". 

Reigning Champions Villa make it 🟩 four wins, 🟨 seven draws and 🟥 seven defeats in their title defence. 

Centre back Noel Blake 🇯🇲 makes his first appearance in 19 months as the reserve team player is a surprise call up 74 games after his equally surprising three game spell in 1979-80 amidst Villa’s worst injury crisis in decades.  Blake’s fourth appearance in a Villa shirt would also be his last before moving on to Birmingham City for a fee of £55,000 in September 1982.

Left back Colin Gibson 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 makes his 🕒 100th start in a Villa shirt (104 Appearances).

Midfielder Terry Bullivant 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 makes his 🕒 first appearance in 21 months and first for 83 games.