Villa cannot survive an eccentric refereeing performance that sees three Villa players sent off over the two games including two at the Hawthorns as Celta secure an aggregate victory.

Villa’s insanely early start to the season comes to a pointless, fruitless and demoralising end. Four sending offs, a raft of bookings, suspensions and injuries were all Villa had to show for playing four games by the 2nd August. 

Midfielder Stephen Cooke, 17, makes his debut in a Villa shirt after signing professional forms with the club in July 2000 to become the 746th player to play for Villa in first team League or Cup football.

Midfielder Alan Thompson, 26, is sent off on his 58th and final appearance in a Villa shirt (45 Starts) before joining Celtic for a fee of £3,960,000 in September 2000. Thompson joined from Bolton Wanderers in June 1998 for £6,480,000 and left with W23 D13 L22, 5 Goals, 6 Assists, 17 Bookings and 1 Red Card having collected cards at a rate of one every 3.22 games in his Villa career.

Ian Taylor is sent off on his 223rd appearance in a Villa shirt (204 Starts) to make it W99 D55 L69, 32 Goals, 13 Assists, 43 Bookings and 1 Red Card so far in his Villa career.

Julian Joachim makes his 150th appearance in a Villa shirt (101 Starts) to make it W63 D33 L54, 38 Goals, 12 Assists and 2 Booking at a goal involvement rate of one for every 3.00 games played so far in his Villa career.

Villa win consecutive Premier League games for the first time for the first time this season to make it eight wins in twenty two Premier League games under Graham Taylor but they remain 14th in the table.

Villa open the New Year with a win - their second in succession, and 3rd in 6 League games under Graham Taylor. 

Villa now have 11 wins and 16 defeats in 35 Premier League matches under Graham Taylor at a rate of 1.17 points per game. Taylor’s predecessor John Gregory left with a record of 1.58 points per game.

Dion Dublin scores his 50th goal in a Villa shirt on his 149th appearance (123 Starts) to make it W56 D42 L51, 50 Goals, 17 Assists, 14 Bookings and 1 Red Card at a goal involvement rate of one for every 2.23 games played so far in his Villa career.

Juan Pablo Ángel secures his 25th win in a Villa shirt on his 46th start (63 Appearances) to make it W25 D14 L24, 19 Goals, 7 Assists and 6 Bookings at a goal involvement rate of one for every 1.77 starts so far in his Villa career.

Jlloyd Samuel secures his 25th win in a Villa shirt on his 71st appearance (52 Starts) to make it W25 D19 L27, 4 Assists, 9 Bookings and 1 Red Card so far in his Villa career.

Mark Kinsella secures his 10th win in a Villa shirt on his 22nd appearance (16 Starts) to make it W10 D3 L9, 0 Goals, 2 Assists and 0 Bookings so far in his Villa career.

Stephen Cooke makes his second appearance in a Villa shirt 2 years, 10 months, and 24 days after his debut to make it W1 D0 L1 so far in his truncated Villa career.

Villa lose for the fourth successive game under Graham Taylor.

Villa have now failed score in 15 of 30 league matches under Graham Taylor.

Villa have now lost 21 of 43 Premier League games under Graham Taylor.

The truly woeful Graham Taylor reign comes to an end as Villa lose on the final day to leave them with twelve wins in thirty eight Premier League games and a 16th placed finish - their lowest since 1994-95. 

In truth it was an impossible task to expect a great man, wedded in a certain footballing ideal, to adjust to the modern footballing world.

Sadly the laziness, or incompetence, of the Villa board allowed the pain to continue far beyond its clear failure. 

With just 15 wins in 51 Premier League fixtures and 23 defeats, the football had not only been woeful but the results damaging. 

The inherited squad, ageing but occasionally still effervescent, was a shadow of itself within months, and but for the emergence of young prospects there was little to cheer. 

The unfathomable ostracism of players, not least Juan Pablo Ángel and Peter Crouch, robbed the squad of talent, and the bizarre recruitment policy burdened the team with players simply not up to the rigours and standards of Premier League football. 

Without question the worst season in over 25 years for Villa, the venerated Graham Taylor left with most people wishing to forget 2002-03 happened and with a desire to simply focus on that day at Goodison Park in May 1990. 

Midfielder and Villa great Ian Taylor, 34, makes his final appearance in a Villa shirt after 9 seasons with the club before moving on to Derby County on a free transfer in June 2003. Taylor was underused by his namesake in the final season of his Villa career despite a record of W120 D79 L92, 42 Goals, 17 Assists, 54 Bookings and 2 Red Cards between 1994-95 and 2002-03. Despite his age Taylor could still do a job for the club, like Merson, Stone, Kachloul, Wright and co. before him but Graham Taylor thought otherwise.

Midfielder Joey Guðjónsson, 22, makes his 11th and final appearance in a Villa shirt of his loan spell from Real Betis. Guðjónsson had brought ill-disciplined passion to Villa and proved both entertaining and flawed. In a better environment, surrounded by stronger team-mates and a more progressive manager, those raw characteristics may have been harnessed to create a good player however that wasn’t Villa in 2002-03 under Graham Taylor. Guðjónsson left with a record of W4 D2 L5, 2 Goals, 2 Assists, 4 Bookings and 1 Red Card at a rate of a card for every 2.20 games he played.

Midfielder Stephen Cooke, 20, makes his 4th and final appearance in a Villa shirt (0 Starts) before moving on to Bournemouth on a free transfer in July 2005. Cooke made his debut in 2000 and waited nearly 3 years for his second appearance before his final outing 3 months later to leave with a record of W1 D0 L3.

Peter Whittingham makes his 1st start in a Villa shirt on his 4th appearance to make it W1 D1 L2 so far in his Villa career.

Stefan Postma concedes his 10th goal in a Villa shirt on his 9th appearance (8 Starts) to make it W3 D2 L4, 12 Goals Conceded at a rate of 1.33 goals per game and 3 Clean Sheets (33%) so far in his Villa career.

Marcus Allbäck makes his 25th appearance in a Villa shirt (12 Starts) to make it W10 D6 L9, 6 Goals, 1 Assist and 2 Bookings at a goal involvement rate of one for every 3.57 games played so far in his Villa career.