3/3/1990 The best support I've ever seen or heard from anyone, anywhere, ever. The way it never let up during half-time was brilliant, went down for a piss came back and carried on singing!

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Aston Villa today launched Villa in the Community, a new charity and the banner under which all of the Club's social responsibility and community work will fall under.

"We are very proud to be launching Villa in the Community in order to further our existing work in Birmingham and the surrounding areas," said Villa CEO Paul Faulkner.

"As a Club we take our role in the local community very seriously and the sense of engagement and involvement with the community runs right through the heart of the Club. Everyone associated with the Club is passionate about this work and they are passionate because they believe that it is the right thing to do.

"Villa in the Community is the umbrella under which all of our projects and initiatives will fall and it will allow us to fund more projects in the future. That means that we can do even more in the future to affect what goes on around us. I'm very proud of the work we have done and continue to do and I'm proud of what we can do in the future with Villa in the Community."

In becoming a charity, Villa in the Community aims to expand on the excellent work already undertaken by the Club by seeking new funding opportunities and opportunities to work with new partners who share our aim and passion to make a difference in the local community.

Villa in the Community will cover five broad areas: football and sports participation, education, health, youth, cohesion and inclusion and environment

In addressing these areas, the Club work with several partners on a variety of different community programs. These include the Premier League, the PFA, Sport England, Birmingham Public Health, West Midlands Police, The University of Birmingham, Birmingham City University and The Princes Trust, as well as a number of others.
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Paul Merson has lifted the lid on his love for Villa, revealing that he cried his eyes out when he left the club.

Merson joined Villa in a £6.75m move from Middlesbrough in 1998 and enjoyed a superb four seasons in claret and blue, bringing smiles to the faces of fans with his silky-smooth skills in the middle of the park.

Eventually though, the fairytale ended and he was deemed surplus to requirements by Graham Taylor, who had taken over from Merson-admirer John Gregory.

Merson admitted his decision to leave left him cold, primarily because he'd realised during his time in B6 what a massive club Villa were.

He said: "I absolutely loved it at Villa. It was the best part of my career, no doubt. I adored my football at Villa.

"When I left, I was devastated. It was the only time I ever cried when I left a football club.

"I was so, so gutted because I loved the club and loved playing for the club. It's a real good club.

"There was always something happening at Villa. It was lively. It was good.

"You try and tell people in London how big a club Villa is. It's truly massive.

"You talk about sleeping giants and Villa is up there. It's huge.

"I absolutely loved every bit of my time there. But in all honesty, I wasn't aware of the amazing history and tradition when I signed.

"Just before I put pen to paper, I was on Question of Sport and was asked: "How many times have Villa won the FA Cup?" I said: "Once?" I didn't know much beforehand. I wasn't too sure. But it's massive.

"They get packed houses every week at Villa Park. That's a barometer for how good it is there.

"Some seasons when I played we weren't great but the fans always stuck with us. We used to get 40,000 regularly. It's one of the biggest clubs about."

Merson

Merson's departure left deep sadness in the hearts of fans at the time because of the excitement that followed him around as a ball-playing central star.

But looking back now, there are many great goals to remember him by.

The silky-smooth midfield ace himself selects his goals against Coventry in 2001, Everton in 2000 and Sheffield Wednesday in 1999 as his best - for differing reasons.

He continued: "The goal against Coventry was one of my favourite goals. To come back from 2-0 down in a derby match was special. It was important.

"I had booked a stag weekend for me and my brother in America. We weren't playing the following week because it was the FA Cup. John had said it was okay.

"But at half-time against Coventry, he turned to me and said: "You're not going!" So I thought: "I better do something about this."

"People say that I sent Coventry down but I didn't! They had 37 other games.

"Anyway, John let me go and we came back the week after and got beaten. But the season was done by then.

"I enjoyed the one at Everton too.

"That match was one of the worst ever! Goodison Park is a tough place, though.

"Anytime you play there, you know you're in for a game.

"It was a big build-up with Gazza playing for them. He actually went off injured. But it was dire overall and then at the end, I just thought 'hit it.'

"I couldn't run anymore, it was the 90th minute. So I just smacked it.

"The most important goal I scored for Villa was against Sheffield Wednesday. We were 1-0 down to them at home and I scored. I then set up Tayls for the winner.

"If we had lost that game, I think John would have got the sack. I was a big fan of John so that was a vital goal.

"I liked the goals that had significance. The one at Everton came with the scores at 0-0. If you do that at 4-0, that's easy, anyone can do that. It's about scoring them when the game is on the line.

"I am always a great believer that the big goals are the ones when the pressure is on. That's the name of the game.

"The Sheffield Wednesday goal was important. I scored one against Southampton in 1998 when Stan rolled it through. That made it 4-1. They are a walk in the park! When they're 0-0, that's when they're difficult."

Of course, Merson fell in love with Villa during his time in claret and blue.

But sometimes it's not always the actual institution that accretes affection, it's the people that you spend time with.

That's true with Merson, who enjoyed a good relationship with John Gregory and his playing pals.

He continued: "John was different. I really liked him. But we didn't get on at first.

"I was travelling up a lot initially. He was making me travel all the way up and then I'd get in and I'd have a bath.

"I'd go mad! I'd think 'John, you're wasting my time.'

"But we got on well after that. I moved up to the Midlands. After that, I loved every minute of it and was devastated when I left.

"We had some great players, gifted players who could change a game in a millisecond.

Merson

"Dion was a great lad. I still see him now. He was a top, top centre-forward. If he hadn't had the injuries he had, he would have gone on and played for England a lot more. He had a leg-break at Man Utd and a neck-break at Villa. But he was a top player.

"Tayls was a top player - what an engine!

"I never realised how good Gareth Southgate was until I arrived at Villa. I thought he was just another steady centre-back. I genuinely couldn't believe how good he was. He was phenomenal - as a captain and as a person. He was as good as I have seen from anyone.

"There weren't too many better left-backs around than Alan Wright. He was Mr Dependable. He never let you down. If he was a bit taller, he'd have played for England regularly.

"We had good players. I can reel them off.

"Lee Hendrie was a good player. Gareth Barry? What can you say about him? He was different class. He was a big player at Villa. It's rare someone stays at a club as long as Gareth did with Villa. I was a big fan of Gareth."

Merson's proudest spell at Villa was the run to the 2000 FA Cup, which had plenty of drama and intrigue along the way.

It also, he admits, brings feelings of frustration with Villa too easily outgunned in the final showpiece against Chelsea.

He added: "When you look for the third round of the FA Cup, you think 'here we go.' Man Utd weren't in it that year either if you remember.

"To draw Darlington at home, it's a dream. It really is. It wasn't easy but drawing a lower division team at home, that's all you can ask for.

"Then we were drawn at home again - perfect - to Southampton. That was tight but after that we started thinking 'we've got a chance.'

"The next round against Leeds was one of the best games I have ever played in. I remember it was on a Sunday and Leeds were a top team, a good, good side.

"They went 1-0 up and then Benny scored to make it 1-1. They scored again and to be fair, they were the much better team. There was no comparison.

"We were lucky to be 2-1 down at that point - we'd had one shot on goal! Then Benny scored an absolute worldy out of nowhere.

"I thought he was going to roll it into me and then make a run off me. He shot and I thought 'what the hell do you think you're doing?' It flew in. He had that in his locker. He had exceptional skill.

Merson

"I then chipped the ball over two players and Mike Duberry came smashing into me. But thankfully from that move, Benny scored his hat-trick.

"I remember I had concussion. I will never forget the paper the next day. Frank Bruno had fought Mike Tyson the previous night. They had a massive picture of Frank and I. I was smothered in blood and Frank didn't have a spot on him. The headline said: "Guess who fought Mike Tyson?"

"Then we were in the quarter-finals. All you ask then is a good draw. To get drawn away to Everton was tough.

"It was a great win. I set up both goals but I didn't play well.

"We scored right on the stroke of half-time. When we got in the dressing room, John bought me off. He hadn't seen the goal. He thought it was 1-1 still.

"We had a huge argument. He said 'you're off'. I went into a right strop. He hadn't seen the goal but that happened a couple of times with John.

"He'd be doing the teamtalk and we'd be looking around at each other and thinking 'does he know the score here?' Seriously. He'd have left the stand early and not seen the goal. But we hung on.

"Then we got Bolton at Wembley for the semi-final. I'm not a great lover of the semi-final being at Wembley. But to get Bolton was a dream. I thought 'here we go.'

"We'd missed Chelsea, which was the name of the game.

"But Bolton battered us. There's no question about that. They were a much better team that day.

"Dean Holdsworth missed a great, great chance. He must still wake up every day and think about it. He must do.

"I shouldn't have played. I had sciatica in my back. I was coming towards the end of my career and you realise there won't be too many more chances to play in a semi-final.

"I played and I was poor. I was one of the worst players on the pitch. But we held on.

"Fair play to Dean. He took a penalty in the shoot-out after his miss in the game and scored.

"I was taking the final one. I had taken one in the 1998 World Cup in France so John put me at No.5 for the experience. I had put myself forward.

"We had good penalty-takers as you could see. They all wanted to take one, too. I didn't have to take on because of their phenomenal efforts and David James's heroics.

"I think we could have kept going and scored penalties all night. I had that much faith in us from the spot.

"What a moment for Dion too. It was phenomenal after what he'd been though with his broken neck. But that's the kind of guy he was - mentally strong.

"To get in the final was amazing. It was the ultimate. When you're a kid, you dream of playing in the FA Cup final. I was lucky because I'd played in one before. So I was more pleased for the younger lads.

"When I was a kid, I'd get up early with the family and be glued to the television all day. There would be the build-up - the cameras outside the hotels and in the coach on the way to the game - that sort of thing.

"But when you're in it, it's not like that at all. You're at the hotel, you turn up and play the game. It's only afterwards, perhaps the year after and you think 'wow, that was us.'

"We were really poor, too negative and we showed Chelsea too much respect. It was one of the worst cup finals ever. To call it an anti-climax is a compliment.

"I'd rather have got beat 10-0 and had a go. We didn't look like scoring in the month of Sundays. We should have gone for it. But that's history now."

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from John 'who else' Russell:

Fred Rinder’s greatest contribution to football, apart from running English football for the better part of sixty years and helping to make Aston Villa the ‘Greatest Football Club in the World’, is the singing of Abide with Me at the F.A. Cup Final. Credit for this is usually given to Sir Frederick Wall, but as the F.A. Secretary he was merely the person who made the official announcement. Trust me, it was ‘our’ Fred who actually came up with the idea. 

Ironically Cardiff City who, after beating us in the third round of the cup, proved it was no fluke by making it all the way to the twin towers. They then found themselves having to play on St. Georges Day, 1927.

Community Singing was already in vogue partly as a way of calming the crowd down at big games and especially at the Cup Final after the debacle four years earlier.  Besides, standing around two or three hours before the kick off hurling abuse at the opposition was otherwise a fairly soul destroying activity so best to give the crowd something to try to keep them cheerful, anything. 

The Welsh contingent had already been conceded Land of My Fathers. The Welsh Guards did not get invited to perform it though. The Grenadier and Irish Guards had long since been booked to dig their heels into the hallowed turf.

King George V, one time Prince of Wales of course, actually enjoyed attending the Cup Final, so let us give him something he would like to hear, and a century old hymn, Abide with Me, was something he really liked. Mr. Rinder's inspired suggestion was greeted enthusiastically by the rest of the F.A. Committee and agreed upon unanimously.

The King took his seat after the singing of Pack up Your Troubles and Tipperary, the song which thirty years later inspired us to glory and has never been replaced since as a Villa anthem. 

Abide with Me had been popular with the troops in the trenches. It had been sung at games on Good Friday, perhaps as a sop to the fact that games were being played at all on such a sacred day. Anyone who objected to playing on Good Friday was be excused.

Everyone sang from the same hymn sheet but there may have been no need of a hymn sheet because everyone knew the words, at least of the first verse. With over 90,000 at Wembley it became the largest congregation ever to sing a hymn and because it was a hymn everyone stood reverently and removed their hats. Back then most wore hats, or rather flat caps. 

Perhaps nothing has ever been able to recapture the emotion of that first occasion but it is not hard to understand why the singing of Abide with Me became a tradition. Those who later scoffed at its inclusion at the Cup Final were scoffing at that tradition – and, perhaps without realising it, the memory of Fred Rinder. 

What a pity Fred never got to hear it sung at a Villa final. He must have been devastated more than anybody when we got relegated in 1936 but he at least had the consolation of seeing us back in the top flight just before he died suddenly at Christmas 1938.

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A tribute to a very special footballer by Dave Woodhall.

Two men retired from football last week. One of them had won every honour the game had to offer and his departure was treated with the sort of fawning press coverage usually reserved for a royal wedding. The other was far more deserving.

The news that Stiliyan Petrov has announced his retirement can hardly be described as a surprise. Stan’s health must always come first and although he’s winning that a particular battle, the reality is that from the moment news of his illness was announced he was highly unlikely ever to play football again. His playing career is over and we can look back at a time when we had a player who upheld the standards we’ve come to expect from the Villa.

Stan was, of course, the personification of the Martin O’Neill era. He was the first player our new manager signed when he joined Villa from Celtic for £6.5 million in August 2006. Before then, he’d played for O’Neill at his previous club, where he won a reputation as a box to box, attacking midfielder. It was typical of Stan that he was so eager to fit into his new surroundings in Glasgow that he worked at a friend’s burger van in order to help improve his English. He went on to win four Scottish Premier League titles as well as becoming the first foreigner to win the Scottish PFA Young Player of the Year Award.

Stan made his Villa debut in a 1-1 draw at West Ham, where he suffered from the rule that states any Villa player making a good debut must suffer from an immediate loss of form, and in all honesty Stan’s first two seasons at Villa Park weren’t great ones. The effort was there, but he was unable to reproduce his Scottish form at the higher level of the Premier League.

Not that such a problem made much difference as Villa began what was to be a regularly unsuccessful challenge for a place in the Champions League. Wearing what was to become the iconic number 19 shirt, Stan dropped back to become a holding midfielder, where his workrate enabled him to play an effective role in allowing Ashley Young, in particular, to flourish. The end of that second season also saw him scoring the unforgettable goal at Derby, and from then on Stan’s Villa career once more took off.

2008-09 was the season when Stan became firmly established as a true Villa man. He was the team’s Player of the Year as Villa finished sixth once more, and the retireme nt of Martin Laursen saw him being named club captain – naturally, Stan would never forget when an honour this was.

In 2009-10 he led the team out for the League Cup final, and his performances were up to their usual standard in the final fling of the O’Neill era. Despite the departure of a manager with whom he had shared an obvious close relationship for many years, Stan refused to allow the upheaval to affect his game. In fact, his true worth became apparent as he helped steer the club away from its early-season difficulties into a comfortable mid-table position at the end of 2010-11. Never mind individuals, the club came first.

The same thing happened the following season, when amidst the turmoil of the McLeish period Stan continued to play for and captain the team during a time when the club seemed to be in one of its periodic civil wars. Stan made his 200th league appearance for the Villa against Sunderland, scoring with a trademark 25 yard shot during a 2-2 draw.

Stan’s last game was in the 3-0 defeat against Arsenal last season. He felt unwell after the game and was subsequently diagnosed with acute leukaemia. The shock of this diagnosis was only equalled by the support and good wishes that he received from around the world when the news broke. Stan was, and remains, not just a top-class footballer, but also one of the most decent and humble men in the game. The idea for the 19th minute applause was immediately thought up and caught on, first for the game against  Chelsea the day after Stan’s illness became known, and then for every game since. Opposition supporters, managers and even players have joined in with showing their support for a man who shows that not all modern footballers are the egotistical, greedy mercenaries you might think. Villa supporters have been joined by those of Celtic and just about every club in Bulgaria in regularly supporting his fight. Many’s the time photographs have been shown of Bulgarian juggernauts travelling the motorways of Europe with “Support Stan” emblazoned along their sides.

To say that Villa have missed Stan this season would be an understatement. Our youngsters would have benefited from his experience and leadership, not to mention his quiet reassurance on the pitch. With Stan in the side there would have been no eight goal thrashings nor semi-final humiliation, and neither would we have still been battling against relegation going into the final few days of the season. Indeed, it’s one of the greatest sad ironies of Stan’s illness that his abilities both on and off the pitch would have been a perfect fit for the Villa’s current situation.

But of course, our problems are a minor concern compared to Stan’s health and it was no surprise when his retirement was announced this week. With his usual dignity Stilyan announced “It is with a heavy heart that I am announcing my retirement,” adding, “I was privileged to live a life competing at a high level and playing the game I love, supported by the most passionate fans.”

The news was greeted in much the same way that has followed every piece of news about Stan’s condition for a year – sadness followed by reflection about what a special man he is and what a great loss to Villa, and football in general, he would be. Whether it be supporters, player, manager or pundit, just about everyone connected with football queued up top pay tribute to one of the few men in the game for whom that weary old cliché rings true – you never hear a bad word said about him. Not that there’s any chance of Stiliyan being lost to the game, or even forgotten.

Thankfully he’s currently in remission and long may he stay that way. It’s been mentioned that there will be a job waiting for him at Villa Park should he so choose and whether that be coaching or in some ambassadorial role there could be no better man for the job than Stan. He has an affinity with supporters and young players could have no better mentor. Already inducted into the Villa Hall of Fame, Stan has shown that he deserves to have his name mentioned in the same company as the illustrious captains of our club’s past.

He may not have led the team to the glories that his captaincy deserved but there is indeed only one Stiliyan Petrov.