Shirt Stories

A number of different sponsors were worn during the two seasons Aston Villa were kitted out by Asics, see how many variants you can remember...

The story of how Villa won the Coca Cola Cup in 1993, wearing a very special shirt, 6,000 miles from Wembley Stadium.

Brian Little had a memorable seven days in the spring of 1972. A breakthrough from the Villa youth team to the senior squad saw him make his full debut in a third division match against Torquay on Saturday 29th April. Not only did he score one of the goals in a 5-1 win, the game saw an already promoted Villa side clinch the third division title. Only four days earlier Little had helped the Villa Youth team to victory in the FA Youth Cup final over Liverpool. An enthralling second leg performance saw Villa clinch the trophy 5-2 on aggregate. The following Tuesday, Little represented England at Youth level in a friendly fixture against Scotland at Villa Park. Pictured below is the shirt Brian wore in the game which ended in a 1-0 defeat for the England team.

Dennis Mortimer was lauded as the next Bobby Charlton by the national press in 1973 after a brilliant performance during an England under-23 game against Holland. Three years before his move to Villa Park, Dennis - then with Coventry City - scored two goals and left a lasting impression with journalists who compared him with Bobby Charlton and Duncan Edwards the next morning. This is the shirt Dennis wore in that game at Highbury and he received even more column inches in the week, posing for photographs for the Coventry Evening Telegraph holding his match-winning Three Lions shirt. England: A.Stevenson, J.McDowell, Mike Pejic, L.Cantello, T.Taylor, Kevin Beattie, D.Mortimer, Trevor Whymark, Ray Kennedy, Charlie George, Tony Currie