Freddie Haycock's final day goal earns Villa a draw after an excellent return season to the top flight football.

Villa though end the season on a difficult run of six defeats in their final nine games having not lost in their previous eight and having delivered sixteen wins over the first 33 games of the campaign. 

Villa’s late season collapse saw them fall back to mid table and 12th in the League however enough had been seen of the work done under Jimmy Hogan to suggest the next few seasons would be exciting times for this talented manager and his Villa squad. 

Villa had sat 5th in the table in late March.

The world however had other ideas and whilst football paled into insignificance against the World War that would rage for the next six years it remains an eternal mystery as to just how far Jimmy Hogan could have taken his Villa charges. 

As it was the final game of 1938-39 would prove to be his last as Villa boss as the breakout of WW2 and the resultant suspension of League and FA Cup football cut short both careers and tragically lives. 

Unusprisingly a series of Villa careers ended on this day including:

Centre back Jimmy Allen made the last of this 161 appearances for Villa aged 29 before retiring from football.

Centre forward Frank O’Donnell makes his 31st and final appearance aged 27 having only joined Villa for their top flight return during which he hit fourteen goals. O’Donnell would move on to Forest. 

Forward Freddie Haycock, 27, having represented Villa on 111 occasions and scoring 33 goals. Haycock would move on to Wrexham. 

Alex Massie, 33, after 152 appearances in League and FA Cup football for Villa before stepping up to the manager position on the resumption of football in 1945.