Joe Mercer's Villa end the most remarkable of League seasons unbeaten in three having lost twelve of their previous thirteen including a worst ever League run of eleven successive losses.

Villa’s final League fixture is their sixteenth in fifty four days after their wildly interrupted season delivered the inevitable fixture list congestion and required Villa to play once every three days in the final two months of the season.

As a result, Villa make it fifteen wins, eight draws and nineteen defeats in forty two division one games as a campaign of such promise before the fixture interruption had come completely off the rails following a record for failure that no-one could or would have predicted.

That Villa finished 15th in the table, well clear of the drop zone, simply underlined the form they had shown prior to the new year and which made the form of April and May such a shock.

Villa’s season wasn’t over however as they now had a two legged final in the League Cup to look forward to against a relegated Birmingham side as Villa attempted to deliver a trophy in an otherwise barren season and win the League Cup for the second time in three seasons since its inauguration.