Game #3002
Aston Villa
2-7-9, 11 PTS
Saturday, 9 November 1968
Lost
22nd (-1)
Last 5: 🟨 🟨 🟨 🟥 🟥
Division Two
Attendance: 13,374
Preston North End
Villa Park
6-7-4, 19 PTS
Villa slump to bottom of the table on goal average, two points off safety, amidst mass protests at the board in their defeat to mid table Preston. The game proves to be the last in a torrid spell under Tommy Cummings, who for all his shortcomings, is seen as the scapegoat for an out of touch and debilitating board. As ever in football things however aren’t mutually exclusive, sadly for Villa they have had an incompetent board and incompetent management team combine to take them to the brink of the third tier. The board’s answer is to promote 30 year old coach Arthur Cox to take over from Tommy Cummings; Cox’s immediate action is to ostracise a crucial player.
Aston Villa
0-1
Preston North End
Assist(s) | None
KEY MAN
PREVIOUS MATCH
NEXT MATCH
MATCH TIMELINE
Saturday, 9 November 1968
🕒 | HT Aston Villa 0-0 Preston North End
🥅 | 49’ Goal, 0-1, (Preston North End), Fred Turnbull o.g.
🕒 | FT Aston Villa 0-1 Preston North End
ON THIS DAY
Tommy Cummings' Villa now have just two wins in the last twenty three games as they make it two wins, seven draws and nine defeats in eighteen division two games so far this season.
---
Monday, 11 November 1968
Cummings’ and his assistant Malcolm Musgrove were relieved of their managerial duties following this latest reverse by a delegation of seven Villa directors.
Aston Villa
League Champions: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 🏆
FA Cup Winners: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 🏆🏆
League Cup Winners: 🏆
Last Trophy: 1960-61
Preston North End
League Champions: 🏆🏆
FA Cup Winners: 🏆🏆
League Cup Winners: ❌
Last Trophy: 1937–38
FIXTURE HISTORY
Preston North End
Previous 5 vs. Preston: 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟥
FIXTURE DETAILS
Season | 1968-69 |
Matchday | #19 |
League Match | #18 |
Manager Game | #64 |
Saturday, 9 November 1968
MATCH SUMMARY
Manager: Tommy Cummings | 🏴 | Sunderland, 1967-1968
Referee: Clive Thomas | 🏴 | Treorchy, 1966–1984
Kick off: 3.00pm
HT Score: 🟨 0-0
FT Result: 🟥 Lost
FT Score: 🟥 0-1
Last 5: 🟨 🟨 🟨 🟥 🟥
MANAGERIAL RECORD
Tommy Cummings | 🏴 |
GAMES | WINS | DRAWS | LOSSES | POINTS PER GAME
🕒 64 | 🟩 | 18 🟨 14 🟥 32 | 1.06
Career Form:
Bottom 8
Tommy Cummings | 🏴 |
MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Clive Thomas | 🏴 | Treorchy, 1966–1984
Previous 5:
Last Match:
Cards: None
Clive Thomas
CARDS
Villa
None
Preston North End
None
TEAM NEWS
Dick Edwards and John Woodward replace Bobby Park and Lionel Martin.
TEAM STATS
Starting XI Average Age
| 25.89 |
Oldest Player |
F Peter Broadbent | 🏴 | 35.51 |
Youngest Player |
F John Woodward | 🏴 | 21.83 |
MANAGER
MANAGER
Tommy Cummings | 🏴 |
Bobby Seith | 🏴 |
Aston Villa
GK John Dunn | 🏴 |
RB Mick Wright | 🏴 |
CB Fred Turnbull | 🏴 |
CB Dick Edwards | 🏴 |
LB Charlie Aitken | 🏴 |
M Tommy Mitchinson | 🏴 |
M Barrie Hole | 🏴 |
M Mike Ferguson | 🏴 |
F John Woodward | 🏴 |
F Brian Godfrey | 🏴 |
F Peter Broadbent | 🏴 |
Preston North End
GK Alan Kelly | 🇮🇪 |
RB George Ross | 🏴 |
CB Graham Hawkins | 🏴 |
D Jim Smith | 🏴 |
LB Jimmy McNab | 🏴 |
M Alan Spavin | 🏴 |
M Ken Knighton | 🏴 |
M Archie Gemmill | 🏴 |
W Derek Temple | 🏴 |
F Gerry Ingram | 🏴 |
CF Willie Irvine | 🇬🇧 |
SUBSTITUTES
No Substitutions Made
SUBSTITUTES
No Substitutions Made
UNUSED SUBSTITUTES
M Lew Chatterley | 🏴 |
UNUSED SUBSTITUTES
M George Lyall | 🏴 |
SQUAD STATS
1st XI:
Home Nation 🏴 🏴 🏴 🇬🇧 : 11/11
Squad:
Home Nation 🏴 🏴 🏴 🇬🇧 : 12/12
MATCHDAY SQUAD
SQUAD STATS
1st XI:
Home Nation 🏴 🏴 🏴 🇬🇧 : 10/11
Squad:
Home Nation 🏴 🏴 🏴 🇬🇧 : 11/12
MATCHDAY SQUAD
UNAVAILABLE
None
UNAVAILABLE
Not Recorded
Player Positions:
GK : Goalkeeper
CB, D, B : Centre Back, Defender, Back
FB, LB, RB, WH : Full Back, Left Back, Right Back, Wing Back, Wing Half
M, CH, LH, RH : Midfielder, Centre Half, Left Half, Right Half
W, OL, OR : Winger, Outside Left, Outside Right
F, IF, IL, IR : Forward, Inside Forward, Inside Left, Inside Right, Second Striker, False 9
CF : Centre Forward
Match Symbols:
⚽ | Goal
🔥 | Assist
🔁 | Substitution
🟨 | Booking
🟥 | Sending off
🆘 | Poor refereeing performance
🟢 : Debut 🔴 : Final Game
DEBUT APPEARANCES
FINAL APPEARANCES
MATCH STATS
Not recorded
TABLE
PROGRAMME
MATCHDAY QUOTES
"I won't be able to produce my best form for Villa now."
Willie Anderson after being dropped and demanding a transfer request.
“As yet the computers have not discovered the magic formula to produce a winning football team overnight. Money does not guarantee success.
"Sometimes potential stars. in whom one is justified in showing great confidence, do not mature as anticipated.
“Luck still plays a big part in this game of football. And sometimes it is our turn to suffer the disappointments.
“That's the way the cookie crumbles.”
A scarcely believable board statement published in the Aston Villa News & Record, Saturday, 9 November 1968
“The Board must go.”
Fans protest at Villa Park, Saturday, 9 November 1968.
“WITHIN 48 hours of demands for their own resignations, Aston Villa's directors have fired manager Tommy Cummings and coach Malcolm Musgrove.”
Daily Mirror editorial, Tuesday, 12 November 1968.
“I shall resign if we drop into the Third Division."
Chairman Norman Smith misses the point.
"It is always a shock when one gets the sack - it must be the same in any walk of life - and this is the first time it has happened to me.
“After all, I have only had three jobs as player and manager. Apart from that, I have no comment to make."
Tommy Cummings.
"Only those prepared to give 100 per cent will be in my team. Effort and endeavour count far more than skill."
Arthur Cox, handed responsibility for first-team affairs.
BARRIE HOLE walked out of Villa Park yesterday after a row with caretaker manager Arthur Cox. Hole was told on Tuesday that he was dropped for Saturday's game at Portsmouth. He asked to see Cox to discuss his future—then came the walk out.
*Daily Mirror*
Thursday, 14 November 1968
*Birmingham Daily Post*
Monday, 11 November 1968
ASTON VILLA'S directors tonight face what could be the most crucial meeting in the club's crisis-fraught history of recent years. Their home defeat against Preston on Saturday dropped them firmly into the Second Division's last position and aroused the most serious crowd demonstration of disapproval that can ever have been seen at Villa Park.
What will be the Board's solution when they hold their weekly meeting?
Three times in the last decade they have parted company with their manager at. moments of crisis. Eric Houghton left almost exactly ten years ago. Joe Mercer's departure was in July1964, and his successor, Dick Taylor, lasted less than three years.
Manager Tommy Cummings. who joined them from Mansfield at the start of last season, has bought players at a reputed cost of £200,000 and yet they have made no impact on the Second Division.
Chairman Norman Smith, who left Villa Park at half-time on Saturday to attend the Arsenal dinner in London and missed the crowd demonstrations, said recently that he would announce an important development soon.
He was not available for comment last night.
Does this mean a managerial change or changes in the Board?
If it is the former, where does it leave Villa?
In the present state of the club, can they expect any manager to produce a recovery?
Saving them from relegation to the Third Division will be a gargantuan job, let alone building them up to challenging for a return to the First.
The time has come to pose the clear question: How long can Villa continue as a club of any sort of distinction with its present Board considered as an entity?
*Birmingham Daily Post*
Monday, 11 November 1968
IT is really incredible that the board of Aston Villa looking round for the reasons for the desperately poor showing of a club that is now in danger of falling through the bottom of the Second Division should fix its gaze on the club's manager and assistant manager, apparently oblivious to the need to look in another direction. Football club managers are well aware that theirs is a risky job, but it is hard not to condole with Mr. T. S. Cummings and with the club's assistant manager, Mr. M. C. Musgrove, on their dismissal. It is reasonable to ask why the club has not fulfilled expectations under the managership of a capable man of whose appointment hopes were obviously entertained. Is it a question of the judgment of the manager and the assistant manager or of the circumstances in which they have been working? The amount spent by Aston Villa in the past year in buying new players is high by the club's standards, but not in comparison with the expenditure of other major clubs. The board of Aston Villa can be accepted as having the best interests of this famous club at heart, otherwise its members would not have continued in an increasingly thankless office. What the board has not yet done is to think right through to what course of action would most effectively forward its aspirations. What sort of effect on morale will this removal of manager and assistant manager have at this particular stage? The board ought to direct its attention nearer home if it is going to make a thorough job of reform. Introspection is called for. Two new members of the board were recently appointed. What the situation clearly calls for is for some of the older members to show their loyalty to, and regard for the future of, the club that means so much to them by standing down and giving more new men a chance. Aston Villa needs new, youthful and thrustful direction at the very top, and even then it will have a hard fight to regain its former proud status. Time is against it.
*Birmingham Daily Post*
Tuesday, 12 November 1968
Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. With thanks to Trinity Mirror. Digitised by Findmypast Newspaper Archive Limited. All rights reserved. Source: British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk)