Villa draw with tenth placed Blackpool to sit twelfth in the table, ten points clear of the relegation zone and twelve points from the final promotion place as the improvement under Tommy Docherty is starkly defined. Villa had been bottom of the table, two points from safety when Docherty took over, but Villa had now drawn their last four to leave them with seven wins in thirteen second division matches under the new boss. Despite the excellence of that run the performances had grown more inhibited and the results more subdued in recent weeks as the initial euphoria of the new regime began to wear off. Nearly fifty years later a similar initial burst and fallow period would be experienced in remarkably similar circumstances under Tim Sherwood. In 2014-15 Villa would be saved from relegation by the Sherwood only for him to be kept on in the following season despite form having already collapsed at the end of the previous campaign leading to an inexorable slide to relegation. The hope would be in 1969 that a such a predicament wouldn’t befall Villa after Tommy Docherty’s equally strong start to life as Villa boss.