The Birmingham Post, Monday, September 15, 1969.

ASTON VILLA. bottom of the Second Division with only two points and not a single victory to show from eight League matches this season, need 31 points from their remaining 34 matches to have any chance of avoiding relegation.

Two seasons ago such a gloomy situation would have been accepted with resignation.

But this is not the Aston Villa of old. It is the new. dynamic Villa the club which has promised its supporters the stars.

There is a new board of directors led by Douglas Ellis, an ambitious Birmingham businessman, a new, forceful manager in Tommy Docherty, whose name is a household word.

Their arrival at Villa Park nine months ago had a messianic flavour.

Villa had dropped into the Second Division, looked like going right through it and were on the verge of bankruptcy.

Supporters were overjoyed

They had been calling long and unavailingly for the resignation of the old board, and they saw Ellis and Docherty as the men who would save their club and lift it to the same exalted level as Liverpool; Ellis and Docherty were confident, too.

Although their public statements were tempered with caution, they left no doubt that this was to be the dawn of a bright new era at Villa Park.

"My first task must be to establish a resurgence of enthusiasm for the club Ellis declared on taking over as chairman.

"I want to get everybody talking about Aston Villa again.”

A week later Ellis said: "We want Vila Park to be a stadium of stadiums. My dream is that Villa should become another Real Madrid."

Then, at Villa's annual meeting on July 31 this year:

"We have set our sights on Europe but there is a way to go before we gat there.... We know that only the best Is good enough. We also know that a learn is not built in one season.

"We have the basis, I believe of an extremely good side already developing at Villa Park. and behind that we have a new wave of bright. determined 15 year olds whose impact on the future will be considerable.”

Docherty himself was not quite as confident. but he said: "We feel that. given our fair share of luck we shall get back in the First Division where we belong."

The bookmakers, too. shared the general euphoria and quoted Villa as second favourites for promotion.

Just before the start of this season, then, nobody was surprised when Docherty said that Villa's target was 30 points by Christmas, and that the club hoped to be among the promotion candidates by then.

How sadly these words compare with events.