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If honesty has its reward, Brian Little, the Aston Villa forward, was shortchanged against Fulham on Saturday.

Villa were given a penalty in the 51st minute for a foul on Little by the Fulham goalkeeper Peter Mellor but Little confided: “That was never a penalty.”

Three minutes from the end, Little had a penalty appeal turned down when a point blank header was stopped on the the line by a Fulham defender’s hand. Little insisted: “That was a penalty.”

Support for Little came from his manager, Ron Saunders, who said:

“The same thing happened in our home match with Oxford, when John Shuker got away with hand ball in the last minute.”

Little was just as adamant about the illegality of the penalty that was awarded as he was concerned by the one that got away.

“I was trying to get out of the way having lost the ball when Mellor collided with me,” Little said.

“There was no way it was a penalty and it was justice when he saved Chico Hamilton’s shot.”

“There was no way that penalty was going in.” said MeIlor afterwards. “It wasn’t a penalty in the first place.

“Their No. 8 (Little) told Bobby Moore afterwards that it was not a penalty; that he was trying to get out of the way.”

Mellor had seen Hamilton take penalties on television, he said, and noted which side of the goalkeeper he put them.

A dive to the right produced an outstanding save.

He improved on that, however, in the 65th minute when Hamilton, who had earlier redeemed his miss with an equaliser, crossed for Little to head accurately, from a few yards. Mellor flew to his right and, at full stretch, touched the ball away.

Saunders’ after the match assessment - “This was our second worst performance of the season. The first was at Fulham” - was probably born in the 26th minute.

Alan Mullery sent Viv Busby through Villa’s midfield and defence and, despite John Robson snapping at his heels, Busby squeezed the ball in off goalkeeper Jim Cumbes’s chest and the post.

Villa’s equaliser, from Chris Nicholl in the 56th minute was inspired by a beaut!fully weighted cross by Hamilton to the far post, Nicholl lunging in to connect with his head.

But as the Fulham manager Alec Stock said, with the third FA Cup replay with Nottingham Forest tonight on his mind: “We’d just warmed up after 90 minutes.”

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*Birmingham Daily Post*
Monday, 10 February 1975

Villa may solve Cup problem by bringing back Leighton Phillips By IAN WILLARS

Leighton Phillips, Aston Villa’s £100,000 Welsh international midfield player, who is not eligible for the Wembley League Cup final, may make a surprise return to the side at Ipswich on Saturday as an emergency centre half.

Phillips could be just the answer to Villa’s centre-half problem now that Chris Nicholl has started a two-match suspension which mean’s he will miss the FA Cup fifth round tie in East Anglia.

Ron Saunders, Villa’s manager, told me last night:

“ I have not made my mind up about who will take Nicholl’s place. There would seem to be two choices - Neil Rioch who has been playing at centre half in the reserves, or Phillips.”

If Phillips does win Saunders’s vote he will not be unfamiliar with the position.

He gained most of his ten international caps for Wales playing as a twin centre half and when he was at Cardiff he regularly played in the back four.

Phillips would obviously jump at the chance of playing in the first team again.

He has been out in the cold recently due to Villa’s League Cup successes and he has also been bothered by an ankle injury.