Birmingham Daily Post
Saturday, 18 August 1979
By lAN WILLARS

Aston Villa have left out their £2 million rated transfer-listed internationals Andy Gray and John Gidman for their opening game of the season at Bolton today. Manager Ron Saunders rejected the opportunity of placing them in the shop window. preferring to keep faith with the side that played in the pre-season friendly against F C Twenty Enschende. The only comment Saunders would make on the matter was: “I have selected the team I believe to be best equipped mentally and physically to do the job for me.” But I understand he refrained from considering Gray and Gidman because he is anxious to field a settled side which will have to do duty when the pair have finally departed from Villa Park. Villa have in fact received only one firm offer for Scottish centre forward Gray believed to be West Midlands rivals Wolves although several clubs have made inquiries for both players. Gray and Gidman were originally scheduled to turn out for the reserves in the Central League fixture against Bolton until the game had to be called off yesterday because of a waterlogged pitch. The state of the Villa Park pitch is giving cause for concern even though the club took advice from top experts two years ago and spent in excess of £80.000 laying new drains, putting in pop-up sprinklers and seeding a completely new playing surface. But Villa’s biggest problem still centres around finding top-class replacements for Gray and Gidman particularly as the transfer market has rocketed to sky-high proportions. Saunders has already made it extremely clear that the pair will only be allowed to leave the club when realistic fees are paid. But unless he can pull off a satisfactory exchange deal Saunders will then be faced with a similar task. Wolves could be in a position to exchange their midfield player Steve Daley for Gray plus a cash adjustment, but it is doubtful whether the centre-forward would welcome a move to Molineux. Gray’s role as leader of the attack at Bolton will go to John Deehan who has never had a better chance to prove his potential. The England Under-21 striker has often had to play second fiddle to Gray. Now he has It all to do on his own. Ken Swain continues in Gidman’s right-back position. but even he must appreciate that this is a holding job until Villa come up with another quality defender.

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Aston Villa, diving into the new season with their Gray-Gidman affair still unresolved, and an obvious query against their prospects, will have been content with a point for starters at Bolton.

Whether Gray or Gidman would have made much impact on their 1-1 draw at Burnden Park is problematical for it was a patchy sort of game which was always stifling individual effort.

Certainly Gray could not have offered a more enthusiastic performance than John Deehan as he ran at, and so often bounced off, the big Bolton back line, and Ken Swain was an efficient hard - working replacement for Gidman though without that talented defender’s eye for a telling attacking foray.

Two-footed

But manager Ron Saunders has probably come up with a good one in Tony Morley, his £220,000 winger signing from Burnley, who has played for England’s Under-21 tram and has definite ambitions about gaining a full cap.

Given the right service, Morley could well turn out to be a crowd-pleaser at Villa Park this season. Here is a genuine two footed player who, apart from Gordon Cowans’s well taken goal, provided the two most exciting strikes at the Bolton goal.

On the half - hour he cut inside from his right - wing station and forced goalkeeper Jim McDonagh to tip his fierce shot over the bar and in the 39th minute he did it again. this time scraping the top edge of the bar with another rasping shot and both were hit with his left foot.

Saunders said afterwards: “Tony did well and was unlucky not to begin the season with a goal. He will obviously get better and better.”

But it was a match of few shots, not always kept flowing by some eccentric refereeing by Gwyn Owen of Anglesey, who had to consider two cases of possible penalty awards for both teams and turned them all down.

To Villa’s credit they were always strongly in the game and their young side had good reason to believe they were off to a flier when, in the 73rd minute, Brian Little broke on the right and found Cowans with his low centre.

Cowans brought the ball under control and side-stepped Paul Jones to take the coolest of goals with a low shot. But three minutes later Neil Whatmore, the best player on the field equalised with a similar effort.

In the last minute Deehan was close to sneaking the winner when he was put through by Gary Shelton but McDonagh came out and bravely to block his shot and make it a fair result.