Season #2 | 1880-81 | Games #3 - #6
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Game #3987
1986-87
Position:
21st (-1)
Division One
Nottingham Forest
Villa Park
Attendance: 19,159
Saturday, 3 January 1987
Neale Cooper finally makes his debut five months after signing and helps Villa record a goalless draw with fourth placed Forest but Villa go second from bottom on goal difference.
Aston Villa
0-0
Nottingham Forest
Scorer(s) | None |
Assist(s) | None
AT A GLANCE
Game #3987
Matchday | #31 |
League Match | #24 |
Manager Game | #23 |
Saturday, 3 January 1987
MATCH SUMMARY
Manager | Billy McNeill |
FT Result | Drew |
FT Score | 0-0 |
Last 5 Games | DWLLD |
MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Unknown
MATCH INCIDENTS
Unknown
Villa
🟨 |
Nottingham Forest
None
🟨 | Booking
🟥 | Sending off
💥+ | Incidents e.g. penalty awarded
💥- | Incidents e.g. penalty conceded, goal disallowed
💥 | Incidents e.g. refused clear pen
🆘 | Notably poor refereeing performance
TEAM STATS
Starting XI Average Age
| 25.16 |
Oldest Player |
W Steve Hunt | 30.44 |
Youngest Player |
W Tony Daley | 19.22 |
TEAM NEWS
Gary Williams, Martin Keown, Mark Walters and Neale Cooper (debut) replace Andy Gray, David Norton, Paul Birch and Paul Elliott.
UNAVAILABLE
Not recorded
MATCH STATS
Not recorded
MANAGER
Billy McNeill
STAFF
STARTING LINE UP
GK Nigel Spink |
LB Tony Dorigo |
CB Neale Cooper |
CB Martin Keown |
CB Allan Evans |
RB Gary Williams |
W Steve Hunt |
W Tony Daley |
CF Garry Thompson |
CF Simon Stainrod |
F Mark Walters |
SUBSTITUTES
D David Norton for CB Neale Cooper |
UNUSED SUBSTITUTES
None
THE OPPOSITION
Segers, Pearce, Fleming, Fairclough, Walker, Mills, Bowyer, Clough N, Webb, Starbuck, Carr. Manager: Brian Clough.
ex: Also played for the Villa
g: Scored
s/o: Sent off
s-: Sub off; s+: Sub on
ON THIS DAY
Billy McNeill's Villa keep a clean sheet and secure a goal-less draw with high-flying Forest but now have just twelve wins in their last fifty one League games losing twenty four. Meanwhile, Neale Cooper made his Villa debut aged 23 after moving from Aberdeen in July 1986 for a fee of £350,000.
MATCH TIMELINE
1’ Debut, Neale Cooper
HT Aston Villa 0-0 Nottingham Forest
Sub off, Neale Cooper, Sub on, David Norton
FT Aston Villa 0-0 Nottingham Forest
Cards
Booking, Allan Evans, Wild tackle
MANAGER WATCH
POSITION
MATCH PROGRAMME
MATCH PROGRAMME

QUOTES
“Villa have far too many good players to be at the bottom of the League."
Neale Cooper.

*Birmingham Evening Mail*
Monday, 5 January 1987.
"From the evidence of the most exciting goal-less draw you could wish to see this side of heaven, relegation talk ought to be a punishable offence. For an hour, Villa were an Aurora Borealis of attack, re-creating old-style wing play through Mark Walters and Tony Daley, driven and directed by Steve Hunt, Tony Dorigo and Neale Cooper. Changing tempo and texture were so exhilarating you wanted to video them and take them home."
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Villa winger create chaos Ten player changes over the holiday period and Aston Villa supporters must have wondered whether manager Billy McNeill had devised a quiz called Name That Team. On Saturday, however, he was finally able to pick 11 men and a substitute at leas► very close to the best at Villa Park. From the evidence of the most exciting goal-less draw you could wish to see this side of heaven, relegation talk ought to be a punishable offence. For an hour, Villa were an Aurora Borealis of attack, re-creating old-style wing play through Mark Walters and Tony Daley, driven and directed by Steve Hunt, Tony Dorigo and Neale Cooper. Changing tempo and texture were so exhilarating you wanted to video them and take them home. Yet there wasn't a goal. In the end it was rather as though the BBC had filmed England beating the West Indies and cut out all the wickets. Good football, like fast bowling, has often been about partnerships -- twosomes in central defence, midfield, goalscoring, although rarely these days on the wings. Coope shows class By LEON HICKMAN There was a time when every side had two. Ramsey-thinkalikes guillotined both. Today it is fashionable to have one, as Forest with young Franz Carr, but it is still regarded as the height of daring to play a couple, especially when they are as committed to forward play as Walters and Daley. If they were jazzmen, Daley would zing where Walters would swing high notes compared with subtly dazzling technique. On his good days. and Saturday was very good, Walters improvises gloriously. The omens were also interesting in two other areas, the centre of defence, where Martin Keown and Allan Evans were a double act that will stand future billing and in the heart of midfield, Neale Cooper's assertiveness creating room for Hunt to be the bringer of good tidings to Walters in particular. That Villa still fall a good deal short of Arsenal-style defensive perfection Forest made clear in the final halfhour when Neil Webb ran primed and dangerous as a tossed grenade into the penalty area. Brian Clough might occasionally deride the extravagances of training he has even been known to recommend a lager the night before a game -- but Mb
Safety There will be a few in the First Division who will know when he is around. The afternoons of pushover Villa should shortly be over. As Cooper said later: "Villa have far too many good players to be at the bottom of the League." But they are. Arid he can do much in the push to safety now ready to be launched. Villa V Forest 0 IMX)KINGS - Evans (land tackle) ATT 111.131 NEXT MATCH' V (hornet. Saturday DIal•lon
Villa winger create chaos Ten player changes over the holiday period and Aston Villa supporters must have wondered whether manager Billy McNeill had devised a quiz called Name That Team. On Saturday, however, he was finally able to pick 11 men and a substitute at leas► very close to the best at Villa Park. From the evidence of the most exciting goal-less draw you could wish to see this side of heaven, relegation talk ought to be a punishable offence. For an hour, Villa were an Aurora Borealis of attack, re-creating old-style wing play through Mark Walters and Tony Daley, driven and directed by Steve Hunt, Tony Dorigo and Neale Cooper. Changing tempo and texture were so exhilarating you wanted to video them and take them home. Yet there wasn't a goal. In the end it was rather as though the BBC had filmed England beating the West Indies and cut out all the wickets. Good football, like fast bowling, has often been about partnerships -- twosomes in central defence, midfield, goalscoring, although rarely these days on the wings. Coope shows class By LEON HICKMAN There was a time when every side had two. Ramsey-thinkalikes guillotined both. Today it is fashionable to have one, as Forest with young Franz Carr, but it is still regarded as the height of daring to play a couple, especially when they are as committed to forward play as Walters and Daley. If they were jazzmen, Daley would zing where Walters would swing high notes compared with subtly dazzling technique. On his good days. and Saturday was very good, Walters improvises gloriously. The omens were also interesting in two other areas, the centre of defence, where Martin Keown and Allan Evans were a double act that will stand future billing and in the heart of midfield, Neale Cooper's assertiveness creating room for Hunt to be the bringer of good tidings to Walters in particular. That Villa still fall a good deal short of Arsenal-style defensive perfection Forest made clear in the final halfhour when Neil Webb ran primed and dangerous as a tossed grenade into the penalty area. Brian Clough might occasionally deride the extravagances of training he has even been known to recommend a lager the night before a game -- but Mb
Safety There will be a few in the First Division who will know when he is around. The afternoons of pushover Villa should shortly be over. As Cooper said later: "Villa have far too many good players to be at the bottom of the League." But they are. Arid he can do much in the push to safety now ready to be launched. Villa V Forest 0 IMX)KINGS - Evans (land tackle) ATT 111.131 NEXT MATCH' V (hornet. Saturday DIal•lon