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Game #4065

Aston Villa

Saturday, 19 August 1989

Nottingham Forest

1-1

Aston Villa

Division One

Nottingham Forest

City Ground

Attendance: 26,766

Drew

9th

Last 5: 🟨 🟥 🟥 🟨 🟨

Assist(s) | Paul McGrath | 8' |

MATCH SUMMARY

Villa open the season with a new defensive partnership as Graham Taylor looks to improve on 1988-89's 17th place finish after an opening day draw at lively Forest. Meanwhile Nottinghamshire Police lock 500 innocent Villa fans in a cage at the railway station for no apparent reason and not an apology in sight.

KEY MAN

Kent Nielsen and Paul McGrath make their debuts as Villa boast a new look central defence in the efforts to improve on last season's 17th placed finish, Saturday, 19 August 1989.

2020-21 (h) Aston Villa Kit.gif
2020-21 (h) Aston Villa Kit.gif
2021-22 Matchweek 38.jpg

Copyright Historical Football Kits and reproduced by kind permission.

MATCH TIMELINE

Saturday, 19 August 1989

🟢 | 1’ Debut, Paul McGrath, Kent Nielsen, Adrian Heath
⚽ | 8’ Goal, 1-0, Derek Mountfield, Assist Paul McGrath
🕒 | HT Nottingham Forest 0-1 Aston Villa
🔁 | 46’ Sub off, Tony Daley, Sub off, Nigel Callaghan
🥅 | 58’ Goal, 1-1, (Nottingham Forest), Garry Parker
🔁 | 67’ Sub off, Gordon Cowans, Sub on, Ian Olney
🕒 | FT Nottingham Forest 1-1 Aston Villa

🟨 | Booking, Stuart Gray, Foul

ON THIS DAY

Graham Taylor’s Villa open the season with a freshly arrived footballing great in their ranks as Paul McGrath makes his Villa debut aged 29 after moving from Manchester United in July 1989 for a fee of £425,000.

Meanwhile, fellow centre back Kent Nielsen made his debut for Villa aged 27 after moving from Bröndby IF in July 1989 for a fee of £500,000.

And forward Adrian Heath made his Villa debut aged 28 after moving from RCD Espanyol in July 1989 for a fee of £360,000.

Aston Villa

European Cup / Champions League: 🏆
League Champions: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 🏆🏆
FA Cup Winners: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 🏆🏆
League Cup Winners: 🏆🏆🏆
Last Trophy: 1981-82

Nottingham Forest

European Cup / Champions League: 🏆🏆
League Champions: 🏆
FA Cup Winners: 🏆🏆
League Cup Winners: 🏆🏆🏆
Last Trophy: 1988-89

FIXTURE HISTORY

Villa Vs.

Nottingham Forest

Previous 5 vs. Forest: 🟨 🟥 🟨 🟨 🟥

PREVIOUS MATCH

SUBSEQUENT MATCH

FIXTURE DETAILS

Villa.gif
2509-2.png

Season | 1989-90 |
Matchday | #1 |
League Match | #1 |
Manager Game | #99 |
Saturday, 19 August 1989

MATCH SUMMARY

Manager: Graham Taylor | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | Worksop, 1987-1990
Referee: Keith Cooper | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 | Pontypridd, 1982-1996
Kick off: 3.00pm
HT Score: 🟩 1-0
FT Result: 🟨 Drew
FT Score: 🟨 1-1
Last 5: 🟨 🟥 🟥 🟨 🟨

MANAGERIAL RECORD

Graham Taylor | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |

GAMES | WINS | DRAWS | LOSSES | POINTS PER GAME

🕒 99 | 🟩 | 41 🟨 | 25 🟥 33 | 1.49

Villa Career Form:

Top 8

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Keith Cooper | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 | Pontypridd, 1982-1996
Matches Officiated: 5
🟩 : 1
🟨 : 2
🟥 : 2
🆘 : 1
Previous 5: 🟥 🟥 🟩
Last Match: 🟩 30 November 1988, League Cup, Villa 6-2 Ipswich, Villa Park.
Cards: 🟨 🟨

TEAM NEWS

Graham Taylor hands debuts to a pair of footballing legends - Paul McGrath and Kent Nielsen. Adrian Heath also made his debut but the less said about that the better.

TEAM STATS

Starting XI Average Age
| 27.76 |

Oldest Player |
GK Nigel Spink | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 31.05 |

Youngest Player |
W Tony Daley | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 21.85 |

MANAGER

Graham Taylor | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |

Villa.gif

Aston Villa

GK Nigel Spink | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
RB Chris Price | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
CB Derek Mountfield | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | ⚽ |
CB Kent Nielsen | 🇩🇰 | 🟢 |
CB Paul McGrath | 🇮🇪 | 🟢 | 🔥 |
M Paul Birch | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
M Gordon Cowans | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 🔁 |
M David Platt | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
M Stuart Gray | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 🟨 |
W Tony Daley | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 🔁 |
F Adrian Heath | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 🟢 |

MANAGER

Brian Clough | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |

2509-2.png

Nottingham Forest

GK Steve Sutton | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
LB Stuart Pearce | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
CB Colin Foster | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
CB Des Walker | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
RB Brian Laws | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 🟨 |
M Gary Crosby | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
M Garry Parker | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | ⚽ |
M Nigel Clough | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
M Steve Hodge (ex) | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
W Franz Carr | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
CF Lee Chapman | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |

SUBSTITUTES

Villa.gif

🔁 W Nigel Callaghan | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | for W Tony Daley | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 46' |
🔁 CF Ian Olney | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | for M Gordon Cowans | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 67’ |

SUBSTITUTES

2509-2.png

No Substitutions Made

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES

Villa.gif

None

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES

2509-2.png

RB Gary Charles | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
M Brian Rice | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 |

SQUAD STATS

Villa.gif

1st XI:
Home Nation 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇬🇧 : 9/11

Squad:
Home Nation 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇬🇧 : 11/13

SQUAD STATS

2509-2.png

1st XI:
Home Nation 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇬🇧 : 11/11

Squad:
Home Nation 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇬🇧 : 13/13

MATCHDAY SQUAD

Villa.gif

MATCHDAY SQUAD

2509-2.png

UNAVAILABLE

Villa.gif

Not recorded

UNAVAILABLE

Villa.gif

Not Recorded

Player Positions:

GK : Goalkeeper
CB, D, B : Centre Back, Defender, Back
FB, LB, RB, WH : Full Back, Left Back, Right Back, Wing Back, Wing Half


M, CH, LH, RH : Midfielder, Centre Half, Left Half, Right Half
W, OL, OR : Winger, Outside Left, Outside Right
F, IF, IL, IR : Forward, Inside Forward, Inside Left, Inside Right, Second Striker, False 9
CF : Centre Forward

Match Symbols:

⚽ | Goal
🔥 | Assist
🔁 | Substitution

🟨 | Booking

🟥 | Sending off

🆘 | Poor refereeing performance
🟢 : Debut 🔴 : Final Game

DEBUT APPEARANCES

🟢 CB Paul McGrath | 🇮🇪 |
🟢 CB Kent Nielsen | 🇩🇰 |
🟢 F Adrian Heath | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |

FINAL APPEARANCES

MATCH STATS

Not recorded

MATCH QUOTES

“lf anyone is wondering about my fitness I hope this game has game a long way to proving that I can play a full part in helping Villa's First Division progress. “I feel fine and I really enjoyed my first League game for the club. “I am confident that it is going to be the first of many successful games.” Paul McGrath.

MATCH REPORT

Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. With thanks to Reach PLC. Digitised by Findmypast Newspaper Archive Limited. All rights reserved. Source: British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk)

*Sunday World (Dublin)*
Sunday, 20 August 1989

Villa rocked Forest with an early goal but Graham Taylor's man were happy to come away from the City Ground with a point. Derek Mountfield, with a little help from Paul McGrath, gave Villa an eighth minute lead, but that was only the cue for Forest to bombard the visitors' goal. Time after time, Brian Clough's men went desperately close and Steve Hodge and Lee Chapman, in particular, both squandered golden opportunities. The long-awaited equaliser ended 59 minutes of frustration for Forest, Garry Parker putting them out of their misery with an 18-yard drive But with Villa firmly on the defensive. Forest failed to make any further impression on the scoreline. Villa fans 'caged' row Four hundred Aston Villa fans missed Saturday's game at Nottingham after being "caged like animals" for 90 minutes at the railway station. Their train broke down and by the time it arrived in Nottingham at 2.55 pm, the visitors' end at the Forest ground -- limited under restrictions following the Hillsborough disaster - was full. So they were left penned up behind a 6ft wire fence next to the station for the duration of the match. The compound, 35 yards by 3 yards, had no toilet facilities. Mrs Diana Lucas, spokesman for British Rail, said: "The train got there too late so we kept the fans in a a compound, which is a bit like a cage and they were sent back. All were given refunds of their £4 fares." Villa manager Graham Taylor said: “The Villa fans are to be complimented on their behaviour. "There were 500 Villa fans locked out of the visitors' area and the Nottingham police decided to keep away another 500 from the train."

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