Game #4591
Saturday, 18 December 1999
Attendance: 23,885
Won
Premier League
12th (+2)
Sheffield Wednesday
Last 5: 🟨 🟩 🟥 🟩 🟩
Villa Park
Villa end their winless Premier League run with a first win in ten as Wednesday are beaten at Villa Park but the game is overshadowed by a horrible injury to Dion Dublin who is found to have broken his neck to keep him out of the first team for many months.
Aston Villa
2-1
Sheffield Wednesday
Assist(s) | Julian Joachim | 69’ | Paul Merson | 82’ |
KEY MAN
Dion Dublin, penalty miss
PREVIOUS MATCH
NEXT MATCH
MATCH TIMELINE
🥅 | 20’ Goal, 0-1, (Sheffield Wednesday, pen), Gilles De Bilde
💥 | 33' Missed Penalty, Dion Dublin
🔁 | 39’ Sub off, Alan Wright, Sub on, Julian Joachim
🕒 | HT Aston Villa 0-1 Sheffield Wednesday
⚽ | 69’ Goal, 1-1, Paul Merson, Assist by Julian Joachim
💥 | Missed Penalty, Paul Merson,
🔁 | 81’ Sub off, Benito Carbone, Sub on, Darius Vassell
⚽ | 82’ Goal, 2-1, Ian Taylor, Assist by Paul Merson
🔁 | 86’ Sub off, Dion Dublin, Sub on, Colin Calderwood
🕒 | FT Aston Villa 2-1 Sheffield Wednesday
🟨 | Booking, Ian Taylor
ON THIS DAY
Villa win a League game for the first time in 10 despite future Villa loanee Gilles De Bilde putting Wednesday ahead from the penalty spot. Despite the relief, joy was tempered by a nasty looking injury to centre forward Dion Dublin who it was subsequently revealed had broken a vertebra that would keep him out of the reckoning for a long spell.
Aston Villa
European Cup / Champions League: 🏆
League Champions: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 🏆🏆
FA Cup Winners: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 🏆🏆
League Cup Winners: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
Last Trophy: 1995-96
Sheffield Wednesday
European Cup / Champions League: ❌
League Champions: 🏆🏆🏆🏆
FA Cup Winners: 🏆🏆🏆
League Cup Winners: 🏆
Last Trophy: 1990–91
FIXTURE HISTORY
Sheffield Wednesday
Previous 5 vs. Wednesday: 🟥 🟨 🟩 🟩 🟩
FIXTURE DETAILS
Season | 1999-00 |
Matchday | #24 |
League Game | #18 |
Manager Game | #81 |
Saturday, 18 December 1999
MATCH SUMMARY
Manager: John Gregory | 🏴 | Scunthorpe, 1998-2002
Referee: Steve Bennett | 🏴 | Kent, 1995-2010
Kick off: 3.00pm
HT Score: 🟥 0-1
FT Result: 🟩 Won
FT Score: 🟩 2-1
Last 5: 🟨 🟩 🟥 🟩 🟩
MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Steve Bennett | 🏴 | Kent, 1995-2010
Previous 5: 🟩
Last Match: 🟩 24 Aug 99, Villa 1-0 Watford (a)
Cards: 🟨 🟨 🟨
CARDS
TEAM NEWS
Benito Carbone replaces Mark Delaney.
TEAM STATS
Starting XI Average Age
| 27.76 |
Oldest Player |
M Paul Merson | 🏴 | 31.77 |
Youngest Player |
M Gareth Barry | 🏴 | 18.83 |
MANAGER
MANAGER
John Gregory | 🏴 |
Danny Wilson | 🏴 |
Aston Villa
GK David James | 🏴 |
RB Steve Watson | 🏴 |
LB Alan Wright | 🏴 | 🔁 |
CB Ugo Ehiogu | 🏴 |
CB Gareth Southgate | 🏴 |
M Paul Merson | 🏴 | ⚽ | 🔥 |
M George Boateng | 🇳🇱 |
M Gareth Barry | 🏴 |
M Ian Taylor | 🏴 | ⚽ | 🟨 |
CF Dion Dublin | 🏴 | 🔁 |
F Benito Carbone | 🇮🇹 | 🔁 |
Sheffield Wednesday
GK Pavel Srníček | 🇨🇿 |
LB Ian Nolan | 🇬🇧 |
CB Des Walker | 🏴 |
CB Émerson Thome | 🇧🇷 |
RB Peter Atherton | 🏴 |
M Niclas Alexandersson | 🇸🇪 |
M Danny Sonner | 🇬🇧 | 🟨 |
M Wim Jonk | 🇳🇱 | 🔁 |
M Alan Quinn | 🇮🇪 | 🟨 | 🔁 |
F Gilles De Bilde | 🇧🇪 | ⚽ |
CF Andy Booth | 🏴 |
SUBSTITUTES
🔁 | F Julian Joachim | 🏴 | 🔥 | for LB Alan Wright | 🏴 | 39’ |
🔁 | F Darius Vassell | 🏴 | for F Benito Carbone | 🇮🇹 | 81’ |
🔁 | CB Colin Calderwood | 🏴 | for CF Dion Dublin | 🏴 | 86’ |
SUBSTITUTES
🔁 | M Wim Jonk | 🇳🇱 | (CF Gerald Sibon | 🇳🇱 |)
🔁 | M Alan Quinn | 🇮🇪 | (RB Steve Haslam | 🏴 |)
UNUSED SUBSTITUTES
GK Neil Cutler | 🏴 |
M Steve Stone | 🏴 |
UNUSED SUBSTITUTES
GK Kevin Pressman | 🏴 |
LB Kevin Nicholson | 🏴 |
CF Richard Cresswell | 🏴 |
SQUAD STATS
1st XI:
Home Nation 🏴 🏴 🏴 🇬🇧 : 9/11
Squad:
Home Nation 🏴 🏴 🏴 🇬🇧 : 14/16
MATCHDAY SQUAD
SQUAD STATS
1st XI:
Home Nation 🏴 🏴 🏴 🇬🇧 : 5/11
Squad:
Home Nation 🏴 🏴 🏴 🇬🇧 : 9/16
MATCHDAY SQUAD
UNAVAILABLE
Not recorded
UNAVAILABLE
Not Recorded
Player Abbreviations:
GK : Goalkeeper
LB, RB, FB : Left Back, Right Back, Full Back
CB, D : Centre Back, Defender
M, W : Midfielder. Winger
F, CF : Forward, Centre Forward
🟢 : Debut 🔴 : Final Game
Symbols:
⚽ | Goal
🔥 | Assist
🔁 | Substitution
🟨 | Booking
🟥 | Sending off
🆘 | Poor refereeing performance
DEBUT APPEARANCES
FINAL APPEARANCES
MATCH STATS
Not recorded
TABLE

PROGRAMME



MATCHDAY QUOTES
"John Gregory emerged from the crazy, crazy game with his job safe at least until after Christmas. But if he were being paranoid he would surely believe that his penalty takers were trying to get him the sack."
*The Guardian*
Sunday, 19 December 1999
*Villa override spot of bother*
John Gregory emerged from the crazy, crazy game with his job safe at least until after Christmas. But if he were being paranoid he would surely believe that his penalty takers were trying to get him the sack.
Three days after being knocked out of the Worthington Cup at West Ham thanks to Gareth Southgate’s miss in the sudden death penalty shoot out, Dion Dublin and Paul Merson contrived to muck up two more opportunities from the spot as Pavel Srnicek thought he had earned his struggling side at least a point with two fabulous saves.
But when bad luck is against you, it is really against you and Ian Taylor’s late headed goal left Wednesday’s manager Danny Wilson wondering if it will be him receiving his P45 within his Christmas card from his chairman.
The vast rows of empty blue seats demonstrated what the home fans thought about coming to watch a team who hadn’t won here in the Premiership for three months.
The away end was also sparsely populated but the visitors managed to muster a chorus of blood-curdling boos every time their former hero Benito Carbone touched the ball, and it wasn’t long before the Italian was soon taking centre stage, pouncing upon a mistake from Srnicek when the goalkeeper’s poor clearance fell at his feet and hitting a speculative shot which the red-faced keeper, desperately back-pedalling, managed to push away.
Wednesday did take the lead on 20 minutes when Danny Sonner earned them a penalty after being brought down by Ugo Ehiogu. Gilles de Bilde converted confidently.
The referee evened up the penalty count in the 32nd minute following a hand-ball from Alan Quinn. But Dublin’s effort was too close to the keeper and Srnicek clawed the effort to safety.
After a long lull the match burst back into life midway through the second half. Villa equalised on 69 minutes with a curling 20-yard shot from Merson and three minutes later Emerson Thome was judged to have held down Dublin and another penalty was awarded.
Up stepped the swaggering Merson and yet, remarkably, Srnicek was again able to beat out the spot kick.
But even he was left powerless in the 82nd minute when Taylor arrived unmarked at the back post to head Merson’s cross into the net.
---
*The Guardian*
Monday, 20 December 1999
Match report by Duncan Mackay
*Dublin injury tempers Villa’s delight*
John Gregory watched his Aston Villa team win their first Premiership game for three months and then tempted fate, saying: “Maybe our luck has changed at last.”
Less than 24 hours later he heard Dion Dublin would be out for up to three months with a neck injury.
Just as Gregory and Villa felt they had emerged from their annus horribilis, their top scorer has been taken from them by an injury sustained late in Saturday’s game, in a seemingly innocuous challenge with Sheffield Wednesday’s Gerald Sibon. It turned out to be a broken vertebra that required surgery.
It is a devastating blow to a team which has been over-reliant on the 30-year-old striker, who has scored nine of Villa’s 16 Premiership goals this season.
Dublin’s loss may open yet another chapter in the Stan Collymore saga but Gregory has made it clear he has frozen the wayward striker out of his plans. So the chairman Doug Ellis may, albeit reluctantly, have to open the chequebook once more.
On Saturday a vibrant Villa performed like a team playing for a new manager, not an old one. Perhaps it was because Gregory was out of sight, banished to the directors’ box.
Seldom can the mood at Villa Park have changed so much in the space of a fretful, frenetic 90 minutes. It might have been only a doomed Wednesday who were conquered but in the afterglow Gregory spoke of a new beginning.
It seemed everyone was trying to save Gregory’s job on Saturday, from his players, eager to a fault, to the Football League, later dispensing Worthington Cup justice and cheer. This business diverted Ellis from 90 minutes’ cold-eyed concentration on Villa’s league predicament.
Ellis must put this down as a huge credit against so many recent Gregory debits. And the manager knew it as he dispensed jokes afterwards. Not even Villa’s continuing penalty curse could darken his mood.
Gregory was indebted to his most expensive signing Paul Merson who, in 16 startling minutes, turned the game and possibly Villa’s season. Few players, as Gregory said, could produce the curling shot Merson delivered to break Pavel Srnicek’s acrobatic resistance. And few could have recovered from seeing a powerful penalty saved to continue creating the kind of chance, with a long cross, that produced Ian Taylor’s winning header eight minutes from time.
Add Dublin’s first-half penalty failure, fine saves from Gareth Barry and Merson together with a couple of strikes against the woodwork and the picture of Villa’s dominance is complete. But Wednesday, yet again, felt they deserved more. For so long, encouraged by Gilles de Bilde’s successful penalty, Danny Wilson’s team looked like getting it. Then came Merson.