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Game #4791

Aston Villa

Saturday, 31 January 2004

Leicester City

0-5

Aston Villa

Premier League

Leicester City

Walkers Stadium

Attendance: 31,056

Won

11th (+1)

Last 5: 🟥 🟥 🟥 🟩 🟩

Assist(s) | Thomas Hitzlsperger | 50’ | 56’ | Gareth Barry | 60’ | Peter Crouch | 64’ | Mark Delaney | 68’ |

MATCH SUMMARY

Villa's performance delivers them a deserved result for the first time in three Premier League games. After unlucky defeats to Liverpool and Arsenal, David O'Leary's side hammer Leicester for a fifth win in eight top flight matches.

KEY MAN

Villa celebrate Dion Dublin's goal as they hit five to hammer Leicester and make it five wins in eight Premier League games under David O'Leary, Saturday, 31 January 2004.

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, 31 January 2004

🟢 | 1’ Debut, Nolberto Solano
🟨 | 9’ Booking, Olof Mellberg
🕒 | HT Leicester City 0-0 Aston Villa
⚽ | 50’ Goal, 1-0, Darius Vassell, Assist by Thomas Hitzlsperger
⚽ | 56’ Goal, 2-0, Peter Crouch, Assist by Thomas Hitzlsperger
⚽ | 60’ Goal, 3-0, Darius Vassell, Assist by Gareth Barry
⚽ | 64’ Goal, 4-0, Dion Dublin, Assist by Peter Crouch
⚽ | 68’ Goal, 5-0, Peter Crouch, Assist by Mark Delaney
🔁 | 71’ Sub off, Thomas Hitzlsperger, Sub on Peter Whittingham
🔁 | 71’ Sub off, Darius Vassell, Sub on Marcus Allbäck
🔁 | 81’ Sub off, Mark Delaney, Sub on Ulises de la Cruz
🕒 | FT Leicester City 0-5 Aston Villa

ON THIS DAY

Villa bounce back from a run of difficult results in January to end the month with a stunning performance and result on the road at Leicester inspired by new signing Nolberto Solano and the returning Peter Crouch. Solano's signing was nothing short of a coup, arguably Newcastle had let their best player leave to a rival for a relatively small fee, and Villa suddenly had a piece of the jigsaw that had been missing the last couple of seasons.

Aston Villa

European Cup / Champions League: 🏆
League Champions: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
FA Cup Winners: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
League Cup Winners: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
Last Trophy: 1995-96

Leicester City

European Cup / Champions League: ❌
League Champions: ❌
FA Cup Winners: ❌
League Cup Winners: 🏆🏆🏆
Last Trophy: 1999-00

FIXTURE HISTORY

Villa Vs.

Leicester City

Previous 5 vs. Leicester: 🟩 🟥 🟨 🟩 🟩

PREVIOUS MATCH

SUBSEQUENT MATCH

FIXTURE DETAILS

Villa.gif
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Season | 2003-04 |
Matchday | #30 |
League Game | #23 |
Manager Game | #30 |
Saturday, 31 January 2004

MATCH SUMMARY

Manager: David O’Leary | 🇮🇪 | Stoke Newington, 2003-2006
Referee: Jeff Winter | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | Middlesbrough, 1992-2004
Kick off: 3.00pm
HT Score: 🟨 0-0
FT Score: 🟩 5-0
FT Result: 🟩 Won
Last 5: 🟥 🟥 🟥 🟩 🟩

MANAGERIAL RECORD

David O'Leary | 🇮🇪 |

GAMES | WINS | DRAWS | LOSSES | POINTS PER GAME

🕒 30 | 🟩 | 13 🟨 | 6 🟥 11 | 1.50

Villa Career Form:

Top 8

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Jeff Winter | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | Middlesbrough, 1992-2004
Matches Officiated: 22
🟩 : 8
🟨 : 9
🟥 : 5
🆘 : 1
Previous 5: 🟥 🟨 🟥 🟥 🟩
Last Match: 🟩 6 January 2004, Villa 2-1 Portsmouth, Villa Park.
Cards: 🟨

ALL THE MATCHES REFEREED BY:

CARDS

🟨

Villa.gif

None

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TEAM NEWS

David O'Leary hands Nolberto Solano his Villa debut in place of Lee Hendrie.

TEAM STATS

Starting XI Average Age
| 26.01 |

Oldest Player |
CF Dion Dublin | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 34.80 |

Youngest Player |
M Thomas Hitzlsperger | 🇩🇪 | 21.84 |

MANAGER

David O'Leary | 🇮🇪 |

Villa.gif

Aston Villa

GK Thomas Sörensen | 🇩🇰 |
CB Olof Mellberg | 🇸🇪 | 🟨 |
RB Mark Delaney | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 | 🔥 | 🔁 |
RB Jlloyd Samuel | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
M Gareth Barry | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 🔥 |
M Gavin McCann | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
M Thomas Hitzlsperger | 🇩🇪 | 🔥 | 🔥 | 🔁 |
W Nolberto Solano | 🇵🇪 | 🟢 |
CF Dion Dublin | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | ⚽ |
CF Peter Crouch | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | ⚽ | 🔥 | ⚽ |
F Darius Vassell | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | ⚽ | ⚽ | 🔁 |

MANAGER

Micky Adams | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |

2509-2.png

Leicester City

GK Ian Walker | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
LB Callum Davidson | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 |
LB Ben Thatcher | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 |
CB Riccardo Scimeca (ex) | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
CB Nikolaos Dabizas | 🇺🇾 |
RB John Curtis | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 🔁 |
M Billy McKinlay | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 | 🔁 |
W Steve Guppy | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
W Keith Gillespie | 🇬🇧 | 🔁 |
CF James Scowcroft | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
CF Marcus Bent | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |

SUBSTITUTES

Villa.gif

🔁 W Peter Whittingham | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | for M Thomas Hitzlsperger | 🇩🇪 | 71’ |
🔁 F Marcus Allbäck | 🇸🇪 | for F Darius Vassell | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 71’ |
🔁 RB Ulises de la Cruz | 🇪🇨 | for RB Mark Delaney | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 | 81’ |

SUBSTITUTES

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🔁 | RB John Curtis | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | (CF Frank Sinclair | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |)
🔁 | M Billy McKinlay | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 | (CB Matt Elliott | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 |)
🔁 | W Keith Gillespie | 🇬🇧 | (W Craig Hignett | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |)

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES

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GK Stefan Postma | 🇳🇱 |
CB Liam Ridgewell | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES

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GK Danny Coyne | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 |
LB Jordan Stewart | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |

SQUAD STATS

Villa.gif

1st XI:
Home Nation 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇬🇧 : 7/11
Homegrown: 4/11

Squad:
Home Nation 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇬🇧 : 9/16
Homegrown: 6/16

SQUAD STATS

2509-2.png

1st XI:
Home Nation 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇬🇧 : 10/11

Squad:
Home Nation 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇬🇧 : 15/16

MATCHDAY SQUAD

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MATCHDAY SQUAD

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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

🟢 W Nolberto Solano | 🇵🇪 |

FINAL APPEARANCES

MATCH STATS

Not recorded

MATCH QUOTES

"Darius Vassell and Peter Crouch scored two apiece as Villa ran riot in a one-sided spell of 18 minutes."

MATCH REPORT

*BBC Sport*
Saturday, 31 January, 2004

Aston Villa enjoyed a resounding win with five second-half goals to keep Leicester City mired deep in relegation trouble, three points from safety. Darius Vassell and Peter Crouch scored two apiece as Villa ran riot in a one-sided spell of 18 minutes. Vassell’s two long-range strikes sandwiched a far-post Crouch header from a Thomas Hitzlsperger corner. Dion Dublin made it four, benefiting from poor keeping by Ian Walker, before Mark Delaney set up Crouch’s second. Vassell and Crouch were only starting together because of the continued absence through injury of leading scorer Juan Pablo Angel. But the pair, after a quiet first-half, took centre stage to help Villa to only their second Premiership away win of the season, and their first at Leicester. The visitors took time to get into their stride, but slowly and surely imposed themselves on the game. New boy Nolberto Solano, coming in for the injured Lee Hendrie, curled a free-kick over the bar and Gavin McCann thundered a volley onto the woodwork. Vassell also forced a good save from Walker after breaking down the left. Villa played the better football in the first-half, and the floodgates opened after the break. Four minutes in Vassell broke the offside trap and let fly from 20-yards for a deserved lead. Leicester were also forced into changes in attack with Paul Dickov suspended and Les Ferdinand injured. Foxes manager Micky Adams pushed James Scowcroft up front alongside Marcus Bent, but the pair struggled to gel. Scowcroft made little impact and Bent, who was unable to hold up the ball, missed an opportunity to equalise when unmarked at a corner. Moments later Crouch showed him how to do it, stooping low to meet Hitzlsperger’s corner at the far post for his first Premiership goal in 20 months. From there on in it was one-way traffic, with three goals in eight minutes. Vassell again let fly with a low first-time left-foot drive from Gareth Barry’s lay off. A Hitzlsperger free-kick caused chaos in the Leicester box, and Dublin, aided by Walker’s lax efforts with his mind wandering, turned in Crouch’s knock down. And then the gangly striker made it a five-star show with his second of the match, showing good footwork to collect and score from Mark Delaney’s cross. Leicester’s problems could increase, with goalkeeper Walker facing potential disciplinary after pushing a supporter to the ground.

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