Player #536 for Aston Villa, Bruce David Rioch, played as a midfielder for the club between 1969-70 and 1973-74 making 178 appearances and scoring 37 goals.

Bruce was born in Aldershot on 6 September 1947 and he made his debut appearance for Villa on Saturday, 9 August 1969 aged 21.

Despite the travails, and many transfer mistakes, under Tommy Docherty, Bruce proved a shrewd purchase and though Docherty was gone before the season was out Bruce retained his ever present status under new boss Vic Crowe.

Villa had signed Bruce from Luton Town for £100,000 in July 1969 along with his brother Neil (£15,000) and his all action midfield style was a blessing in a team that was sorely wanting in many areas.

His ability to hit stunning strikes with his left peg simply increased his worth to a rocky Villa side but none of his talent had come by accident, as an inveterate user of training ground time, Bruce perfected his game when many of his lesser team-mates had disappeared home for the day.

Such attention to detail was typified by a quote from the man himself “I realised, for instance, that if I put the ball down with the hole for the pump in a certain way and hit it fractionally off centre, I could make it swerve.”

That foresight certainly paid off for Villa as they finished League Champions to win promotion back to the second tier in 1971-72 (45 Appearances, 9 goals), acclimatised to the Second Division (38 Appearances, 9 Goals) and his final bow (24 appearances, 7 goals).

That season, 1973-74, represented Bruce’s last and as disappointing as was his loss, the loyalty and service he had shown Villa in an at times seemingly hopeless situation was the stuff of legend.

In truth Bruce Rioch could have walked into any top tier team - as he did with his eventual destination Derby County - but he chose to stay with Villa and it was only the failure to clinch promotion back to the top flight that led to his move.

Sticking with the Villa cost Bruce an England call up as they refused to select players outside of the top division.

Bruce made his final appearance for Villa on Saturday, 16 February 1974 aged 26 before moving on to Derby County later that month for a fee of £200,000.