Player #399 for Aston Villa, Edward Lowe, known as Eddie Lowe, and nicknamed Sticks, played as a defender for the club between 1945-46 and 1949-50 making 117 appearances and scoring 3 goals.

Eddie was born in Halesowen, just 10 miles from Villa Park, on 11 July 1925 and made his professional debut for Villa in the 1945-46 FA Cup aged 19.

Eddie, although a local boy, was a war-time discovery for Villa who came to their notice after gaining experience with Millwall. Eddie appeared in the Works AFA final at Villa Park in 1945 and the right people were watching - after showing promise, Villa didn’t hesitate in securing his services and within months he had made his first team debut.

Villa had spotted Eddie playing for Kynoch Works XI in that cup final and he signed professional forms with Villa in September 1945.

After his a spell in works football, Eddie first featured for Villa early in the 1945-46 season as a wing half and distinguished himself in the Central League before being promoted to the first team for the visit to Plymouth Argyle in 1945, after which he never looked back.

With his long, loose legged style and ability to both beat his man and place the ball in threatening areas, he made the position his own, replacing Bob Iverson as the go to man for the job.

On joining Villa, Eddie was still working down the pits and continued to do so even after he made his debut alongside Les Smith in the Argyle match.

Despite the demands on his time, Eddie was described as having an unnatural polish to his play that was rarely seen in one so young.

Eddie had a strong talent in working the ball judiciously and specialised in the sudden thrust through the middle of the park often leaving the opposing defenders in an uncontrolled tangle.

Eddie was one of three Halesowen brothers who had the ambition to follow in their father’s footsteps and play for Villa. Their father, Arthur, a goalkeeper was on Villa’s books during the interwar period but failed to make a first team appearances. Both Eddie and one brother Reg, realised their ambition but whilst Eddie went on to cement a first team position, Reg, a tall, rangy full back didn’t make an appearance for the first team before both brothers left for Fulham in May 1950.

As six footer, Eddie was strong in the air but his speciality was ground passing for which he gained a reputation as doing so with accuracy and good judgement to the benefit of the team around him.

Eddie soon made his mark on the Villa first team, with the hard-tackling defender making his first team debut immediately in the regional league was introduced for 1945-46, this interim arrangement threw up opposition from across the leagues and Eddie went on to make 24 appearances in this largely experimental season.

Such was the impact and expectation that the Villa faithful were convinced Eddie was an England player in the making and indeed he went on to win his first cap versus France in 1946-47 - the first Villa player to win an England cap after the war.

Eddie also appeared in all 8 of Villa’s matches in the 1947 FA Cup and those fixtures represented his first professional appearances for Villa.

Eddie went on to be a near ever present for the first three league seasons proper after WW2 and was

However by 1949-50 Eddie’s first team opportunities had started to dry up and he played his final game for Villa on Monday, 16 January 1950 before moving to Fulham (with brother Reg) in May 1950 for a combined fee of £15,000.

Eddie’s final Villa game came at the age of just 24 having played under Villa manager Alex Massie before moving on. Eddie would go on to make 511 appearances for Fulham.

Eddie passed away in Nottingham on 9 March 2009 aged 83.