Player #460 for Aston Villa, Gerald Archibald Hitchens, known as Gerry Hitchens, played as a forward for the club.

Gerry played for Villa between 1957-58 and 1960-61 making 160 appearances and scoring 96 goals.

Gerry was born in Rawnsley, Staffordshire, just 17 miles from Villa Park, on 8 October 1934 and made his debut appearance for Villa on Saturday, 21 December 1957 aged 23.

Villa had signed Gerry from Cardiff City for a fee of £22,500 earlier in December 1957.

Gerry rivals Peter McParland as one of the greatest goalscorers for Villa during the Post War period and is largely viewed as the preeminent centre forward of the era, justifiably so.

During his four seasons with Villa, Gerry had two 20 plus goalscoring seasons, including hitting 42 goals in his final season. Gerry helped Villa to two FA Cup Semi Finals (1958-59 and 1959-60), a promotion from the second division (23 goals in 36 games) and an inaugural league cup win in 1960-61 - although by the time the final was played in the 1961-62 season Gerry had left the club.

During Villa’s victorious League Cup campaign in 1960-61 Gerry hit an astonishing 11 goals in 10 games setting Villa up to lift the trophy after vanquishing Rotherham United in the two legged final. Perhaps however Gerry’s greatest moment in a Villa shirt came when he hit 5 goals in the 11-1 win over Charlton Athletic on Saturday 14th November 1959.

Unsurprisingly Gerry’s goalscoring feats led him to be noticed by rival clubs, what was surprising however was his ultimate destination with Inter Milan paying £60,000 for his services from the 1961—62 a move that ended an all too brief Villa career and marked Villa’s first ever formal transfer involving a foreign club.

Gerry’s move to continental football was a double edged sword however, whilst he acclimatised well and spent the best part of 10 years in Italian football his non-domestic base meant the parochial nature of the then England management prevented him from adding to his 7 England caps and 5 goals.

Gerry was just 26 when he left Villa.

Gerry had played under managers Eric Houghton and Joe Mercer.

Gerry died from a heart attack after collapsing while playing a charity game for a solicitor’s team in Hope, Clwyd, North Wales on 14th April 1983. He was just 48.