Keith Jones

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Seasons

Age*

Division

Appearances

Starts

Substitute

Unused

Goals

From

Played Under

Alex Massie |
George Martin |
Eric Houghton |

First Squad Appearance

Debut Appearance

First Goal

Did not score

Final Appearance

Saturday, 19 January 1957

Tottenham Hotspur (a), Division One

Final Squad Appearance

Saturday, 19 January 1957

Keith Jones

Player #411 for Aston Villa, Keith Jones played as a Goalkeeper for the club. Keith played for Villa between 1947-48 and 1956-57 making 199 appearances.

Keith was born in Nantyglo, Monmouth on 23 October 1928 and made his debut appearance for Villa on Saturday, 27 December 1947 at the age of 19.

Villa had signed Keith from Stourport in May 1946 and turned out for Villa’s second and third sides before winning his place in the first team before becoming the 48th custodian of the Villa goal in professional football.

Keith’s debut came about as Villa’s number one, Joe Rutherford, sustained a broken finger in the match with Wolves, and with his regular deputy Alan Wakeman also injured, Keith was called in for goalkeeping duty in the return match versus Wolves the following day.

Keith immediately played with a goalkeeping confidence that belied his years and experience however Keith was not able to initially build on those displays due to his sojourn in the Army, and despite some fine displays in representative Service games he returned to the club ahead of the 1949-50 season effectively restarting his Villa career.

Keith continued to rapidly make a name for himself placing great pressure on his goalkeeping contemporaries for Villa’s green jersey however disaster struck in November 1949 when he suffered a fractured arm which ruled him out for the season.

Returning to the team in the 1950-51 season and regaining his form he suffered a further injury - this time a broken collar bone against Chesterfield reserves on 7 April 1951 that once again put him out of action for the season.

It would be 1952-53 before he broke his debut season number of appearances, from that season however Eric Houghton made Keith Villa’s first choice goalkeeper, a status he kept until 1955-56 subsequent to which Nigel Sims took over as Villa’s number one.

A youthful ‘keeper introduced to the first team still a teenager, Keith faced stiff competition for the number one jersey throughout his 10 seasons with Villa. Keith vied with Alan Wakeman, and Joe Rutherford from 1947 to 1950 then Jack Hindle in 1950-51. The following season even centre back Con Martin got in on the competitive action alongside John Cordell whilst Joe Rutherford’s time with the club came to an end.

Keith could have expected to take over Rutherford’s status as first choice pick but Dennis Parsons arrived although from 1953-54 the balance tipped in Keith’s favour as he eclipsed 30 appearances in a season for the first time, Keith made 41 appearances the following season, then 35 before one final appearance in 1956-57 as Nigel Sims appeared on Villa’s goalkeeping scene.

Keith then - in the face of overwhelming competition from Sims - made his final appearance for the club on Saturday, 19 January 1957 at the age of 28 before moving on to Port Vale in July 1957 for a fee of £3,000. Keith’s performance in goal for Villa saw him concede 336 goals in 199 games at a rate of 1.69 goals per game.

Keith passed away in Redditch aged 78 on 25 August 2007.