Player #835 for Aston Villa, Séamus John James Given known as Shay Given played as a Goalkeeper for the club between 2011-12 and 2014-15 making 55 appearances.

Given was the 92nd custodian of the Villa goal in professional football.

Shay was born in Lifford on 20 April 1976 and made his debut appearance for Villa on Wednesday, 27 July 2011 aged 35.

Villa had signed Shay from Manchester City for £3,380,000 on 19 July 2011 and in total he played for Villa for 4 seasons and under 3 managers but that hardly tells the story of his tumultuous time at the club.

An excellent, though veteran, signing from the otherwise largely uncelebrated but earnest Villa boss Alex McLeish, Given provided Villa with the quality he had been associated with throughout his career.

It was however Given’s misfortune to play for Villa as a confidence and quality was being stripped from the side at an alarming rate not least in the managerial office.

Given’s statistical performance underlined the difficulties Villa faced, conceding 82 goals in 55 matches at a rate of 1.49 goals per game and keeping just 12 clean sheets (22%).

From making 36 appearances under McLeish, Given suffered the indignity of Paul Lambert and his ‘bomb squad’ madness that had started with another higher quality Villa player, Darren Bent.

Following his lead with Bent, Lambert saw fit to ensure that Villa were paying a player - who could materially improve his woefully inadequate side - to sit out of first team consideration.

For what reason few are sure.

Such was the illogical treatment of Given that a player that had cost Villa over £3m was given away for free as Villa inflicted an unnecessary devaluation on themselves.

That was before the ultimate twist of footballing irony when the bewildering Lambert’s back room staff imploded under a cloud of bullying accusations, it was to Given - the ‘keeper he had refused to pick for over a season - that Lambert would turn to to prop us his failing regime.

Before that Lambert had sent Given on a wasteful loan to Middlesbrough and preferred the terminally fallible Brad Guzan as Villa’s goal custodian instead.

Given made his final appearance for Villa on Saturday, 30 May 2015 aged 39 before moving on to Stoke City in July 2015 on a free transfer aged 39.