The
1971–72 English football season was Villa's 73rd season in the
Football League
The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...
, this season playing in the
Football League Third Division. Under manager
Vic Crowe Aston Villa won promotion to the
Second Division as champions with a record 70 points, and thus ended their two-year spell in the
Third Division
In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below.
Association football
*Belgian Thir ...
. By the end of the decade they would be firmly re-established as a First Division club.
In July 1971,
Ray Graydon secured a £50,000 move from third division
Bristol Rovers, with captain
Brian Godfrey
Brian Cameron Godfrey (1 May 1940 – 11 February 2010) was a Welsh professional footballer.
Brian was an inside forward who started his league career at Everton where he only made one appearance before joining Scunthorpe United in June 1960. ...
moving in the opposite direction.
Graydon missed just one of Villa's 46 league games in the 1971–72 season, scoring 14 goals as the club secured the Third Division title with a five-point margin over
Brighton & Hove Albion.
Debut Appearances included
Brian Little
Brian Little (born 25 November 1953) is an English football manager and former player.
As a player, Little was a striker who spent his entire career for Aston Villa in a career that spanned from 1971 to 1980. He made 247 league appearances, ...
(247),
Chris Nicholl (210),
Ian Ross (175),
Jimmy Cumbes
James Cumbes (born 4 May 1944) is an English former sportsman. He played first-class cricket for four counties as a right-arm fast-medium bowler and lower-order right-handed batsman, and later served as chief executive of Lancashire; while he a ...
(157),
Tommy Hughes (16), and
Malcolm Beard
Malcolm Beard (born 3 May 1942) is an English former professional footballer born in Cannock, Staffordshire, who made more than 350 appearances in the Football League playing as a wing half.
He spent the vast majority of his playing career ...
(6).
Willie Anderson's contribution included scoring a career high fifteen goals in all competitions with eight coming from penalties, helping him gain a reputation as a penalty taker specialist.
Third Division
Diary
*20 November 1971: As a third division club Villa were required to compete in the first round joined those
non-league clubs having come through the qualifying rounds.
Villa were knocked out by
Fourth Division
Fourth or the fourth may refer to:
* the ordinal form of the number 4
* ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971
* Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision
* Fourth (music), a musical interval
* ''The Fourth'' (1972 film), a Sovie ...
Southend.
*31 March 1972: Third Division table-toppers
Aston Villa
Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...
pull away from
A.F.C. Bournemouth.
See also
*
List of Aston Villa F.C. records and statistics
Aston Villa Football Club are an English professional association football club based in Aston, Birmingham, who currently play in the Premier League. The club was founded in 1874 and were founding members of the Football League in 1888, as ...
References
Aston Villa F.C. seasons
Aston Villa F.C. season
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