| Aston Villa Football
Club is the most successful of all of the football clubs in
Birmingham and probably in the whole of the West Midlands.
Aston Villa Football club was formed in 1874, 14 years before the
Football League was founded. The story goes that four men from the
Villa Cross Weslyan Chapel Cricket Club met by gas-light and decided
to form a football team to give the cricket team a sport to play
during the winter.
They won their first match against Aston Brook St Mary's
Rugby team and from these humble beginnings the club became one
of the 12 founding members of the Football League.
From the beginning they were a force to be reckoned with as they
quickly established themselves one of the best teams in the area,
and indeed the Football League managing to finish highly in a few
FA Cup competitions before eventually winning the trophy.
However since then Villa, like every football team, has had many
ups and downs during its illustrious history and even went 37 years
without a trophy between 1920 and 1957. Eric Houghton eventually
guided them to victory in the FA Cup Final at Wembley with
Peter McParland scoring twice to end Manchester United’s dream.
Since then real glory has always been just a whisker away and an
FA Cup Final against Chelsea in 2000 has been the height of Villa’s
achievements. The arrival of David O'Leary in the summer of 2003
could herald another upturn in the fortunes of a club with an esteemed
history.
If you want to enjoy the thrills and spills of an Aston Villa home
game while you’re in Birmingham then you’ll need to
head for Villa Park [map]
to the north of the city centre. Getting to the ground should be
straightforward as there are plenty of public transport options,
one of the most popular being to get off at Aston train station
and follow the claret and sky blue shirts on the 10-minute walk
to the ground.
Tickets for games should be purchased in advance to ensure availability
however you can by tickets at the gate on matchday, phone 0121 327
2299 for more information.
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