Sims, Lynn, Aldis, Crowther, Dugdale, Saward, Smith, Sewell, Myerscough, Dixon (c), McParland.

2008 has been a cruel year for the heroes of 1957. Jimmy Dugdale passed away in March, followed a week later by Les Smith. Now, in November, Peter Aldis has gone to join them in the Holte End in the sky.

"Memorable," is Dion Dublin's understated description of his first sixteen days as an Aston Villa player.

He made his debut just two days after signing from Coventry for £5,750,000, and marked it with two goals against Tottenham Hotspur in a 3-2 win - the other Villa goal a rare strike from Stan Collymore.

A week later, I remember playing football early on a Saturday afternoon and going to watch the scores come in on Ceefax (ah, for those days...) in the pub...

Peter Bonetti. Nigel Martyn. Two great goalkeepers who in many eras other than their own - and certainly today in 2008 - would have been comfortably established as England's number one, but were unlucky enough to find their way blocked by men with the slightest of edges over them; Gordon Banks, arguably the world's best ever, and David 'Safe Hands' Seaman.

Ray Clemence, extraordinarily, actually won sixty-one caps and captained his country in a friendly against Brazil before...

I'm yet to hear it in a quiz, but I'm sure it will come up at some point: Who scored the first competitive goal at the Emirates Stadium?

Not Thierry Henry, not Cesc Fabregas, not Robin van Persie. The answer, as every Villan knows, is Olof Mellberg.

It's a minor piece of trivia, and hardly one of the Swede's greatest achievements - although the moment he thumped a header past Jens Lehmann was one of just eight goals in seven years wearing claret and blue. But...

With all the pain and grief caused by and surrounding the Second World War, the effect on the careers of two generations of footballers obviously takes a back seat. Still, that there were more horrific stories in the world at the time does not make the loss to the beautiful game any more tragic.

First there was the older generation - men like Arsenal's Ted Drake, who scored seven goals in one game at Villa Park in 1935. Drake was just 26 when war broke out. He had scored six...