1994–95 Aston Villa F.C. season

Aston Villa

1994–95 season
Chairman	Doug Ellis
Manager	Ron Atkinson (until 10 November) Jim Barron (caretaker 10-25 November) Brian Little (from 25 November)
Stadium	Villa Park
Premiership	18th
FA Cup	Fourth round
League Cup	Fourth round
UEFA Cup	Second round
Top goalscorer	League: Saunders (15) All: Saunders (17)
Highest home attendance	40,154 vs Liverpool (6 May 1995, Premier League)
Lowest home attendance	12,433 vs Wigan Athletic (21 Sep 1994, League Cup)
Average home league attendance	29,756
← 1993–94 1995–96 →

During the 1994–95 English football season, Aston Villa F.C. competed in the FA Premier League.

Season summary

Two seasons earlier, Aston Villa narrowly missed out on the league title. The season after that, they dipped to 10th place in the league but still had success as League Cup winners. But the decline continued into 1994-95 and Ron Atkinson paid for this with his job in November. Within days, former Villa favourite Brian Little was back at the club as Atkinson's successor, and managed to keep Villa clear of the drop.

Before the season was over, a new era was already in the making at Villa Park. A number of players now past their best were off-loaded to new clubs; these included Ray Houghton, Garry Parker, Kevin Richardson and Earl Barrett. The close season saw more players from the Atkinson era pass through the Villa Park exit door: Shaun Teale, Dalian Atkinson, Dean Saunders and John Fashanu. Little brought in younger players like Mark Draper, Ian Taylor, Savo Milosevic, Nii Lamptey, Carl Tiler, Gary Charles and Alan Wright to give some much-needed strength to a side of fading stars, as well as giving such much-needed hope to fans of a club which had been rescued from the threat of a rapid decline.

Final league table

Main article: 1994–95 FA Premier League

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Blackburn Rovers (C)	42	27	8	7	80	39	+41	89	1995–96 UEFA Champions League Group stage
2	Manchester United	42	26	10	6	77	28	+49	88	1995–96 UEFA Cup First round
3	Nottingham Forest	42	22	11	9	72	43	+29	77
4	Liverpool	42	21	11	10	65	37	+28	74
5	Leeds United	42	20	13	9	59	38	+21	73
6	Newcastle United	42	20	12	10	67	47	+20	72
7	Tottenham Hotspur	42	16	14	12	66	58	+8	62
8	Queens Park Rangers	42	17	9	16	61	59	+2	60
9	Wimbledon	42	15	11	16	48	65	−17	56
10	Southampton	42	12	18	12	61	63	−2	54
11	Chelsea	42	13	15	14	50	55	−5	54
12	Arsenal	42	13	12	17	52	49	+3	51
13	Sheffield Wednesday	42	13	12	17	49	57	−8	51
14	West Ham United	42	13	11	18	44	48	−4	50
15	Everton	42	11	17	14	44	51	−7	50	1995–96 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup First round 1
16	Coventry City	42	12	14	16	44	62	−18	50
17	Manchester City	42	12	13	17	53	64	−11	49
18	Aston Villa	42	11	15	16	51	56	−5	48
19	Crystal Palace (R)	42	11	12	19	34	49	−15	45	Relegation to 1995–96 Football League First Division
20	Norwich City (R)	42	10	13	19	37	54	−17	43
21	Leicester City (R)	42	6	11	25	45	80	−35	29
22	Ipswich Town (R)	42	7	6	29	36	93	−57	27

Updated to games played on 14 May 1995.
Source: Premier League
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored
¹ Everton qualified for the Cup Winners' Cup as FA Cup winners.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.

Results Summary

Overall								Home						Away
Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
42	11	15	16	51	56	−5	48	6	9	6	27	24	+3	5	6	10	24	32	−8

Source: Statto

Results by round

Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39	40	41	42
Ground	A	H	H	A	H	A	A	H	A	H	H	A	H	A	A	H	A	H	A	A	H	A	H	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	H	H	A	A	A	H	A	H	H	A
Result	D	D	D	W	W	L	L	L	L	D	L	L	L	L	W	D	D	D	L	D	W	D	D	W	W	W	L	W	W	D	L	L	D	L	W	D	L	L	L	D	W	D
Position	7	12	13	9	8	8	9	12	14	15	16	18	19	19	19	19	19	20	20	20	19	20	19	18	14	12	14	11	9	9	11	11	10	15	13	11	16	16	17	18	15	18

Source: Statto.com
Ground: A = Away; H = Home. Result: D = Draw; L = Loss; W = Win; P = Postponed.

Results

Aston Villa's score comes first

Legend

Win

Draw

Loss

FA Premier League

Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
20 August 1994	Everton	A	2-2	35,544	Fashanu 65', Saunders 74'
24 August 1994	Southampton	H	1-1	24,179	Saunders 32'
27 August 1994	Crystal Palace	H	1-1	23,305	Staunton 46'
29 August 1994	Coventry City	A	1-0	12,218	Yorke 3'
10 September 1994	Ipswich Town	H	2-0	22,241	Staunton 15', Saunders 85'
17 September 1994	West Ham United	A	0-1	18,326
24 September 1994	Blackburn Rovers	A	1-3	22,694	Ehiogu 90'
1 October 1994	Newcastle United	H	0-2	29,960
8 October 1994	Liverpool	A	2-3	32,158	Staunton 37', Whittingham 90'
15 October 1994	Norwich City	H	1-1	22,468	Saunders 62'
22 October 1994	Nottingham Forest	H	0-2	29,217
29 October 1994	Queens Park Rangers	A	0-2	16,073
6 November 1994	Manchester United	H	1-2	32,136	Atkinson 29'
9 November 1994	Wimbledon	A	3-4	6,221	Parker 19', Saunders 38', 50'
19 November 1994	Tottenham Hotspur	A	4-3	26,899	Atkinson 8', Fenton 21', 27', Saunders 90'
27 November 1994	Sheffield Wednesday	H	1-1	25,082	Atkinson 15'
3 December 1994	Leicester City	A	1-1	20,896	Whittingham 61'
10 December 1994	Everton	H	0-0	29,678
19 December 1994	Southampton	A	1-2	13,874	Houghton 80'
26 December 1994	Arsenal	A	0-0	34,452
28 December 1994	Chelsea	H	3-0	32,901	Sinclair 9' (own goal), Yorke 32', Taylor 82'
31 December 1994	Manchester City	A	2-2	22,513	Brightwell 55'(own goal), Saunders 59'
2 January 1995	Leeds United	H	0-0	35,038
14 January 1995	Queens Park Rangers	H	2-1	26,578	Fashanu 7', Ehiogu 76'
21 January 1995	Nottingham Forest	A	2-1	24,598	Fashanu 32', Saunders 68'
25 January 1995	Tottenham Hotspur	H	1-0	40,017	Saunders 18'
4 February 1995	Manchester United	A	0-1	43,795
11 February 1995	Wimbledon	H	7-1	23,982	Reeves 12' (own goal), Johnson 22', 26', 38', Saunders 48', pen 66', Yorke 83'
18 February 1995	Sheffield Wednesday	A	2-1	24,063	Saunders 26', 44'
22 February 1995	Leicester City	H	4-4	30,825	Saunders 8', Staunton 37', Yorke 60', Johnson 65'
25 February 1995	Newcastle United	A	1-3	34,637	Townsend 40'
4 March 1995	Blackburn Rovers	H	0-1	40,114
6 March 1995	Coventry City	H	0-0	26,186
18 March 1995	West Ham United	H	0-2	28,682
1 April 1995	Ipswich Town	A	1-0	15,710	Swailes 90' (own goal)
4 April 1995	Crystal Palace	A	0-0	12,606
15 April 1995	Chelsea	A	0-1	17,015
17 April 1995	Arsenal	H	0-4	32,005
29 April 1995	Leeds United	A	0-1	32,955
3 May 1995	Manchester City	H	1-1	30,133	Ehiogu 9'
6 May 1995	Liverpool	H	2-0	40,154	Yorke 25', 36'
14 May 1995	Norwich City	A	1-1	19,374	Staunton 7'

FA Cup

Main article: 1994-95 FA Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R3	7 January 1995	Barnsley	A	2-0	11,469	Yorke 48', Saunders 64'
R4	28 January 1995	Manchester City	A	0-1	21,177

League Cup

Main article: 1994-95 Football League Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R2 1st Leg	21 September 1994	Wigan Athletic	H	5-0	12,433	Atkinson (2), Yorke, Lamptey, Saunders
R2 2nd Leg	5 October 1994	Wigan Athletic	A	3-0 (won 8-0 on agg)	2,633	Lamptey (2), Whittingham
R3	26 October 1994	Middlesbrough	H	1-0	19,254	Townsend 30'
R4	30 November 1994	Crystal Palace	A	1-4	12,653	Atkinson

UEFA Cup

Main article: 1994-95 UEFA Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R1 1st Leg	15 September 1994	Inter Milan	A	0-1	22,639
R1 2nd Leg	29 September 1994	Inter Milan	H	1-0 (won 4-3 on pens)	30,533	Houghton 41'
R2 1st Leg	18 October 1994	Trabzonspor	A	0-1	27,500
R2 2nd Leg	1 November 1994	Trabzonspor	H	2-1 (lost on away goals)	23,858	Atkinson 77', Ehiogu 90'

First-team squad

Squad at end of season

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Nigel Spink 2 DF Alan Wright 3 DF Steve Staunton 4 DF Shaun Teale 5 DF Paul McGrath 8 FW John Fashanu 9 FW Dean Saunders 10 FW Dalian Atkinson 11 MF Andy Townsend 12 MF Nii Lamptey 13 GK Mark Bosnich

No. Position Player 14 MF Franz Carr 15 DF Phil King 16 DF Ugo Ehiogu 17 MF Ian Taylor 18 FW Dwight Yorke 19 FW Graham Fenton 20 DF Bryan Small 21 MF David Farrell 22 DF Gary Charles 25 FW Tommy Johnson 30 GK Michael Oakes

Left club during season

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 2 DF Earl Barrett (to Everton) 4 MF Garry Parker (to Leicester City) 6 MF Kevin Richardson (to Coventry City)

No. Position Player 7 MF Ray Houghton (to Crystal Palace) 22 FW Guy Whittingham (to Sheffield Wednesday) 24 DF Chris Boden (to Derby County)

Transfers

In

Date	Pos	Name	From	Fee
1 August 1994	DF	Phil King	Sheffield Wednesday	£200,000
4 August 1994	FW	John Fashanu	Wimbledon	£1,350,000
21 December 1994	MF	Ian Taylor	Sheffield Wednesday	£1,000,000
6 January 1995	DF	Gary Charles	Derby County	£1,450,000
6 January 1995	FW	Tommy Johnson	Derby County	£1,450,000
10 February 1995	MF	Franz Carr	Leicester City	£250,000
10 March 1995	DF	Alan Wright	Blackburn Rovers	£1,000,000

Out

Date	Pos	Name	To	Fee
6 June 1994	MF	Tony Daley	Wolverhampton Wanderers	£1,250,000
11 July 1994	MF	Steve Froggatt	Wolverhampton Wanderers	£1,000,000
14 July 1994	DF	Dariusz Kubicki	Sunderland	Transfer
19 July 1994	DF	Neil Cox	Middlesbrough	£1,000,000
21 December 1994	FW	Guy Whittingham	Sheffield Wednesday	£700,000
30 January 1995	DF	Earl Barrett	Everton	£1,700,000
10 February 1995	MF	Garry Parker	Leicester City	£300,000
16 February 1995	MF	Kevin Richardson	Coventry City	£300,000
23 March 1995	MF	Ray Houghton	Crystal Palace	£300,000
24 March 1995	DF	Chris Boden	Derby County	£150,000

Transfers in: £6,700,000

Transfers out: £6,700,000

Total spending: £0

Awards

• January: Manager of the Month, Brian Little