Aston Villa insight: Why Martin O'Neill's not the first manager to see it slip

May 6 2009 by Bill Howell, Birmingham Mail

Two months later Villa were still level on points with leaders Chelsea after 22 games when they travelled to Newcastle at the end of January and were beaten by an early goal from Alan Shearer and another from Temuri Ketsbaia.

A run of three draws and seven defeats followed and it was not until April when they would get their next win, at home to Southampton, and they limped in sixth to miss out on Europe.

The following season Gregory’s Villa were at it again.

Lying joint-second with Arsenal after eight games in September they went on a run of nine league games without a win which saw them drop to 15th.

They recovered after beating Sheffield Wednesday in December and not only finished sixth but also reached the FA Cup Final.

There have been other seasons, too many to mention.

Ron Atkinson’s side were on the verge of glory, challenging Manchester United for the first Premiership crown in 1992/93.

“We had a very good team, but just fell away towards the end of the season when we knew we couldn’t win it,” recalls Atkinson.

“United finished 10 points ahead of us but that wasn’t really a true reflection of the season.”

Paul McGrath’s second-half goal at Nottingham Forest meant that Villa went into the last six matches top of the tree by a single point with six games to play.

Atkinson traces the fall away to Steve Bruce’s brace in the final four minutes of United’s home game with Sheffield Wednesday – a day Villa were drawing at home to Coventry – when United had been trailing to John Sheridan’s penalty.

“I’ve spoken to some lads who played for Wednesday that day and they told me the referee played 10 minutes of injury time,” Atkinson said.

“When the young lad Macheda scored (for Manchester United) in injury time against the Villa recently, it reminded me of that season when United first won the league under Fergie.”

Villa beat Arsenal and Manchester City in their next matches but ran out of steam and came unstuck big style, losing their final three games to Blackburn, Oldham and QPR.

Almost the same thing happened to Graham Taylor, first time around, with his side top of the old Division One in February 1990, five points clear of Liverpool with nine to play.

That came after back-to-backs wins over Luton and Derby, although Liverpool had two games in hand.

But Villa won only three more matches, drawing three and losing three.

Defeats at Crystal Palace and at home to Manchester City on April Fool’s Day saw them surrender the lead and they eventually fell nine points short of Liverpool in second.

So O’Neill isn’t the first to take Villa to the brink and see them come up short – and he probably won’t be the last.