Aston Villa F.C. Reserves and Academy

Infobox Football club
clubname = Aston Villa Reserves

|
fullname = Aston Villa Football Club Reserves
nickname = The Villans
founded = 1874
ground = Villa Park
Aston
Birmingham B6 6HE England
capacity = 42,640
mgrtitle = Head Coach
chairman = flagicon|United States Randy Lerner
manager = flagicon|Scotland Kevin MacDonald
league = FA Premier Reserve League
season = 2007-08
position = FAPRL Southern Division, 1st
pattern_la1=|pattern_b1=|pattern_ra1=
leftarm1=88A7E0|body1=970045|rightarm1=88A7E0|shorts1=FFFFFF|socks1=88A7E0
pattern_la2=|pattern_b2=|pattern_ra2=
leftarm2=000000|body2=88A7E0|rightarm2=000000|shorts2=000000|socks2=000000
pattern_la3=|pattern_b3=_4thinstripesonwhite|pattern_ra3=
leftarm3=FFFFFF|body3=93BDE5|rightarm3=FFFFFF|shorts3=93BDE5|socks3=FFFFFF

=Aston Villa Reserves=Aston Villa Reserves are the reserve team of Aston Villa, they have been part of the FA Premier Reserve League since its foundation in 1999 and are current holders of the Premier Reserve League South title. The team plays its home games at Villa Park - during the months of Autumn and Spring - and the Bescot Stadium (home of nearby Walsall F.C.) - during the winter months. In accordance with Villa's impressive youth development, the team has received success in recent years - as well as becoming victorious in the 2003/04 and 2007/08 seasons, the team has regularly sustained high positions along with the second-string becoming a place of learning for the likes of current first-teamers Gabriel Agbonlahor, Craig Gardner, Nathan Delfouneso, Stephen O'Halloran and Isaiah Osbourne, as well as former players Gary Cahill, Lee Hendrie, Darius Vassell and Steven Davis amongst many others. The team is currently coached by Kevin MacDonald, but Aston Villa Youth Team coaches Gordon Cowans and Tony McAndrew also have close links with the second string. The Reserve team is primarily made up of players aged 16-19 - in the priority of development. The team also regularly includes fringe first-team players and first-team players recovering from injury.

Matchday

The Reserve team play their league matches at Villa Park from September to November and March to May, winter fixtures (December, through to February) are played at the nearby Bescot Stadium. Matches are played on weekday nights (usually Mondays) - although the day varies from match to match.

History

Signs of the team date back to 1892, when Aston Villa Reserves joined the Birmingham & District League. After finishing in the runners-up position twice in the first 2 seasons of the competition, Villa finally won their first trophy in the 1894/95 season, amazingly winning 26 out of 30 league games and losing just once all season. Several titles followed after this achievement, including an extraordinary run of 8 consecutive titles between 1902 and 1910. When Villa finally left the Birmingham & District League in 1915, they had accumulated a total of 12 league titles and 6 runners-up finishes.

In 1999/00, the FA Premier Reserve League was set up, Villa were one of the founding members, and were split into the Northern section of the league. Three disappointing seasons followed, however in the 2003/04 season - inspired by brothers Stefan Moore and Luke Moore - Villa eased to their first title. In the two seasons which followed (04-05 and 05-06) - Villa agonisingly finished both campaigns as runners-up, both times to Manchester United. In the 2006/07 season, for the first time since its introduction, the FA Premier Reserve League excluded Coca-Cola Championship teams from playing in the league, with the 20 senior English Premiership teams parallelling the teams involved in the FA Premier League. This also meant that due to geographical circumstances, Aston Villa Reserves were switched from the Northern Division, to the Southern equivalent, for the first time since the start of the original format in 1999. Villa eventually finished 4th - winning 9 out of their 18 games, with Luke Moore the top goalscorer, with 7. The season saw the impressive development of several youngsters, most notably including Zoltán Stieber, Shane Lowry and Stephen O'Halloran, all of which were rewarded with first-team opportunities in the pre-season fixtures, prior to the 2007/08 season.

In the 2007/08 season, Aston Villa Reserves clinched the Southern title for the first time in their history, however they lost in the national final, losing 3-0 to Liverpool. This included the most goals scored by all 20 participating teams (38) and two 6-0 victories (against Chelsea and Derby County, home and away respectively). Swede Tobias Mikaelsson was the top scorer with 8 goals, followed by strikers Nathan Delfouneso and Marlon Harewood (4 each). Zoltán Stieber and Nathan Baker both scored twice. The season was also notable for the impressive development of several young players, such as Nathan Delfouneso, Barry Bannan, Ciaran Clark and - most remarkably - the rise of young defender Nathan Baker, who stepped up from Under-16 level to Reserve regular inside a single season. Furthermore, Reserve regulars; Nathan Delfouneso, Marc Albrighton, Elliot Parish and Nathan Baker were all rewarded for their efforts, with places on the summer tour of Switzerland.

Reserve squad

"Last update - Victory over Arsenal."

Honours

FA Youth Cup
*Winners:
**1972, 1980, 2002.

*Runners-Up:
**1978, 2004.

FA Premier Academy League U17s
*Winners:
**2003/04.

FA Premier Academy League U18s
*Winners:
**2007/08.

Ergenzingen Tournament
*Winners:
**2008.

*Runners-Up:
**2007.

References