(Picture: Action Images)
By Tony Leighton
Aston Villa legend Gary Shaw is hoping a reminder of past glories can help kick-start his home town team's return to top-flight football with victory over fellow former European Cup winners Forest today.
Lifelong Villa fan Shaw, a hugely-gifted striker and the wonder kid of the team crowned England's League champions in 1980-81 and Europe's finest the following year, will be at Villa Park to watch the Championship encounter.
But it's with a heavy heart that he views his club's fall from grace, along with that of today's opponents.
Forest – European champions in 1979 and 1980 – have dropped as far as League One before climbing back to the second tier.
“It's sad that both clubs are where they are now, compared to when I was playing,” said Shaw, who was voted the PFA Young Player of the Year in 1981 and the following year won the same accolade in Europe.
“That Forest team of Brian Clough's was fantastic, but so was ours,” added the ex-England U21 star, whose top flight career was effectively ended at the age of 22 through a knee injury sustained against Forest at the City Ground in September 1983.
“Beating Bayern Munich in the European Cup final is a distant memory now, but still very, very special to me and I just wish the club had used that success as a platform to build on and maintain Villa's status as a top-four team.
“Unfortunately, that didn't happen and now we're a million miles away after five years of the club being very badly run.
“The people in charge before this year's change of ownership didn't deserve the support they got from the fans.
“I've been a supporter since I was a kid and used to walk to games at Villa Park with my dad and uncles, so I know what the fans were going through, and our final home game in the Premier League last season was very emotional. We knew well before then that we were going down, but so did the owners.
“They should have been putting measures into place that would have seen us dropping into the Championship in much better shape than they actually left us.
“Hopefully, the new owners will now put significant investment into the team – and, to be fair, they've already started doing that – because getting back up to the Premier League is going to be a mighty tough task.”
Under new manager Roberto di Matteo, Villa have started the task somewhat uncertainly, taking just five points from their first five matches, compared to the nine collected by Forest from the same number of games.
Villa have already suffered two defeats, and Shaw, who has watched every home game for the Opta sports data supplier, noted: “You can't afford to lose more than eight games or so if you want to succeed in the Championship.
“It's still early days, of course, and the new manager knows the Championship, having got West Brom promoted to the Premier League. He won the Champions League with Chelsea, too, but that's a different world to where we are now!”
Where Villa are now is in the bottom third of the Championship as they prepare to face Forest. Shaw's prediction?
“Neither side seems able to defend particularly well so I'm expecting goals,” he said.
“I'm just hoping Villa can get a win, to start a good run going. If we can string a number of good results together, that will settle the team – the fans as well – and hopefully put us in the frame for a crack at promotion.”
