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Full Name: 1874 Villa Football Club
Nickname: The Rebels
Founded: 2015
Ground: Alexander Stadium
Capacity: 12,700
Owners: 1876 Villa Supporters Trust
Manager: Rick Beale
League: Midland Football League Premier Division
Background
Formed in 2015, 1874 Villa FC are a brand new club, established by a faction of Aston Villa supporters who had become disillusioned with the direction of the club under the ownership of American billionaire Randy Lerner, Believing the club to be stagnant and regressing, and angered by Lerner's apparent loss of interest and refusal to sell the club unless a potential buyer met what was perceived to be an unrealistic valuation of the club, turning away potential interest. The group was further angered by year on year price hikes on tickets despite the club performing well below expectation in the league and when Lerner refused to attend a meeting requested by supporters to discuss the future of the club, the decision was taken to form a breakaway club.
Established under the name 1874 Villa (the year Aston Villa was formed) The 1874 supporters trust successfully applied for a place in the Midland Premier League at step five of the English non-league system where it will compete in the club's inaugural campaign in 2015/16, the motto 'By the fans, For the fans' is adopted as the club constitution is written, stating that 1874 Villa will forever remain in the hands of it's supporters with the board democratically elected by club members every two years.
Continuing the Villa tradition, the club colours are claret and blue, however instead of the classic claret kit with blue sleeves the decision is taken to sport a striped kit to help 1874 build an identity, separate to that of Aston Villa. The nickname 'The Rebels' is also adopted to mark the secession.
The supporters trust appoint 28 year old, lifelong Villa fan Rick Beale as the club's first manager, a surprise appointment given more experienced non-league managers had expressed an interest, however the task of building a squad capable of finishing in the upper half of the Midland Premier League from scratch now falls to him, time will tell if this turns our to be a cost cutting masterstroke or a abysmal mistake on the trusts part.
Stadium
The new club initially planned to share a ground with Northern league side Sutton Coldfield Town, the largest district of Birmingham, and home to a large percentage of Villa's fan base, however Sutton already shared their ground with Romulus FC, similar circumstances prevented a deal with Boldmere St. Michaels. potential moves outside of Birmingham to Tamworth's Lamb ground and Walsall's Bescot Stadium were voted against by board members fearing the effect of removing the club from the area might have on the potential fanbase. Finally a deal was struck with Birmingham City council to enable 1874 to be able to play their home games at the 12,700 capacity Alexander Stadium, home of the Birchfield Harriers athletics team and situated only a mile from Villa Park. The deal is believed to cost 1874 in the region of £18,000 per annum, a substantially reduced price for such a facility, however still expensive to a newly established club in the ninth tier of the football pyramid and some question the wisdom of the tenancy, further still critics point out the distance between the pitch and the the stands is significant due to the Olympic standard running track in between, making it hard to establish much of an atmosphere and potentially affecting attendances. Many believe the club would be wise to seek a move away from the stadium as soon as possible.
Eric Portapotty
Good luck with this!
It is a big ground for this level, although not unprecedented; FC United (Who, along with AFC Wimbledon, are largely the inspiration behind 1874) shared Bury's Gigg Lane all through their rise through the non-league ranks, that ground is almost the same capacity as the Alexander. Hereford FC and Edgar Street also springs to mind. (although they are a reformed club rather than a brand new entity)
In any case; this ground is only supposed to be temporary, part of my long term ambitions for the club is to build a stadium of our own, just like FCUM who moved into their own purpose built Broadhurst stadium last year.
Hi everyone; Now you know how 1874 Villa came to be, it is now time to start determining what we will become based on the philosophies set down in the club constitution;
So now you know how the club will be run off the field, let's get down to the most important aspect of a football club, the footballers! There was already a team of newgens populating the squad,(I checked the option to add players to playable teams to ensure our division is a competitive one as a lot of the clubs only had a few players) most of them I have moved to the reserves or released as they were not of a sufficient standard, however I have kept a few to provide rotation options for the team I am tasked with putting together this summer;
Here are the two who I think have the best chance of succeeding here;
I now must begin recruiting both a playing and coaching staff, preferably before our pre-season schedule begins so I can start refining our tactical approach and get the players to mesh as a collective unit. 1874's inaugural game will be a friendly at home to League Two side Northampton Town, a heavy defeat is probably on the cards, however given it is the club's first ever game as well as against professional opposition we might draw a big crowd. we then take on various other local non-league sides as we warm up for the competitive season, which looks a busy one;
Midland Football League Premier Division: 22 teams, playing each other twice, there are no play-off's at this level, only the team finishing first is promoted and the bottom two are relegated.
FA Vase: We are not eligible for the FA Cup as all entrants must have been playing for at least three years, however we will be participating in the FA Vase, which consists of over 500 teams from step five and below. There are two qualifying rounds before eight proper rounds, culminating in a Wembley final.
Midland Football League Cup: Open to all teams in the MFL, there are six single legged knockout rounds.
Birmingham Senior Challenge Cup: 32 teams from across the Birmingham metropolitan area, the lower division side always plays at home with the final set for St. Andrews, home of the hated Birmingham City next May.
Grimnir
Thanks mate, yeah, horrible situation your club is in currently.
Pre-Season Roundup
We are now on the eve of our very first competitive game against Staffordshire based outfit Sporting Khalsa, I am confident that the squad which I have put together in a rather hurried manner is good enough to at the very least achieve the boards objective of staying clear of a relegation battle. So, allow me to intoduce you to the men charged with representing 1874 Villa in her maiden voyage;
Goalkeepers
Sam Moore was chosen as my number one after he successfully trialled for us in the friendlies, he is a London lad who began his career as a trainee at Brentford but failed to make the grade in the football league, he has most recently completed three years playing for Loughborough University.
Defenders
Of all the areas of my team, it is the backline that concerns me most of all, it is cobbled together rather haphazardly after I blew the bulk of my wage budget on midfield and attack, time will tell if they will prove me wrong but I suspect changes will occur back their throughout the season.
Joe is the most exciting player in the defensive department, the former Curzon Ashton man is capable of getting forward, which I will be telling him to do in order to unsettle opposition defences on the overlap.
Midfield
Easily the strongest part of the team, Lee Hendrie is a former Villa star with an England cap to his name who has been floating around the local non-league scene for the best part of a decade now. At 38 he's well past his best physically, although he can still pick a pass which is more than can be said for the majority of midfielders at this level.
Stephen Cooke is another former Villa man, though he never really established himself at Villa Park, a handful of appearances under David O'Leary in the early 00's was all he managed before moving on to Bournemouth and later Torquay before dropping off the radar into non-league football where he has played ever since, spending the last five years with Walsall based Pelsall Villa.
Anchor man Danny Holmes is also an experienced figure, he helped Burton Albion win promotion into the football league during a three year spell with the Brewers before winding up at South Derbyshire outfit Gresley FC where he had a duel role as a youth coach at Derby County,
Attackers
I'm not too sure about this department, I was quite happy with it until I lost half of it for the first month of the season in the same game! I clearly could do with adding some reinforcements here, however when everyone is fit I can see us banging in the goals.
I lured Jerome from Coventry Sphinx, though he is no stranger to the Midlands non-league scene after spells with Tamworth, Barwell and Coalville Town where he was a part of two promotions as well as playing in the FA Vase final at Wembley.
So that's the team. I'm sure there will be changes throughout the season but for now I am content with it, the pre-season friendlies went well and we look ready to go;
As expected we lost to Northampton who are five divisions above us on the pyramid, though it was a close run thing with the cobblers only securing the win late on as we put them under plenty of pressure. All the other games were against other local non-league sides, I saw some pretty decent football, my talented midfield keeps possession quite nicely and I will be looking to utilise a sort passing game to capitalise on that. So far I have been lining up with a simple 442, I'll refine my tactics as the season wears on but for now we'll concentrate on doing the basics right.
August 2015
The first season in the history of 1874 Villa is underway, and so far we have collected five points from four games which has us sitting within the top half of the table at this early stage;
It was a major disappointment to lose our inaugural game at home to Sporting Khalsa, we found ourselves 3-0 down at half time as my defence made mistake after mistake, we staged a spirited fightback in the second half, scoring twice through Darren Westwood and Jerome Murdoch but were unable to complete the turnaround, the 3-2 scoreline should not fool you into thinking our defence improved in the second half, they were just as bad, only inadequate finishing and a few decent saves by goalkeeper Sam Moore prevented Khalsa from putting the game to bed and registering a much bigger victory. This game confirmed the fears I alluded to in the previous post regarding our frail back four, the two centre backs in particular struggle with any forward who has pace, this is something that needs addressing sooner rather than later.
Our game against Stafford based Brocton looked to be following the same trajectory as the Khalsa fixture as we found ourselves 2-0 down at the break and once again struggling to contain the oppositions forwards. however a tactical reshuffle and giving my players a kick up the backside at half time worked wonders as we got fought back via an own goal before Darren Westwood scored in the 74th minute to earn 1874 our very first point.
We didn't have to wait long to bag three more points as Rocester visited the Alexander, Westwood latched onto a hopeful ball over the top from Lee Hendrie to fire us into a seventh minute lead, the Romans however pegged us back ten minutes later as our inability to deal with pace was again exposed and I began to fear a capitulation. Those fears were mercifully to be proved unfounded as former Walsall winger Jake Jones restored our lead after cutting in from the left, substitute Neville Thompson clinched our historic first win when he head home with nine minutes left on the clock.
A 1-1 draw away at league leaders Quorn wasn't a terrible result, however is was a little frustrating to have lost the lead, still that result sees us into the top half of the MFL table which is above and beyond what is expected of us this season (avoid relegation battle) and I would be quite happy to finish mid-table this year, building for a serious push to achieve my objective of promotion within three years.
Darren Westwood has been in great from in front of goal, four strikes in four matches for the local lad who is second in the MFL scoring charts at the moment behind Westfields's Ekene Amadi who is on five.
September 2015
September has been a mixed bag of results with us achieving two wins, two draws and two defeats this month.
Throwing away the lead and going on to lose against North Birmingham neighbours Boldmere was frustrating, however not as frustrating as having the exact same thing happen in the very next game against Coventry Sphinx as well. I have to find a way to improve my teams ability to handle the pressure of protecting a lead in the closing stages.
We got back on track against Walsall Wood with a great performance, Lee Hendrie scored his first goal for 1874 with a beautiful shot into the top corner from twenty yards, we were pegged back on 18 minutes but this time we didn't allow our heads to drop as Jake Jones and Jerome Murdoch secured three points for us. The Walsall game was significant not only for us picking up the win but also for the debut of a new Rebel;
Zach was unattached following his release from Southern Premier League side Bedford, he immediatly made us look a little more secure at the back, unlike any of my other centre backs he has a bit of pace which is what was missing in my opinion, I don't think it is a coincidence that since his arrival we are on a four game unbeaten streak.
Darren Westwood's sixth goal of the season earned us a decent point with Westfields, cancelling out Ekene Amadi's opener. The striker was on target again in the following game with Highgate United, United struck back just after the hour and it looked as if we would have to settle for a point, however substitute Danny Quinn popped up with a last gasp winner to give us a win. We finished the month with a 1-1 draw at home to Long Eaton which to be honest felt like two points dropped rather that one gained but regardless it keeps us in the top half of the table;
The matches keep coming thick and fast in October, seven games in all, three of them cup ties as we take on Blaby & Whetstone in the FA Vase second qualifying round before a MFL League cup game with Wolverhampton based AFC Wulfunians and finally Birmingham senior cup tie with Boldmere St Michaels. It would be nice to have a good run in at least one of those competitions so I'll be fielding a strong side in each fixture.
Grimnir
Shedender
Hardly, It's home to one of the biggest fox hunts in Britain, in fact it is depicted on the club badge.
I do love a good bit of useless information
October 2015
October has been a busy month for us, although only two of our seven games have been in the league! We are through to the last sixteen of the MFL League cup after overcoming AFC Wulfunians, although we face a replay with Liversedge in the FA Vase after only managing a 1-1 draw with the North East Counties League club.
We are out of the Birmingham Senior cup after being knocked out by Boldmere St Michaels, this is the second time the Mikes have got the better of us this season after a 2-1 reverse in the MFL at the beginning of September, they become the first club to beat us twice.
There was only six points on offer to us in the league during October, despite us collecting four of those, many of the other MFL teams have now climbed above us due to them having played a greater number of games, once we've played our games in hand I'm confident we will be back into the top half of the table;
November looks as if it will be a punishing month on the players legs with at least eight fixtures scheduled, more if we advance in the FA Vase so I'm going to have to manage training carefully, everyone on a light schedule I think as well as rotating the starting XI strategically for each game.
November 2015
November has been another month with mixed results, we started off our eight game schedule in poor fashion, getting knocked out of the FA Vase by Liversedge which was highly disappointing as I thought we had a chance in that competition of generating some valuable income via the prize money system. Things didn't get any better for us as we only managed to collect two points from the four subsequent league games, seeing us sink down the table as low as seventeenth.
Thankfully I was able to rally the troops with a team meeting which inspired them into three consecutive wins to lift us back into the top half of the table;
There is only one cup competition to worry about now after we were eliminated from the FA Vase and the Birmingham Senior cup, the MFL League cup has us pitted against Nuneaton Griff in the third round next month, I would love to collect some silverware in the club's maiden season and this competition represents my only realistic chance of doing that so I will be putting a full strength line up out. That is not to say that I am treating the league half heatedly, if we can get ourselves on a decent winning run we would soon be right up there chasing promotion, the odds on that happening were lengthened substantially though as Jake Jones was ruled out for around a year;
Jake has been a key player so far this season, scoring five times (three this month) and contributing eight assists and he will be sorely missed, I can't see any of the backup brigade being able to step up and fill the void left behind by the former Walsall man.
guk99
Biggest problem I see, is grabbing that top spot and holding onto it with only the top team gaining promotion. Usually you can try and at least push for a playoff spot and take pot luck in getting promoted that way, but without one to go for it means you'll have to push hard when you have structured a good side together to go all out for it.
Good luck with it, be interesting to see how it goes and how far you can take a side in the lower leagues as looks like a nice little set-up for that club.
December 2015
We came through the festive season as we added another ten points to the board this month;
Beating title favourites Hereford was a great result, the Bull's haven't quite hit their stride yet this season but they have the strongest squad in the division and I fully expect them to be right up there come May. Far less impressive was getting smashed 5-1 by struggling Heanor, The Derbyshire outfit exposed us time and again at the back and no matter what I tried tactically to stem the tide they utterly dominated us and the scoreline in no way flattered them, this was by far the worse performance in 1874's short history and one I'm eager never to have to sit through again. Thankfully we bounced straight back with a narrow win over North Birmingham neighbours Boldmere St Michaels, after having lost twice to the Mikes already this season I was determined we would be the ones celebrating this time and we were thanks to Neville Thompson's well placed header midway through the second half.
We finished 2015 with a share of the spoils against Rocester with Thompson again on target to rescue a point with nine minutes to go.
Still in the top half and looking all but safe in the division already which was the boards objective in pre-season, it would take a pretty terrible second half of the season for us to be relegated now. My aim now is to finisih as high as possible and to bolster my squad in the summer into one capable of taking a real tilt at the title and promotion next time.
We are through to the quarter finals of the MFL League cup where we travel to Sporting Khalsa who have already got the better of us twice this season, I am hopeful of some success in this competition so I will be doing everything to ensure we get through to the semis.
In other news, the board have agreed to let me study for a coaching badge;
Could be useful as I look to improve our coaching capabilities.
January 2016
Before I get going with this months report, I must quickly disclose that I had to replay the final game of last month against Rocester as I had left FM open overnight and my laptop restarted itself to apply an update. The result the second time around was still a draw but 2-2 instead of 1-1 this time;
Ok, on to January, just four games this month, two wins and two losses;
Both defeats came via late goals which was frustrating, thinking back a large proportion of all our reverses have been by a goal in the last fifteen minutes which is obviously a cause for concern, one possible cause of our late jitters is our slow central defenders, they struggle to cope if the opposition brings on fresh legs up front, especially if they have a bit of pace. Sadly there doesn't seem to be anyone that we can stretch our wage budget to that would be a great improvement on our current crop so we'll just have to work harder on defensive positioning in training.
Before the two defeats we had climbed as high as sixth, our highest position so far this season, sadly we have now dropped four places down to tenth;
If we can find some consistency in the last few months of the season then we could well finish in the top six which would be amazing given the media and board expected us to be fighting relegation, admittedly I have always hoped for better than that, there is no way a team that has the quality we do in attack and in particularly in midfield should be fighting for their lives at this level.
I am beginning to form an idea of the squad I want for next season and what positions we really need to improve, I've already mentioned the defence but a goalkeeper is also on my wanted list as well as a couple of new wingers. Whether I will be able to get any of the potential targets myself and my scout Lewis Druery have identified remains to be seen.
February is potentially a big month for us, most of our opponents are at the wrong end of the table so if we can get maximum points we could find ourselves suddenly right up among the big guns in the division
6/2 - Long Eaton United (A) [8th]
10/2 - Coleshill Town (H) [14th]
13/2 - Continental Star (H) [19th]
17/2 -Walsall Wood (H) [18th]
23/2 - Sporting Khalsa (A) [MFL League Cup Quarter Final]
27/2 Shepshed Dynamo (A) [6th]
February 2016
February may be the shortest month, but we still had plenty of action crammed in to discuss this month;
Our unpredictable form continued into another month, although there was signs of improvement, resounding victories against Long Eaton and Shepshed pleased the fans, both of those teams were above us in the standings so we have proved we can go toe-to-toe with the bigger sides in the division, however, crushing home defeats by the likes of Coleshill will never do if we are really to become a dominant force, nor will throwing away a two goal lead against Continental Star, again at home.
Despite those disappointments we have moved back up to seventh and our place in the Midland Premier League is now secured for next season, so mission accomplished!
Drinks are on me tonight! I've now started making shortlists of new players for next season as we look to push on and make a real go at trying to get promoted, in fact I've already brought in one of my targets;
Signed on free from Basford Town, Ali began his career at Notts County but failed to make any appearances for the Magpies, he has been floating around the local non-league scene for a decade now and can hopefully find a place to settle down at here. The Italian made his debut in the win over Walsall Wood, we instantly looked more secure at the back with him being better than Sam Moore at collecting the ball. Moore returned for the MFL League cup tie with Sporting Khalsa and it is perhaps no coincidence that we lost for the third time this season to Khalsa before Barcherini donned the gloves again against Shepshed which we comfortably won.
Jerome Murdock's four goals against Shepshed set a new record for goals in a game, the former Coventry Sphinx striker is now on twenty for the season and is chasing the golden boot;
With all our cup commitments over and our place in the league secure, we can enjoy a nice relaxing end to the season and focus on finishing as high as possible. The wonderful scheduling of the MFL meens we will go nearly three weeks without a game before playing two in two days.
26/3 - AFC Wulfunians (H) [22nd]
28/3 - Continental Star (H) [21st]
All three of those teams are fighting for their lives at the bottom, theoretically we should hammer them all, however we have slipped up on our fair share of banana skins already this season so I'll take nothing for granted.
Dan
Cheers Dan.