On this day (May 13) in 1967, Aston Villa were relegated to the Second Division after losing heavily to Southampton. The Villans suffered a 6-2 defeat in front of more than 20,000 supporters at the Dell.
Dick Taylor started Colin Withers, Keith Bradley, Charlie Aitken, John Sleeuwenhoek, Lew Chatterley, Lionel Martin, Mike Tindall, Willie Anderson, Dave Rudge, Barry Stobart and Peter Broadbent against Southampton but could only watch his players get humiliated on the south coast.
Ron Davies scored four goals for the Saints while Martin Chivers bagged a brace and the result led to Villa dropping down from the First Division – 21st place with 29 points from 42 games. Blackpool finished bottom with 21 points.
The heavy defeat was horrible way for Villa to go down, but the result wasn’t a major surprise given their poor form at the time. Villa had lost three games on the bounce (1-0 to Burnley, 3-1 to Manchester United, 4-2 to Everton) ahead of their meeting with Southampton and were winless in eight games, so the Saints were big favourites at home.
In other news, Peter Withe makes England debut against Brazil on this day in 1981
