Wembley Aston Villa 2 Man United 1

THE crafty half time fags, the rigid ‘W’ formations, the players’ wages, the brutal tackles, the only televised game of the year.

So different was the 1957 FA Cup final to our showpiece modern day matches that it was used in a wholesale nfl jerseys comparative 2007 BBC documentary called A Game of Two Eras.

Which is why the famous photograph of captain Johnny Dixon being lifted aloft by team mates with the FA Cup raised above his head remains one of cheap nfl jerseys the most enduring images in the club’s proud history.

Villa versus Manchester United on May 4, 1957 will be remembered for two breaks.

The broken record as the claret and blues lifted the cup for a then best seventh time (although sadly, that record has been obliterated by United who now boast 11 triumphs).

And United keeper Ray Wood’s broken cheekbone when he collided with match winner Peter McParland after just six minutes.

McParland’s shoulder charge, when he followed up his own ten yard header by steaming into Wood despite the ball being firmly in the stopper’s grasp, was unremarkable back then.

Indeed, even though Wood lay unconscious on the hallowed Wembley turf, observers, including match commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme, wondered what all the fuss was about.

“That was a fair charge but unfortunately their heads collided and both McParland and Wood are out,” announced the man with the mic, going on to add minutes later that there was “rather silly booing from some of the Manchester spectators every time McParland gets the ball”.

Nowadays, following such a crunching challenge, the aggressor would get their marching orders for violent conduct, while the victim would be whisked off to the nearest A department for a full medical check up.

But, 53 years ago, if Wolstenholme and Co had dared “think it’s all over” for either player, then they would have been mistaken as both McParland and Wood were to play on, with Villa’s outside left making the most significant contribution.

Wood returned carrying a cloth with smelling salts on 33 minutes and was dispatched to the right wing where he lasted until half time before again departing the field and then returning between the sticks for the closing stages.

McParland, meanwhile, did further damage to United midway through the second half when he scored the double which was to win Villa their first FA Cup since 1920 and their last for more than half a century.

The Northern Ireland international himself describes both goals elsewhere on this page, so it requires no further explanation, other than to say the modus operandi was the getting it forward, getting it out wide and getting in crosses approach that McParland’s compatriot Martin O’Neill favours today.

Villa’s goals came on 68 and 73 minutes after Matt Busby’s men struggled to adjust to playing with ten men for much of the match and with key players out of position.

Both teams, as was the fashion in Fifties football, favoured the W or 2 3 5 formation; Villa, decked out in blue jerseys with claret stripes, white shorts and claret and blue socks, had Nigel Sims in goal behind right and left backs Stan Lynn and Peter Aldis.

Then there were right, centre and left halves, Stan Crowther, Jimmy Dugdale and Pat Saward and the midfield/forward line of outside right Les Smith, inside right Jackie Sewell, centre forward Bill Myerscough, inside left Dixon, and outside eft McParland.

United, kitted out in an all white strip with red trim, boasted Duncan Edwards, Jackie Blanchflower, who ended up deputising in goal, and Bobby Charlton in their side, although an 83rd minute consolation was all they had to show for their efforts.

However, Villa, who had beaten Luton, Middlesbrough, Bristol City, Burnley and West Bromwich Albion on the road to Wembley, celebrated a historic victory which will live long in the memory.

McParland, Sims, Crowther, Saward and Sewell the five surviving members of the 57 Cup winning team will be hoping history can finally repeat itself and Aston Villa can go all the way again this year.

Aston Villa (2 3 5): Sims; Lynn, Aldis; Crowther, Dugdale, Saward; Smith, Sewell, Myerscough, Dixon, McParland.

Manchester United (2 3 5): Wood; Foulkes, Byrne; Colman, Blanchflower, Edwards; Berry, Whelan, Taylor, Charlton, Pegg.

Scorers: Villa: McParland 68, 73; United: Taylor 83. Star Man Peter McParland

SEVEN was a lucky number for Aston Villa and Peter McParland in 1957.

For not only did the club claim their seventh triumph in the competition, but talisman McParland hit seven goals along the way.

McParland’s scoring streak started in the 2 2 third round draw at Luton and he notched in the 1 1 fifth round draw at Burnley and in the 2 0 replay win.