Matt Maher: Aston Villa's 7-2 night a reminder of glory for Brian Little

The messages come from far and wide. From places like Australia and America, from friends, former team-mates and fans, all eager to remind the Villa legend of the part he played in one of the most famous nights in club history.

For more than four decades there have been some willing to proclaim Villa’s 5-1 win over Liverpool in 1976, in which Little played and scored, as perhaps the club’s greatest ever result.

Now there is another contender to throw into the debate. Sunday’s 7-2 thumping of the Reds was certainly the most remarkable Villa scoreline in recent memory and Little, who was present inside the ground working as a summariser for the club’s TV channel, does not hold back in his praise.

“In whatever context you want to take it Sunday’s performance was as good as I have seen at Villa Park in my entire lifetime,” he says.

“In fact, had we been more ruthless, we could have got 10 goals, which would have been phenomenal.

“Everybody goes back to 1976. Every year on that date I get messages reminding me of it. I am quite sure Sunday’s game will be remembered the same as the years go past.

“It will be a massive memory for everyone who was part of it, especially the players. They will always be able to look back on it as I do the ‘76 match. It was a terrific performance against one of the best teams in Europe.”

The opponent and wide scoreline are not the only parallels which can be drawn between the two matches.

Just as now, Villa were in their second season back in the top flight, looking to kick on after spending the previous campaign in the lower half of the table.

And just as now, Liverpool were the team everyone wanted to beat. Bob Paisley’s Reds, with players including Ray Clemence, Phil Thompson and Kevin Keegan, were reigning champions and on course to win the club’s first European Cup at the end of the season.

“They were very much the best team in England and Europe at the time,” recalls Little. “Put it this way, you never went to Anfield and won and if they were ever beaten away from home it was always by the odd goal. No-one beat them comfortably.”

Yet that is precisely what Villa did, courtesy of a remarkable first-half performance.

Ron Saunders’ men were already three up after Andy Gray’s opener and a John Deehan brace, before Little made it 4-0 just past the half-hour mark. Though Ray Kennedy pulled one back for the visitors, Gray bagged his second on the stroke of half-time to ensure Villa left the field to a standing ovation which was then duly repeated after a scoreless first-half.

A ‘savaging’ was how one national newspaper described it, yet the match has become largely forgotten outside the Midlands, owing chiefly to the fact no footage of it exists.

In an era when not every match was filmed, the ATV cameras were instead that night at Derby County’s Baseball Ground to capture the debut of the Rams’ new £300,000 signing Derek Hales.

Even for Little, the memories are a little hazy.

“I have never been any good at remembering matches,” he says. “Gary Shaw knows more about my career than I do!

“Similar to the team now, we did play 4-3-3 in that era as well with myself, Andy and John being a fairly prolific goalscoring force.

“I’ve always found I needed the footage to jog the memory and for that match there isn’t any.

“But I can still remember my goal. I think I only scored twice in my career from outside the box and that was one of them. The ball came to me on the edge of the box and I bent it left-footed into the top corner past Ray Clemence.”

There is a cruel irony here, for while ‘76 has lived on in the hearts and minds of the 42,851 packed into the ground, images from Sunday have gone around the world yet there was hardly anyone there to see it in person.

Little is one of only a handful of people who can claim to have been at both matches. Villa head coach Dean Smith, taken to the first match by his father Ron when aged just five, is another.

Smith now has the task of trying to follow up Sunday’s result. Saunders, who warned his team they could not afford ‘to get too over the moon’ about beating Liverpool, would lead Villa to fourth-placed finish that season. Within six years Villa had won the title and been crowned champions of Europe.

No-one is suggesting history is about to repeat itself in that respect, though the long-term ambitions of Villa’s billionaire owners Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens are undeniably lofty.

For now, after a decade spent largely in the doldrums, Sunday simply feels like the moment Villa properly announced themselves back on the Premier League stage.

“What the result will have done is given everyone a massive amount of hope,” says Little.

“Dean will know that but he’ll also be on his guard and say to the players now we have done it once we need to keep that as a platform.

“That doesn’t mean to say if the next result doesn’t go your way it is all doom and gloom.

“There was something there the other night. I think everyone is just sat that little bit more on the edge of their seat now. It’s certainly exciting.”