The brilliant truth behind Aston Villa's stunning Coca Cola Cup triumph over Leeds United - Birmingham Mail 7/4/22

Claret and blue legends Brian Little, Ian Taylor and John Gregory talk Mat Kendrick through Villa's glorious trophy win 26 years ago

Imagine the scene. You're a Leeds United scout sent incognito to spy on Aston Villa's preparations ahead of the Coca Cola Cup final at Wembley Stadium.

You've tracked down where Brian Little's class of 1996 are staying and, under the cover of darkness, book into the swanky Selsdon Park Hotel in south London. Up bright and early to peek at the opposition from behind a newspaper at the breakfast table, you then secretly follow them to the training pitches.

Long before Marcelo Bielsa's binoculars became a thing at Elland Road, Leeds were already experimenting with espionage to get the lowdown on their rivals. Only, ahead of the League Cup final on March 24 1996 - a full quarter of a century ago today - their cloak and dagger ploy spectacularly backfired.

"I remember we went to the training pitches at the hotel and we had an eight-a-side match," recalls John Gregory, who was Brian Little's first team coach back then. "One of the goalkeepers had a bit a knock so Jim Paul went in goal. Big fat Jim, our kitman, who was about 20 stone. Paul McGrath didn't want to train because Paul was God and he wouldn't train if there was any running involved. I think Jim Walker the physio even played.

"We ended up having this game and it was just a mess about. We played for about 40 minutes. It was real good fun. Everyone had a good laugh and scored some goals. We got a bit of a sweat on, went back and had a shower, a game of snooker, a bit of lunch and that was it, end of. That was training for the day."

Unbeknownst to Villa's squad at the time they were under surveillance and 26 years on Gregory can't suppress his giggles as he imagines the dossier that dropped on the desk of Leeds boss Howard Wilkinson. Even when they did find out they were being watched they shrugged it off with a smile and Gregory has since joked with the mystery Leeds staff member about his ridiculous spying mission.

"We were being watched," laughs Gregory. "You know how Bielsa went and spied on the opposition? Well Howard had actually got somebody to come and watch us training. He had to report back to Howard what we had for lunch and breakfast and who was playing snooker.

"He followed us to training on the Thursday morning and had to go back and tell Howard that the kitman played in goal, the physio played on the left wing and Paul McGrath just sat on the side eating an apple and an orange! We obviously played the final and won 3-0 and it could have been six. We played exceptionally well that day and the team were brilliant."

Little, himself, chuckles at the memory. Still boasting the proud distinction of being the last manager to win a trophy for Villa, the claret and blue legend had no doubts Villa would win the game. His confidence paid off when goals from Savo Milosevic, Ian Taylor and Dwight Yorke sealed a comprehensive victory over their Premier League peers in front of a Wembley crowd of 77,056..

"I could just tell we were ready for it," says Little. "There were little rumours about Leeds sending someone to watch us but we just laughed about it. That was our mentality in those days, we just got on with it. We were ready to play anybody anywhere at any time. We were happy to do that because we were flying and were going along on a crest of a wave. We were as good as most other teams and were comfortable in our own skins."

It's Little wonder Leeds weren't prepared for a Villa side who finished fourth in the top flight table and made it to the FA Cup semi final that season (losing that last four tie to Liverpool at Old Trafford the weekend after the League Cup final).

Instead of the rag-bag bunch Gregory describes during that relaxed kick about at their training base, Villa fielded a top class team created in the image of the club's greatest ever side. Mark Bosnich in goal, Gareth Southgate, Paul McGrath and Ugo Ehiogu at the back, wingbacks Gary Charles and Alan Wright, and a midfield trio of Ian Taylor, Mark Draper and captain Andy Townsend behind the strike duo of Savo Milosevic and Dwight Yorke. Michael Oakes, Steve Staunton and Tommy Johnson were the unused substitutes.

"The balance of that team was like a Ron Saunders team for me, I based my team on that," admits Little. "If I look at the forwards, the right foot, the left foot, Dwight Yorke and Savo Milosevic was going to be my Peter Withe/Gary Shaw, my Brian Little/Andy Gray.

"Mark Draper was my Gordon Cowans, Andy Townsend was my Dennis Mortimer. Ian Taylor was my Des Bremner, with unbelievable energy. It was my tribute to Ron Saunders. That was me putting a Ron Saunders team together and lots of people would say some of my players might have been better than some of that team that won the league.

"I don't want to get into that sort of argument, but I knew deep down I'd built that sort of a team. It was a hell of a good team and winning that League Cup was an unbelievable experience, one that I'm really proud of. That's with me forever thankfully."

The cup run started way back in September 1995 when a piece of magic from Draper - choreographed by Gregory, he'll have you know! - opened the floodgates for a 6-0 victory over Peterborough at Villa Park. Dig out the YouTube footage to remind yourselves of the moment Townsend flicked up a free-kick which Draper cushioned on his knee before volleying past the wall into the bottom left corner of the North Stand goal.

"We did actually practice it in training, and most of the time it didn't work," smiles Taylor. "To have the kahunas to do it in a game and for it to come off is fantastic, so credit to Drapes. I was one of the ones standing there, watching in the wall, and most of the time Drapes was hitting me with his shots! That goal set us off. When you're playing the likes of Peterborough you are expected to win the game and put it to bed and you don't really think about the possibility of winning the cup until you get to the quarters and the semis."

Back then the early round of the cup at which Villa entered the competition was a two-legged affair and after winning the Villa Park match 6-0 - a Yorke double, goals from Johnson and Southgate and a Posh OG did the rest of the damage in the first leg - Villa were as good as through to the next stage. Even so Rob Bishop, Villa correspondent for the Evening Mail at the time, recalls another journalist begging the ever-cautious Little, 'Please don't say it's only half-time, Brian' to which the boss smiled and replied: 'I think we should be okay'.

Villa were more than okay as a Staunton goal secured a 1-1 draw in the return leg at London Road to make it 7-1 on aggregate. After Draper's inventive free-kick got the ball rolling in the first tie, Villa never really looked back. As you would expect for a club that was among the best in the country in 1996, they rolled over all the teams who crossed their path at Villa Park in the competition.

Ehiogu and Yorke scored to see off Stockport County 2-0, Townsend notched in a 1-0 win over Queens Park Rangers and Johnson's goal defeated Wolverhampton Wanderers in the quarter final. All of which set up the meeting of master and apprentice as Little faced his former Villa role model Bruce Rioch in a two-legged semi final against Arsenal. Rioch, the man Little was bursting with admiration for as a player in the 1970s, had also given him a coaching leg-up in the 1980s, making him part of Middlesbrough's impressive rise through the divisions.

"I would put Bruce down as one of my major mentors in my life," admits Little. "The semi final was the game I was looking at and thinking 'wow, I've got to beat somebody who I actually look up to in a big way'. On a football field as a football player I never felt in awe of anybody, just give me the ball. As a football manger, I was now having to try and beat my ex boss - and he wasn't just my ex boss he was someone who I had total respect for and I thought he was a million miles better at it than I was."

A Dennis Bergkamp double (two of the three goals Villa conceded throughout the entire competition) at Highbury left Little fearing the worst only for Yorke's second-half brace to rescue the tie.

Little recalls: "When we were 2-0 down I remember thinking 'Oh Bruce has beaten me', then Yorkie got two goals back and I thought to myself, 'Right, we can do this'. Going into the second leg I knew it would be hard but I knew we would be strong enough to not let them score. When we got to Wembley I thought we could win it, I was totally confident, because the semi final against Arsenal was the big test for us."

Claret and blue cup fever swept B6 as the Villa Park faithful set their sights on recapturing a trophy clinched with a swagger two years earlier, when Ron Atkinson's team beat Manchester United 3-1. A 5-1 aggregate semi final victory for Leeds over Birmingham City denied Villa the chance of a Second City derby in the final, but the scramble for tickets was still fierce.

Alright Tayls, how are you? Not seen you for a long time, any chance of any tickets for the Cup final?

Those were the kind of enquiries Taylor was having to fend off. "You dont want to let anybody down, be seen as 'big time' and not wanting to do stuff for people," he explains. "I ended up getting about 100 tickets, paying for them and then trying to get money back off people. They don't even want to come and watch you they just want to be at the final! You want to look after your nearest and dearest but then you have to try and sort the so-called hangers on as well!"

Little not only had a ticket, but a ticket to ride. Having chosen the hotel not for its location but for the comfortable surroundings and the happy memories it stirred of golfing retreats as a player, the manager got to indulge another of his passions on the journey to Wembley. "I do like motorbikes," Little giggles when we ask him what was the most exciting, leading his team out at Wembley or the two wheeled motorcade that escorted Villa through the capital from Croydon to north London.

"In different ways they were both brilliant," says Little, a keen motor-biker himself. "Not that I'm superstitious but when I was a young footballer we used to go to Selsdon Park for a break and I just wanted to go back there. The police said to me, 'What are you staying all the way out here for? We've got to go all through London to get there' then I saw these three police bikes and I said, 'You guys can do it, it's easy, it's a doddle'. It was great!"

Little had tasted defeat at Wembley twice before with Leicester City. "God, it's a horrible place to lose and I was determined it wasn't going to happen again, certainly with the Villa when I got there. There was only one focus and that was getting the team to be organised and teaching them that we're here to win a game of football, end of story. But to be relaxed and to be happy and be comfortable. And it all went to plan." It certainly did.

"On the day at Wembley, Villa were superb," recalls Bishop, flicking back through the match reports filed away in his memory. "That was one of the most complete performances I've seen from a Villa team and you had that fabulous goal from Milosevic to get it going."

A powerful swish of Milosevic's left boot on 20 minutes banished those 'Savo Miss-a-lot-evic' slurs and set the tone for a claret and blue carnival. "For Savo to turn up and score a screamer like that was fantastic," smiles Taylor. "There were people questioning Savo's ability but us seeing him day in day out we could see what he brought to the team. He was a lot more technically gifted than people gave him credit for. As soon as we got in front we didn't think we were going to lose and that's the way the game went really."

Little picks up the theme. "Milosevic got a lot of criticism," he admits. "When he left us he went for more than £8 million, a year after that he moved for 25 million Euros. He scored nearly 40 goals in 115 games something like that, it's not bad going. Him and his strike partner Yorkie were outrageously good. He was just a bit misunderstood. I was really pleased for him."

Taylor who had watched Villa from the Wembley stands in 1994, was the next to get in on the act, volleying in the second goal with a swing of his left foot on 55 minutes after Alan Wright's cross was partially cleared. "I'm sure Tayls will never forget that as long as he lives, it was probably his finest day ever as a player," says Little. "He's Villa crackers isn't he?! He loves it, Tayls. I was chuffed to bits for him."

Growing up idolising Villa from the Holte End, Taylor would dream about scoring at Wembley and how he would celebrate. One of Villa's substitutes that day had other ideas in a moment that epitomised the camaraderie in the squad. "I always visualised myself running off to the corner and doing a little dance but before I could do that Tommy Johnson jumped on me. I was like 'Flipping eck, Tom!' He was a good mate and he was the first one there to congratulate me for scoring. It was so awesome. It's something I dreamt of as a kid, so to score at Wembley in a Villa shirt was unbelievable."

The much maligned centre-forward opening the scoring with a screamer, the boyhood Villa fan making it two with a volley, the stage was set for the entertainer, the crowd-pleaser, the smiling assassin to round things off and Yorke duly obliged, smashing in the third on 88 minutes after being set up by Milosevic.

"It just showed Savo's confidence at the time," says Taylor. "He's rolling his foot on top of the ball and just laying it back to Dwight whose finish was brilliant. It looks even better going in off the bar. We finished the game with a bit of a swagger because we were that dominant and it just capped off a brilliant day. I still remember all those photos after the game with myself Savo and Dwight. Obviously the press concentrate on all the goal-scorers. You don't realise until later on that these games are shown all over the world. I'd be going on holiday, walking down the road and somebody would recognise me. That's what you want as a footballer, you want to be winning trophies and doing well."

For Gregory, who would go on to become Villa boss two years later, the Coca Cola Cup triumph was just reward for way Little and his claret and blue backroom team had stamped their own mark on the club in such a short time. "Coming so soon after joining the club Brian had almost completely revamped the team by then with his signings and all of his signings had worked," he says. "They were happy days, really good times and I was particularly happy during that time, working at such an amazing club and being surrounded by such good footballers."

When referee Robbie Hart blew the final whistle it was as much to put Leeds out of their misery as anything else. Villa, including almost 40,000 delirious fans, knew they were League Cup champions long before full-time, and probably from the moment they turned up at Wembley brilliantly brainwashed by Little's winning mentality and calm focus. Townsend, Little's on-field lieutenant, had guided Villa all the way, but later admitted he didn't know where he was supposed to go to collect the cup. When he found his way up those famous steps, though, and got his hands on that precious pot, it prompted the euphoric roar that has had to sustain the Lions for a quarter of a century.

As for the Mail's Villa man, he had a 32-page spread in the following day's paper to fill with interviews. After some mumbled short sentences from excited players intent on celebrating, assistant boss Alan Evans helped Bishop with that mission by pointing to the dressing room and saying 'Just get in there'.

'Bish' got more than he bargained for as he copped an eyeful and an earful from Yorke. "I'll never forget that Dwight was in there standing stark naked," grins Bishop, who went on to become Villa's' programme editor. "He'd got champagne in the cup and he was a bit tipsy and started singing his terrace chant to the tune of New York, New York. 'Come on lads... Start spreading the news'. "They all joined in at first, but after a while they got sick of it!"

The celebrations late into the night in London's West End are a little sketchy. "I can't remember much about it," laughs Taylor. "All I can remember is Tommy Johnson in a wig and a piano somewhere. We must have been in a piano bar, we were absolutely smashed." Little settled for a drink or two before calling it a night to reflect on a wonderful achievement, but he had no doubt that chairman Doug Ellis savoured the moment. "He was up for it," says Little. "He was a party animal, he loved being in amongst everybody, everybody was his best pal." Taylor adds: "Knowing Doug he would've been claiming credit for the whole thing, that's the way he was! It would've been all down to him, he won the cup for us!"

Even now, a quarter of a century on, there is a twinkle in Little's eyes as he pictures the dream journey he went on from teenage apprentice to cup-winning manager, still the most recent cup-winning manager, of his beloved Aston Villa. "It was brilliant," he beams. "I inherited some great players from Ron, I left some great players for John and that's how it should be really. The team and the club were in great nick. I can remember the first time I walked into Villa Park as a 15 year old kid and that 15 year old kid not only played for the club, worked in the club shop and was a youth coach but he became the manager and lifted the cup. It's just incredible, a wonderful experience. Proud? Crikey, it's a fairy tale story in my mind which is still going on today. I've been blessed."

Today's latest anniversary gives the heroes of 1996 a well-deserved opportunity to reminisce about their place in claret and blue folklore. They sparked the type of celebrations an entire generation since then have yet to enjoy. "You start seeing all the show reels of the last time Villa won a trophy," adds Taylor. "We're obviously the ones who won it last so it's going to get shown and then the memories start flooding back.

"Then I start getting the texts of 'Yeah but you shinned your shot, Tayls' from people! We've been close a couple of times but we should be winning trophies. We've been in positions where we've had a great chance and not quite done it. I'd be lying if I didn't say it is nice, still, to have that little thing where I am part of the team that last won at trophy for Villa. But we should be winning trophies, we should be competing. It's been a long time. Twenty five years is too long for our club and it needs to be addressed quickly."