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Aston Villa have managed eight league goals at Villa Park this season, but they plundered 11 in just ONE match on their own turf 60 years ago today.

The 11-1 victory over Charlton Athletic at Villa Park on November 14 1959 is widely regarded as Villa’s finest post-war performance.

Gerry Hitchens scored five during the historic win over the Addicks with Bobby Thomson (2), Peter McParland (2), Ron Wylie and Jimmy McEwan also on target.

Unsurprisingly it remains high among Villa’s biggest wins, second to a 12-2 success against Accrington Stanley 68 years earlier in 1891-92.

Fittingly, the 11-goal win was their 11th victory of the season, came in the 11th month of the year - and was achieved with 11 players.

The record Villa Park victory was the catalyst for Villa’s Division Two championship triumph as Joe Mercer’s men bounced back to Division One at the first attempt.

Setting the scene

Villa, recently relegated from the top flight, had started the Division Two campaign in fine form with eight wins from their first 11 matches.

A slight dip in form - just two victories, four draws and a defeat - was a cause for concern for Mercer, who demanded a positive response.

It was hardly a crisis. Immediately before the Charlton classic, Villa’s loss at Liverpool came at the end of a 14-match unbeaten run.

Even in what Mercer regarded as a seven game sticky patch they still managed 10 goals - a figure that today’s Villa would be more than happy with.

Mercer’s message

“We want more goals,” Mercer told the Birmingham Mail ahead of the Charlton match.

“We must acknowledge that the inside-forward trio are not getting goals and we have reached the stage where they have to do something about it.

“But I do not want them believing that if they don’t score they are out.

“An unchanged team for Saturday will convey to the team, I hope, that we are not going hot and cold on them.”

The inside-forward trio Mercer was referring to - Hitchens, Thomson and Wylie - were called to see the manager before the game and warned that their mini-drought must end soon if they wanted to keep their places.

Despite Mercer’s concerns he kept faith in the trio and ordered a tactical change with Thomson playing further forward alongside Hitchens, while the three held their own meeting to discuss their movement and positioning.

Match facts

Villa team: Aston Villa: Nigel Sims, Stan Lynn, John Neal, Vic Crowe, Jimmy Dugdale, Pat Saward, Jimmy MacEwan, Bobby Thomson, Gerry Hitchens, Ron Wylie, Peter McParland.

Villa scorers: Hitchens (2, 29, 40, 46, 60, Thomson (26, 65), Wylie (63), MacEwan (69), McParland (72 and 86).

Charlton scorer: Edwards (22)

Attendance: 21,291.

The game

Mercer’s faith in his players was rewarded when a rain-soaked Villa Park pitch was soon hit by a deluge of goals on a November’s day so cold and gloomy that the floodlights were switched on before the kick-off.

After just 90 seconds, Thomson’s shot was parried by Charlton goalkeeper Billy Duff and Hitchens tucked home the rebound.

Trevor Edwards pulled the Addicks level midway through the half, before Villa delivered in style with three goals in 14 minutes.

Vic Crowe’s elegant dribble ended with a cross which Thomson netted with a diving header. Hitchens converted another rebound from a Thomson drive then completed his hat-trick just before the interval.

A minute after the break, Hitchens had his fourth and Villa their fifth. And as the pitch worsened, Villa pinged the ball about and Charlton slithered into a spiral of complete collapse. Hitchens notched his fifth on the hour.

Three minutes later, the third member of the warned inside-forward trio, Wylie, made it 7-1. After another two minutes Thomson was on target again.

The three-pronged attack of Hitchens, Thomson and Wylie, having made their point with eight goals, then left it to MacEwan and McParland to round off the rout with numbers nine, 10 and 11.

To add injury to insult, Charlton lost ‘keeper Duff on the hour mark as he broke a finger failing to stop Hitchens’ fifth and Villa’s sixth goal.

Left-back Don Townsend deputised in goal - with Duff later returning to the field to play left wing - then the makeshift stopper reportedly gave up in disgust after conceding three, with striker Stuart Leary taking a turn between the sticks.

Best goal

Birmingham Mail reporter Eric Woodward observed: “Trying to select the best of XI goals is a novelty - and a problem. But I take the second one, scored by Thomson as the most spectacular and well worked effort of the match. Crowe teed it up, bursting past Kiernan, rounding Townsend and crossing low into the middle. Thomson flung himself forward and the ball went in like a bullet."

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The Hitchens factor

Ironically, Hitchens was actually close to being dropped for this match after a brief barren run.

Having scored six goals in the first 13 games of the season, Hitchens went four games without finding the net.

There was intense pressure on his place with 20-year-old striker Ken Price challenging for the No.9 shirt, but Mercer gave him another chance.

He took it - well he took five of them - and Price never did play a first team game for Villa.

Before the game Hitchens, suffering a crisis of confidence, had said: “It’s no good. The goals won’t come. I’m sick of trying.”

He later revealed, ‘Physiotherapist Jack Milner told me to try even harder for some goals. I told him I’ve been trying too hard to get them. So for a change I don’t think I’ll try today’.

Upon hitting a hat-trick and a brace in the same match, he joked: “Of course I was not really trying today.”

It signalled a return to prolfic form as he scored a hat-trick in the next match at Bristol Rovers, as Villa win 5-0, and a brace in the following game, a 5-0 defeat of Scunthorpe.

Villa scored 21 goals in three matches, with Hitchens, nicknamed Champion the Wonder Horse by his team-mates because he was so quick and had a mane of blond hair, getting 10 of them.

How it was reported

Villa 11 Hitchens 5: What Price this Villa attack now! was the front page headline of the Sports Argus on the evening of the game.

In Dick Knight’s match verdict, the reporter wrote: “Gerry Hitchens slammed his critics today in the best possible way - with five golden goals in this deep humiliation of Charlton.

Villa were ruthless. They were ahead in the second minute, surrendered that lead in the 22nd, but thereafter they went surging forward, slicing open the Charlton defence and ripping it to bits like so much confetti.

Villa were fast, direct and full of run. I liked best the way the ball came freely from defence and the way the whole of the forward line moved briskly forward, finding the open spaces.

As for their finishing, the scoreline answers that.

Tightness of defence, quickness on the ball and a forward line in this sort of mood must give them a chance, both at the top of the Second Division table, and when the FA Cup comes along.

The Birmingham Mail on Monday November 16, 1959 went with the headline: ‘KILLER’ VILLA HAD NO MERCY.

In Eric Woodward’s Soccer Special, the writer enthused: “This 11-1 Villa victory gave the ground a peak of excitement which has not been touched since the never-to-be forgotten cup tie with Manchester United in 1948.

On everyone’s mind was the irony of the situation - manager Joe Mercer demanded more goals, so Villa served up the second biggest League victory in their history. To put the matter, and the match, in its true perspective, I would say Villa played better at Liverpool the previous week when they were beaten.

But I add that Villa were in the right mood to tear apart a woefully weak Charlton defence. The truth is Charlton looked a poor lot. And they met Villa in a ‘killer’ mood. I have never seen a Villa side so determined to make the most of a match. This was a “no mercy” occasion in which they chased the 11th goal with as much keeness as the first. And great it was to see.”

What the players had to say

Ron Wylie joked: “When the inside-forwards had scored eight we decided to let the wingers have a go. By the time we reached 10, I was beginning to feel a bit uncomfortable. I thought maybe we were rubbing it in a bit because by that time Charlton had their third goalkeeper wearing the jersey. But we certainly needed the goals.”

To compound the misery of Charlton’s Stuart Leary, the ink would not flow when he tried to sign the matchball. “That’s the first time I’ve seen anything dry up all day,” he lamented.

Charlton manager Jimmy Trotter said: “I feel terrible.”

(Image: Martin Reading)

What happened next

As mentioned above Villa went on to score 21 goals in three games, adding to the Charlton rout, 5-0 victories over both Bristol Rovers and Scunthorpe.

The 11-1 victory was the start of a run of nine wins from 12 matches which put Villa in a strong position for a title challenge.

They went on to clinch the Division Two championship with 59 points, winning 25, drawing nine and losing eight matches, scoring 89 goals and conceding 43. They also progressed to the FA Cup semi-final where they lost 1-0 to eventual winners Wolves at The Hawthorns. Hitchens finished the season with 25 goals in league and cup.

Details taken from Aston Villa The First Superclub by John Lerwill, The Real Bobby Dazzler: The Bobby Thomson story and From Mine to Milan: The Gerry Hitchens Story.