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Calling it a field of dreams might be overdoing it slightly, but Field Mill remains the scene of a great renaissance in Aston Villa’s history.

Villa go back to the Nottinghamshire town tomorrow evening hoping to inspire another revival of sorts when they kick off their pre-season programme against League Two club Mansfield.

It’s a bit much asking Paul Lambert’s claret and blues – especially in a friendly – to replicate the rebirth of AVFC, which was sealed by then Villa boss Vic Crowe and Co on April 24, 1972.

But those Villa fans old enough to recall that Division Three promotion clincher will hope this summer’s first practice match at Field Mill will provide a glimmer of hope for the future as well as a warm glow from the past.

Among those misty-eyed supporters will be claret and blue fanatic Colin Abbott, who, through interviewing most of the main protagonists from that era, has chronicled Villa’s 1970s comeback tour in his book Encounters of the Third Kind: Aston Villa’s Division Three Odyssey.

Abbott, for whom writing the book has been a labour of love, remembers the Mansfield moment as the culmination of a great adventure and a turning point in the club’s history.

“The first chapter explains how Villa came to find themselves in Division Three,” says Abbott, a Trinity Road season-ticket holder based in Worcester.

“It was a huge shock when Villa plummeted. At the time Villa were the most decorated English club in domestic football. Imagine Manchester United going down to the third tier now?

“It was due to uninspiring managers, poor signings and quality players being pushed out the door. That is my opinion, anyway, after talking to players from the time, though others may have a different perspective on the subject.

“The most significant moment is obviously gaining promotion at Mansfield on a Monday night in April 1972.”

Abbott notes the jubilant scenes after Geoff Vowden’s goal secured the point Villa needed for promotion to Division Two despite John Fairbrother’s late equaliser for Mansfield forcing a 1-1 draw.

“As the game entered the closing stages Field Mill was reverberating to the chants of ‘champions, champions, champions’ that the Villa faithful among the 12,454 chorused,” he writes in the book.

“The whistle blew to conclude the tie, the Villa fans vaulted the barriers and danced across the pitch, their team weren’t champions – yet – but they weren’t bothered, it was just a question of time.”

As if winning promotion wasn’t, in itself, a promising enough sign of a brighter future, Villa lifted the FA Youth Cup after sealing a 5-2 aggregate victory over Liverpool the day after the Mansfield victory.

One of their FA Youth Cup stars, a certain Brian Little, then scored on his first senior start against Torquay four days later as Villa clinched the title with an emphatic 5-1 win at Villa Park. It was certainly the catalyst for a meteoric rise. Within a decade the club were First Division champions and European Cup winners.

Abbott has loved writing the book, especially meeting and interviewing players he worshipped from the terraces as a boy. He got many of them back together as guests of honour for Villa’s home draw with Southampton in April, which coincided with his book launch at Villa Park.

“My bedroom wall was adorned by them all,” he smiles. “It didn’t matter if it was Charlie Aitken, who’d been there since William McGregor’s time – it certainly felt like it!

“Or Geoff Vowden, who’d joined us recently, just after the ‘71 League Cup final, from that lot across the city.

“I was fortunate in that I spoke with the majority of the lads who played in those Third Division days, the Riochs, Andy Lochhead, Ray Graydon.

“They should all be mentioned, really, as well as the youngsters such as Brian Little, Jake Findlay and so on who helped bring the FA Youth Cup back to Villa Park.

“Ray Graydon was more special than most hence I named my son Graydon Daley Abbott after the great man himself and another of our legends.”

Villa’s only trip back to Field Mill since 1972 was in May 1983 when a reserve side won 3-1 in former Stags defender Kevin Bird’s testimonial.

They go there tomorrow for another friendly with a string of newcomers, including assistant manager Roy Keane, hoping to help Lambert kick-start a modern-day revival.

It has hardly been vintage Villa in recent seasons as the claret and blues have battled relegation for four years in a row and the struggles could continue with Randy Lerner yet to find a buyer.

Abbott is relieved his beloved club have avoided tumbling down the divisions and not fallen to the depths of four decades ago, and he believes the Third Division revival can provide a source of encouragement for today’s struggles, even though finances have changed the game beyond recogntion.

“We have struggled of late, it’s no secret,” says Abbott.

“Unfortunately Martin O’Neill spent money like it was going out of fashion and now the managers and supporters are paying the price. Randy Lerner has decided to step aside and allow someone else to take Villa to the next level.

“He should be commended for what he has done in his short spell as custodian.

“Who knows, we have always been a bigger club than Chelsea and Manchester City – as the old adage goes, form is temporary, class is permanent.”

■ Encounters of the Third Kind: Aston Villa’s Division Three Odyssey by Colin J Abbott is published by ABZ Publications and is available priced £16.95 from the Villa club store and other local bookshops, and online.