Popular Post PaulC Posted October 27, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted October 27, 2019 Happy birthday Sid. In my opinion our best player ever. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVTuco Posted October 27, 2019 VT Supporter Share Posted October 27, 2019 One of the best moments I had at VP last week was the selfie I got with Gordon. I used to play the same position as a junior as Gordon, so it was a given that he was my favorite player back then. Best of Birthdays Legend! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Only2McInallys Posted October 27, 2019 Share Posted October 27, 2019 Totally agree with sentiment above ,certainly the best villa player I have seen in my lifetime. He was a midfield player who could do it all; tackling,free kicks, long passes with a huge amount of running. Closest comparison with modern football would be Gerrard. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junxs Posted October 27, 2019 Share Posted October 27, 2019 Happy Birthday Sid This reminds me that he had a highly rated kid who used to be on our books, Henry I think. Did he ever make it elsewhere? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidcow Posted October 27, 2019 VT Supporter Share Posted October 27, 2019 Heart was in my mouth when I saw this on the front page. Happy Birthday to the greatest Villa player ever (and yes I include God in that) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheepyvillian Posted October 28, 2019 Share Posted October 28, 2019 Sid is a Villa legend. My old man had a flower stall in Sutton coldfield and Sid was a regular alongside a few other players. Met him in Edwards no 8 many moons ago, when I mentioned my Dad he was really pleasant and even introduced his partner to me. He hails from County Durham but is Villa through and through. Happy days Sid, one of the best passers to play the game. I would love to know many assists he provided for David Platt. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post blandy Posted October 28, 2019 Moderator Popular Post Share Posted October 28, 2019 Maybe time for me to dig up this I wrote for the old VT front page from 2002 (now stashed away here) Quote Monday, December 02, 2002 Villatalk's "The Greatest Villan" Nomination - Gordon "Sid" Cowans Why do I nominate “Sid” as the greatest Villan? Well, Perhaps first I should explain the criteria I would use to determine whether anyone is deserving of Villa “greatness”. Ability above far the “norm”, Loyalty, Love - both ways “we” have to love them and they have to love the club. Committment too, both on and off the field. Vision, inspiration, perspiration and the ability to affect the course of history too are essentials too. Sid has all of these in buckets. Anyone who has seen Sid play will find it impossible to argue that he has footballing ability in spades. He’s the only truly two footed player I can recall seeing. With either foot Sid could pull the ball down from mid-air and stroke, caress even, a pass to a team mate in the best position to recieve the ball. Nearby or 50 yards away. Did he ever put a pass astray? He must have, but I don’t remember any. Perhaps the first indication of greatness - memories of him are all good. Although born in Durham Sid came to Villa as an apprentice in 1974 at 15 and was part of the bunch that won the youth Cup. An early indication of his talent. He soon made his first team debut, at 17 in 1975 whilst still an apprentice. He became a member of the England youth team, too. Progress continued and he was soon in the Villa first team on a regular basis during the season when we won the League Cup (eventually) at Old Trafford against Everton. Sid’s progress continued and he became part of the England U-21 side. Then later the B side and in ‘83 the full side, winning 9 caps and scoring against Scotland at Wembley. If it wasn’t for a strange preference for the very inconsistent and underperforming, London based, Hoddle he would have been capped far more often in what was a barren period for Enland’s national side. Back where his heart lies with Villa things were going just great. He was a pure class act in our midfield and was voted PFA Young Player of the Year in 1979-80. Things got even better for Sid and for Villa, when after a few years of steady improvement the Club won the league in 1980/81. Sid, in this season was perhaps at his very best. He of course continued to make everything look easy, but he seemed to turn into the complete footballer - he would pick the ball up from Allan Evans, or Ken McNaught, turn and lay it off, out wide, or find Shaw or Withe and then suddenly he’d be recieving the ball again and playing through a pass to create a chance to score, or cross. he could tackle, too. Sid is lightly built, like a taller Lee Hendrie, but boy could he tackle. No bottling out, just straight in there, and more often than not winning the ball, and then maybe after a turn and drag through his legs the ball would be with Swain or Morley and off we’d go again. Like all of Ron Saunders’ team he was very fit and ran all day. Of course the whole side was fantastic - all 14 players used that season could perhaps be nominated. But Sid did more than any of them - he played more games for us - 399 League apps (+15 as sub), scoring 49 goals in 3 spells. After Ron Saunders left, courtesy of Ron Bendall, Tony Barton suddenly found himself manager of the team he led only a month or so later to become European Champions, 26 May 1982. And Sid, again, was an absolutely crucial part of the side that beat Bayern in Rotterdam (‘scuse me while i pause for a moment..). The next season we got to the quarter finals, but were knocked out by Juventus in the second leg, after a great game in the first leg, during which Sid scored a diving header in front of the Holte, to get us back into the game. We did win the Super Cup though, and Sid scored a penalty in the 3-0 2nd leg win over Barcelona. He was assaulted by their keeper on retrieving the ball from the net, but just trotted back to the half way line. Far too cool to get involved in any ructions. Sid had his leg horribly broken in a pre-season “friendly” in Spain and missed the whole 83/84 season, but back he came, only to be sold to Bari, along with Paul Rideout in 1985. At a time when players wages were Ok, but nothing at all like they are today, Sid had a chance to earn real money and well deserved it was too. Fortunately we had an option of first refusal to buy him back. So obviously we did and in 1988 Graham Taylor brought him back and to our delight he was still the same old Sid. Same wiry frame, same talent and desire and there he was reading the runs of Platty and Rambo and controlling the midfield. We went on to finish as runners up before GT went off to manage England. Some turnaround isn’t it? - from relegated to back where we belong in the top division, and finishing second to Liverpool. And for Sid too, as he was called back into the England side under GT the next season. So plenty of evidence of his talents all round - broken leg, recover, move abroad, adapt well, come back to the club he loves, huge influence on our history and back as an international. Still the tale’s not over, Big Fat Ron sold Sid in ‘91 to Blackburn (where he helped them to promotion). The attraction to VP was still there though and he came back again for the 1993-1994 season. Sold again to Derby he spent his last playing days doing a good job for a number of first division teams - Wolves, Sheffield United (from one of their sites, here’s a neutral testimony on his talent) “The first thing I noticed about Gordon Cowans was how many times he actually touched the ball in a game....I could not believe a player could receive and pass the ball THAT many times in a game. Also, no matter how many times he touched the ball he nearly always found another United player with his pass... For a man of 37 he buzzed around and passed and moved all afternoon whilst still managing to bring a calming influence to the midfield. The part of Cowans game that impressed me most...was his ability to come short, receive the ball from either Kelly, Vonk or Ablett, turn and bring someone else into the game. He was the link between defence and midfield/attack....Gorden Cowans took control of midfield and he wasn't scared to bring others into the game, he made other players "tick". It was difficult to hide when Gordon Cowans was playing because he'd give you the ball and make you play and he was always ready to receive a return pass or find space to give you an option once he'd despatched the ball. One of the last things I saw Gordon Cowans do was set Andy Walker up for a marvellous goal at Reading in April. Nothing special, just a simple 15 yard pass and Walker did the rest. BUT that was Gordon Cowans, so simple, yet so effective.”http://homepages.shu.ac.uk/~cmssa/traww/issue4/misslink.htm,Sid moved from Shef Utd to Bradford, Stockport and Burnley where he started into coaching, before yes you’ve guessed it, returning back to VP for a 4th time, in ‘98, to coach the youth team. And as with all the other times, he’s done a great job - the youth team won the FA youth cup last season and more than that the players that are coming through all seem properly coached in the footballing skills that Sid is remembered for. There’s a lot of facts and figures in all that lot above, but in truth the things I remember Sid for are the things on the pitch, the perfect 30 yard pass down the line on a wet wednesday at Stoke, the ball spinning backwards so as not to run out of play on the greasy surface. Perfect. No one else on the pitch could do that. So there you have it really. Pure class. All the other people nominated ARE Great Villans, but none has given us as much as Sid, none have had such an influence and continue to do so. Finally, almost as an afterthought, anyone heard of anything bad about Sid- fights, drink or Drugs, controversy of any kind? Failure? No obviously not. A great player, a winner, a modest man, a nice bloke and one of us. THE GREATEST VILLAN has to be First Division Champion, European Champion, League Cup winner, promotion winner, youth Cup winner, youth cup winning coach. Sid Sid Sid Sid Sid.... 6 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted October 28, 2019 Share Posted October 28, 2019 (edited) Happy Birthday Gordon, for yesterday A really, really nice Fella. My Claim to fame is standing on the Tilton Rd End at the Blues ( sorry Folks) with Sid and a bunch of Villa Fans from the Yenton Pub....watching Blues play West Ham, Clyde Best was playing for West Ham that night shows how long ago that was. He was a truly great player and a fine human being. Edited October 28, 2019 by TRO 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted October 29, 2019 Share Posted October 29, 2019 (edited) I also have a fond memory of QPR away in the cup, can't remember the year, But sid had just broke through in to the first team. My dad who was getting on in years and introduced me to Villa, had not seen them for some time, so I took him with me. We was watching the game and my pop said " who is the scarecrow" I said " A youth player just broke in to the team".....I remember him saying to me " He is going to be a fine,fine player"....some player that boy. Edited October 29, 2019 by TRO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidcow Posted October 29, 2019 VT Supporter Share Posted October 29, 2019 On 28/10/2019 at 18:53, blandy said: Maybe time for me to dig up this I wrote for the old VT front page from 2002 (now stashed away here) This perfectly sums him up. He was a thoroughly modern footballer really. Put him in The Premier League today and he would shine, fit right in at a Citeh or a high end footballing team. The Bari fans had a nickname for him which I forget but it translated something like Magic Feet. This was at a time when Italy defined world football. And yes I have met him twice (in away ends following Villa) he is a lovely lovely man. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandy Posted October 29, 2019 Moderator Share Posted October 29, 2019 23 minutes ago, sidcow said: And yes I have met him twice (in away ends following Villa) he is a lovely lovely man. Me too, once he gave me 10p for the phone and once in the pub. Just a lovely and normal bloke with a talent. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim Posted October 30, 2019 Share Posted October 30, 2019 Top bloke, see him regularly out in Lichfield and he will always stop for a chat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ciggiesnbeer Posted October 30, 2019 Share Posted October 30, 2019 One of the most intelligent footballers I have seen. Always seemed to be thinking one extra pass ahead of everyone else. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post tomav84 Posted March 9, 2020 VT Supporter Popular Post Share Posted March 9, 2020 Thoughts with Sid and his family 6 3 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeilS Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 (edited) Very sad news my Aunt suffered with this for many years until recently passing away. Hopefully with modern medicine and Sid's fighting spirit they can help fight it off for a while. A true Villa legend. Edited March 9, 2020 by NeilS 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ferguson1 Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 Stay strong Sid, we’re all behind you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
choffer Posted March 9, 2020 VT Supporter Share Posted March 9, 2020 What horrible news. My favourite ever Villa player. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted March 9, 2020 Moderator Share Posted March 9, 2020 Well shit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elton Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 There was some discussion recently about our greatest player in living memory. I think you would go along way to beat league winner, European Cup winner and they almost a decade later come back and nearly win the league again with Sid pulling the strings in midfield and back in the England team. I have never met anyone who has had a bad word to say about him. Hoping he stays as healthy as possible for as long as he can. Good luck Sid. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imavillan Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 (edited) So sad.... tremendous footballer with silky skills and one of our own Keep the faith Sid Edited March 9, 2020 by imavillan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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