John Posted October 1, 2013 Share Posted October 1, 2013 Former Villa player Peter Broadbent passed away yesterday (1/10/13) aged 80 following a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. Peter joined Wolves from Brentford in 1951 scoring 145 goals in 497 games for them. He played in their 1960 FA Cup Final win against Blackburn and also won three First Division Championship medals with Wolves in seasons 53/4, 57/8 & 58/9 before moving to Shrewsbury in 1965 and from there to us in 1966. Peter made 64 appearances in our claret & blue shirt in seasons 1966-67 to 1968-69 before moving to Stockport. Undoubtedly his best days were with Wolves and he joined us near the end of his impressive playing career and at a time when we were in sad decline on the playing field. But it was a pleasure to see a player of his quality in our shirt back then and glimpses at Villa Park of the undoubted quality he had. Peter scored 2 goals for us. These came in 1969 during the 2-1 FA Cup win against Southampton at Villa Park which those of us who were lucky enough to be in the 59,084 crowd that night will remember so well and he then added another in our fifth round 3-2 defeat at Spurs a couple of weeks later. Peter won 7 England caps and was a creative inside forward who became the most expensive teenager when Wolves paid Brentford £10,000 for him as a 17 year old. Peter Knowles described him as being like a “ballet dancer on grass”. My thoughts are with his family at this sad time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briny_ear Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 Saw him play quite a few times at VP. As you say, John, he played for us in desperate times and, if. I recall right, was laid up with injury for quite a while, but I still remember him as a wholehearted and classy player. So RIP and many sympathies to his family. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeanO Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 R.I.P Another Villan in the sky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 (edited) I never saw him play but he's one of the all time great wolves players from their golden era. He came to use when he was a little over the hill. In those days you were generally past it at 30. Great great footballer. Edited October 2, 2013 by PaulC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil3241 Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 Saw him play quite a few times at VP. As you say, John, he played for us in desperate times and, if. I recall right, was laid up with injury for quite a while, but I still remember him as a wholehearted and classy player. So RIP and many sympathies to his family. I feel like a spring chicken now. And that's saying something as I was born in 71. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa-revolution Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 I am honoured & privileged to state that I was amongst that 59,084 crowd at Villa Park for that magnificent FA Cup replay against Southampton. You know the saying, `Once a Villa man, always a Villa man` RIP Peter & thank you for the memories. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markavfc40 Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 A fair few years before my time but seems he was a Wolves legend and gave his all when he played for us. RIP Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briny_ear Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 Saw him play quite a few times at VP. As you say, John, he played for us in desperate times and, if. I recall right, was laid up with injury for quite a while, but I still remember him as a wholehearted and classy player. So RIP and many sympathies to his family. I feel like a spring chicken now. And that's saying something as I was born in 71.I was VERY young at the time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 I was young too but remember him playing at Villa Park.Spent his best years at Wolves, but was a classy player in his day, always sad to see an old villa stalwart go.RIP Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 Yes in fairness we cant really claim him as one of ours although he did play for us at the backend of his career. His definitive years were with Wolves. perhaps their greatest ever player. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Posted October 4, 2013 Author Share Posted October 4, 2013 "I was VERY young at the time" - As was I neil 3241."Yes in fairness we cant really claim him as one of ours although he did play for us at the backend of his career. His definitive years were with Wolves perhaps their greatest ever player". You are right we cannot claim him as one of our own in isolation Paul C but he played for us 64 times so he did his bit for us and we had a share in what he did over the years he played football. As PaulC has said players back then were often considered past it at 30. Peter was not the player he was at Wolves when he joined us in the same way that George Curtis, Andy Lochhead and Dave Gibson were not but they did their bit for us although Coventry, Burnley and Leicester would be considered the clubs they were at when they were at their very best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briny_ear Posted October 4, 2013 Share Posted October 4, 2013 Think I would take slight issue with Andy Lochhead in that analysis, John. I agree with your general point and it's true Andy had his best career at Burnley but he was a key figure for us in our promotion back to Division 2. Barely missed a game that season and scored around 20 goals if I remember right. For me, he earned his place in the Villa hall of fame just for that! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted October 5, 2013 Share Posted October 5, 2013 Yes lochead was still good when he came to us . I think he was 28. A legend at villa 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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