View: John Gregory and the longest unbeaten streak of any Aston Villa manager
Although Unai Emery has started life brilliantly at Aston Villa, with his side unbeaten in four Premier League fixtures, he still has some way to go to match the achievements of John Gregory.
The former Villa boss presided over the longest unbeaten streak of any manager in the club’s history, finishing the 1997/98 season with two wins and starting the 1998/99 season with a further 12 matches without a loss.
If ever there was a chance of Villa claiming some silverware, then the season of 1998/99 was it.
After their stunning start to the campaign under Gregory, Villa sat top of the table on New Years Day, but a run of no wins from ten games between January and April ultimately ended their title ambitions and resigned them to a sixth-place finish.
Nonetheless, the ridiculous unbeaten streak the Englishman took the Villans on will go down in folk law.
The days leading up to the start of the season were full of controversy, with start striker Dwight Yorke filling the gossip columns with a proposed move to Manchester United.
Eventually, the forward got his wish and completed his transfer to Old Trafford, but Villa certainly didn’t lack quality in his stead, with the likes of Dion Dublin, Paul Merson and Ian Taylor comprising Gregory’s star-studded squad.
And such a team was put to good use in the early stages of the season, claiming wins over Middlesbrough, Sheffield Wednesday and Newcastle as they picked up where they left off at the back end of their previous campaign.
A 2-1 win over local rivals Coventry City made it 10 matches unbeaten before a 0-0 draw against West Ham helped his side surpass Ron Atkinson’s class of 1992 and set a new record for an unbeaten streak by an Aston Villa side.
A Dublin hattrick in a 4-1 win over Southampton made it 14 unbeaten – and an eighth win of the season – before Gregory’s side finally tasted defeat.
It wasn’t until facing Gerard Houllier’s Liverpool on 24 November 1998 that Villa were finally beaten, with a Robbie Fowler hattrick and Stan Collymore red card condemning his side to a 4-2 loss.
The bitter taste of defeat proved too much for Gregory’s side to deal with over the coming months as their short-lived title charge unravelled in quite spectacular fashion.
But despite Villa collapsing and Manchester United completing the first ever Treble, the season of 1998/99 will still go down as one of the greatest seasons the club has ever witnessed.
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