Aston Villa is saddened to learn of the passing of former striker Andy Lochhead, who has died at the age of 81.
The thoughts of everyone at the Club are with Andy’s family and friends at this difficult time.
Aston Villa’s players will wear black armbands for our Premier League fixture against Arsenal on Saturday and Villa Park will join together during the match for a ninth-minute applause in his memory, in recognition of wearing the No.9 shirt.
Born in Milngavie, Scotland, in March 1941, Lochhead was a predatory marksman who scored more than 150 goals throughout a career which spanned 17 years.
His time at Villa Park was relatively brief, but he wrote himself into claret-and-blue folklore with some brave, fearless displays as Villa climbed back from the depths of the darkest days in the club’s history.
Having established himself in another claret shirt at Burnley, where he was on target more than 100 times, the Scottish striker had a spell with Leicester City, for whom he played in the 1969 FA Cup final.
He joined Villa in February 1970, making his debut against Bristol City, but two months later, after he had failed to score in a dozen appearances, Villa were relegated from the Second Division.
The following season he rediscovered his goalscoring touch, helping Villa to the League Cup final against Tottenham Hotspur.
He was in target in both legs of the famous semi-final against a Manchester United side that included George Best, Bobby Charlton and Denis Law.
In 1971/72 he missed only one league game, heading the scoring chart with 19 as the club won the Third Division title.
His total haul that season was 25, a figure few players have achieved since, and it included the winner against promotion rivals Bournemouth in front of a Villa Park crowd of 48,110, then a record attendance for that division.
After scoring six goals in Villa’s first season back in Division Two, Lochhead moved to Oldham Athletic in August 1973. He played a total of 154 Villa games, scoring 44 goals.
Rest in Peace, Andy.
