Aston Villa Away Shirt 1989-90
In MOMS humble opinion the 1989-90 Aston Villa away shirt is an underrated Villa away shirt gem. While the Hummel home and away shirts of the previous couple of seasons have since garnered more favour and have been recently reissued in retro shirt form, this shirt saw Villa regain their pride and pomp.
The 1989/90 season was Villa reaching their peak under Graham Taylor, reborn after their dramatic post-European Champions slump. While they could never field what you’d consider an all-round strong first XI, they had key players in the spin (Spink, McGrath, Cowans, Daley and Platt) and played on the front foot.
Hummel’s trump card with this shirt was its minimalist design. Sometimes less is more. A monochrome shirt with a shot of purple trim. It was certainly a departure from the previous white away shirts that would have either predominantly sky blue or claret trim.
In terms of halcyon days for modern day Villa kit design, the late 1980’s Mita Copier sponsored Hummel kits were some of the best. Certainly the font aesthetic of Mita lent itself to shirt sponsorship more so than the betting companies of recent times.
The shirt offered what was the only version of the round Villa badge on a shirt that wasn’t in the tradition claret and blue colours. Instead, what you got was a photocopy style version of the badge.
While considered something a bit different at the time, it was a shirt that was worn by an exciting top notch Villa team.
Best Player to Wear the Shirt
You’ve got to go with David Platt (even over McGrath). At this time, Platt was sensational and one of the best goal-scoring midfielders Villa have had. This was the Villa away shirt he wore in the season he went off to the 1990 World Cup and launched himself big time on the international football scene.
Best Result in the Shirt
Interestingly, Villa’s best away wins that season were against top teams that they’d normally wear their away colours against, but they played in their home shirt instead. Such as in the case of pivotal away wins against both Chelsea and Arsenal.
To be honest, that doesn’t leave much in terms of notable results, so lets go for Villa’s 2-0 win at Manchester City. The early season win was part of a five-game winning run, that got Graham Taylor’s men up and running after a poor start to the season (one win in their first seven games). Tony Daley scored in his third consecutive game against City.
Best Deal
Since this is an underrated under the radar shirt, you won’t find any modern day retro versions, as yet. Although MOMS has spotted several of the original ones pop up on Classic Football Shirts over the years, as well as eBay.
*The shirts score is a combined tally of design, Villa’s success in it and fan’s rating
