Aston Villa set for dark flashback to the toxic day which provoked fury

Aston Villa last visited Wycombe in 2016 on what was a particularly dark day for the club in a dark season

How Aston Villa's fortunes have transformed since their last visit to Adams Park. Back in January 2016, Villa could still say there were heading to Wycombe Wanderers for an FA Cup meeting as the heavyweights and firm favourites of the tie. They were, at that stage, still a Premier League side but clinging onto that status by their fingernails and well on their way out.

It was a dark day, one of many admittedly in that season. Villa were onto their second manager in Remi Garde, who'd replaced Tim Sherwood in the November previous. In January, he was still awaiting his first win in charge. A League Two side, 54 places below them in the league pyramid. Villa, a side who hadn't won in 16 games and 109 days. Surely this'd be the day?

Despite the looming relegation and the routinely miserable weekends in the Premier League, failure to beat the Chairboys, two divisions inferior, must be considered the club's rock bottom moment of their single most catastrophic campaign in the club's recent history. Emotions reached boiling point. Tensions on both sides of the advertising hoardings spilled over.

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Villa went ahead through Micah Richards in the first half, but Wycombe captain Joe Jacobsen - who only retired this summer having made 400 appearances for the club - equalised from the penalty spot in the second half. As Garde went to change things from the bench, his substitutions were met with cries of 'you don't know what you're doing' from an irate and fed up away end, where as many as 2,500 had congregated.

"I can understand the fans. They travel a long way and we have to accept this criticism," said Garde. "We are not winning this kind of game and this is what we deserve. When you are not winning the manager is always making bad decisions.

"You can always say it is a good or bad decision. I know what I'm doing but sometimes it isn't working. I'm not especially under pressure, but I'm not winning games. The day I feel that I am not able to do something positive for this huge football club, you will know it."

Richards, now of course a pundit for Sky Sports but at the time in his first season at Villa, exchanged words with away supporters during and after the game, fronting up to a fanbase who had clearly just had enough of the club's rotten form. There was an expletive-laden ambush from away fans awaiting the players as they made their way back onto the team bus at the back end of the afternoon, too.

Garde added: "As professionals we have to face responsibility, not only Micah and me but all the players. It was brave of him, doing that. Aston Villa is in a difficult situation and I think everybody has to keep calm, face responsibility and look in the mirror to see if we can do more to get out of this difficult situation."

Villa would win the replay at Villa Park 2-0, but Garde would part well in advance of Villa's relegation being sealed in the spring which followed. As for the XI of the day, the team-sheet read: Bunn, Richards, Okore, Clark, Richardson, Bacuna, Gana, Westwood, Gil, Sinclair, Gestede. It's fair to say Villa have come a long way in under a decade.

A Premier League team again, they're no longer circling the plughole under Unai Emery and indeed operating in a very different area of the league table altogether. You can guarantee that Emery won't be having such chants aimed at him from the away end on Tuesday night as Garde once did.

What would your XI be at Wycombe? Tell us HERE

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