How Tammy Abraham almost joined an exclusive Aston Villa club

It turned out to be a historic occasion, the first-ever 5-5 draw played out at Villa Park in the ground’s 122-year history.

Though Villa and Blackburn managed to hit the combined 10-goal mark in 2010’s unforgettable League Cup semi-final second leg, this was the first league fixture in B6 to reach double figures since a Bobby Thomson hat-trick steered the hosts to an 8-3 win over Leicester City in April, 1962.

For Tammy Abraham, meanwhile, it was a night which will live long in the memory. Not only did the 21-year-old bag his first senior hat-trick, he also added one more to his tally to achieve a rare feat.

“Who was the last Villa player to score four in a game?” was the question that could be heard echoing around the press box, after Abraham had headed home in the 71st minute to the score 4-4.

The answer, it transpired, was David Platt, who managed it in a 6-2 League Cup fourth round win over Ipswich on November 30, 1988.

To find the last Villa player to score four in a league fixture, however, you have to go back a little further. To March, 1966, to be precise, when Tony Hateley engineered a remarkable fightback, which saw Dick Taylor’s team come from 5-1 down to draw 5-5 at Tottenham. Prior to Wednesday night, it was also the last Villa fixture to finish with that scoreline.

Yet while Abraham’s exploits will not be forgotten by the 32,000-or-so in attendance, the young striker may on reflection have cause to wonder whether he missed a golden opportunity to join an even more exclusive club.

Five goals is the most one player has ever scored in a single game for Villa.

Had Abraham been able to direct a header either side of Forest keeper Costel Pantilimon in first-half stoppage time, or converted a number of other half-chances, he would have become only the sixth man to ever achieve it and the first since Gerry Hitchens, who struck a quintet in an 11-1 drubbing of Charlton in November, 1959.

Hitchens is the only Villa player to have done it in the postwar era.

The man before him, George Brown, did so in January 1932 during an 8-3 win away at Leicester. Brown’s feat was all the more notable for the fact he hit four goals only two weeks later, as Villa thrashed Liverpool 6-1.

It may also have annoyed his team-mate, the great Pongo Waring, who in a 13-month spell between August 1930 and September 1931 struck four-goal hauls on on no fewer than five occasions, with the fifth always eluding him.

Villa’s all-time top scorer, Billy Walker, suffered similar frustration, though he was on the pitch – and hit a hat-trick – when Len Capewell scored five in a 10-0 hammering of Burnley on the opening day of the 1925-26 campaign.

Capewell followed Harry Hampton and Harold Halse, the first inductees into the five-goal club, who remarkably stamped their membership in back-to-back home games in October 1912.

Hampton became the first Villa player to ever score five in a single game in a 10-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday.

Then, having been ruled out by injury, he watched from the stands as Halse netted all five in a 5-1 victory against Derby a fortnight later.