The Manchester United man shared his brief stint in Aston Villa as remarkable with fond memories.
The duel of Aston Villa and Manchester United tonight would be bringing back memories for a number of players who have been playing for both sides. The likes of Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, Dion Dublin and even the Villa legend, Paul McGrath had stints in both team. In the current squad, Rashford is not the only name who had brief spell in Villa Park. Another one is United’s third goalkeeper, Tom Heaton.
The 40-year-old shot stopper was part of Dean Smith’s squad back in the 2019/20 or soon after they returned to the top flight. He was tipped to be the first choice before he had to suffer a long-term injury. Such unfortunately kept him out for a while before eventually losing his position to Emiliano Martinez who was signed in summer 2020.
Despite only playing regularly for a short period of time, he reserved a positive memory for his former club, as reported in Manchestereveningnews.co.uk.
“I look back with real fond memories and I really enjoyed playing for the side. It’s a great football club and I’ve got a lot of pride at playing for them. I’m delighted to be here now, though, and taking this challenge as well.”
The former Burnley goalkeeper has only featured in 20 games and made four clean sheets. All games he played were in the Premier League. Heaton was signed by Dean Smith due to lack of experienced shot stopper in the squad.
In those appearances, Heaton played quite well against Everton, Newcastle United and Leeds United. He helped Villa pick up a win five times, and snatch a draw once only. Unfortunately, his injury forced Villa to find a loanee as his cover. So, in came the former Liverpool star, Pepe Reina, who took his place while he was dealing with cruciate ligament injury until the following season.
During his stay with the Clarets and Blue, he did play once against United.It was in December 2019. The game ended in a 2-2 draw. Jack Grealish opened the scoring before he bagged an own goal to equalize before the interval. Then, Victor Lindelof put United on the lead before Tyrone Mings quickly put Villa back on level term two minutes later.
In that game, despite scoring an own goal, Heaton actually did pretty well. He made five saves, 46 touches, one tackles, and 32 passes. He also made 25 long balls but only four of them were accurate.
After his contract expired at the end of 2020/21 season, Villa was still keen on renewing his contract but could not guarantee regular minutes. Heaton was in fact still aiming to play regularly. Yet, it was very unlikely due to Martinez’s great form. He eventually returned to Old Trafford as the understudy again and stays until now. His contract expires next summer.
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