1945–46 Aston Villa F.C. season

The 1945–46 English football season was the Aston Villa's only season in the Football League South and Villa's 56th season in Football Association competition.

1945–46 was the first peacetime football season since the 1939–40 season was cut short due to World War II. On 7 May (as the war was ending), it was announced that the FA Cup would be resumed, and that the 44 clubs in the top two divisions of the 1938–39 season would play in the Football League North and Football League South^[1] without promotion and relegation from the previous peacetime season. This arrangement was debated by the clubs over the following two months – with Wolverhampton Wanderers proposing an immediate return to a peacetime Football League as was to happen in France – before it was agreed at The Football League's annual meeting in London on 25 July that regional leagues should continue for one more season.^[2]

To make up for the lack of quality matches, all FA Cup rounds from round one up to and including the quarter-finals were made two-legged ties (rather than the traditional single matches) with the aggregate score determining who went through to the next round. Derby County eventually won the Cup.

From the next season, a full football programme was restored, including The Football League and international matches.

Like all English clubs, Villa lost seven seasons to the Second World War, and that conflict brought several careers to a premature end.^[3] The team was rebuilt under the guidance of former player Alex Massie for the remainder of the 1940s. George Cummings was the Villains club captain from 1945 to his retirement in 1949, and was popular with supporters due to his never-say-die spirit and no-nonsense defending.^[4] There were debuts for Harry Parkes, Jack Morby,^[5] Les Smith, Eddie Lowe and Vic Potts.^[6][7]