Two games against Rangers, then he was gone: Cherished Aston Villa man who had intriguing Scottish football cameo

The striker’s legendary status was already secure when he arrived at Kilmarnock’s Rugby Park shortly after Italia '90. If things had been different, it’s not a stretch to imagine he might have been involved at that tournament with England. After all, he was still only 29.

Instead, he did not win a single cap. He was named in the provisional squad of 40 ahead of the 1982 World Cup but did not make the final cut. Perhaps surprisingly, only one Aston Villa player did – Peter Withe.

The year is significant. Just over two weeks before the World Cup kicked off in Spain, Shaw and his teammates, including Scots Des Bremner, Ken McNaught and Allan Evans, lifted the European Cup with a 1-0 win over Bayern Munich.

Shaw showed strength as well as artistry to thread a ball through to winger Tony Morley, who in turn crossed for Withe. The striker, from about five yards, famously shinned a one-two off the post to score the greatest goal in the club’s history.

Over 40 years on, who are Villa playing in their first home game in the tournament since they entered it as reigning champions? Bayern Munich. It promises to be a stirring night at Villa Park on Wednesday evening. A major regret is that skipper John McGinn, one of the club’s current links to Scotland, won’t be able to take his normal place in midfield due to a hamstring injury.

But another regret, more poignant and substantial, is the absence of another cherished Villan. Arguably, he’s the most cherished of all. Certainly, few shone brighter, albeit in such a relatively short spell, than Shaw, who died last month following a fall at the age of just 63.

In the space of ten seasons, after making his debut in 1979, he scored 79 goals in 213 appearances. In his last four seasons, however, he made just 13 league appearances, the consequence of a devastating knee injury sustained at Nottingham Forest in 1983, when Villa were still reigning European champions. According to Shaw himself, the injury “killed” his Villa career and chances of England caps, hence why he turned up in Kilmarnock in the summer of 1990 after a move to Austrian club Klagenfurt had failed to work out.

“He just appeared out of the blue it seemed,” recalls then Killie skipper David Mackinnon this week. “But you could see he was a class player, a top player. He was also a class man. He really fitted in immediately.”

It’s not every day that a European Cup winner walks in the door at a second tier Scottish club, which is what Kilmarnock were at the time. Indeed, helped by the addition of Tommy Burns, they had just secured promotion from Scotland’s bottom tier, Mackinnon scoring the all-important penalty nine minutes before the end of the season to secure a 2-1 win over Cowdenbeath in front of 8,500 fans.

Around the same number were present at an Open Day ahead of the new campaign. A shirt sponsorship deal with local travel firm AT Mays had just been agreed, and a buzz was in the air.

Fellow new signings Billy Stark, Willie McStay and David Elliott were in attendance, but it was clear who the main attraction was. And yet Shaw was humble, patiently signing autographs and posing for pictures.

“There were no airs and graces,” recalls Mackinnon. “Sometimes when you get players who have played at that level, a European Cup winner, they have a slightly egotistical view of the world. But there was none of that with Gary. He was just a genuine guy who wanted to play football and but for his knee injury would have played a lot more.”

Shaw’s first appearance was in a testimonial for Walter McCrae, the long-serving Kilmarnock club secretary, against Rangers. According to the Kilmarnock Standard, the forward looked “keen to impress” in front of 5,000 fans. “Gary will be with us for the next month but I hope to secure him full-time,” manager Jim Fleeting said afterwards.

“Gary has never been to Kilmarnock in his life before Monday and I am pleased to have been able to attract him here to witness our operation at first hand,” he added. “His presence in Kilmarnock shows he has a definite interest in joining the staff at Rugby Park.”

Shaw made his competitive debut against Clydebank in a Skol Cup tie on 21 August, Killie coming back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 in extra time. Shaw was replaced by Tommy Callaghan after 70 minutes.

Another experience altogether awaited Shaw that weekend when he made his second and last Kilmarnock start at Meadowbank in a 1-0 defeat in front of 1900 fans. He was replaced by John Sludden in the second half.

His next outing was in a more familiar big game setting. Over 32,000 were at Ibrox to watch Graeme Souness’ Rangers beat the Ayrshire visitors 1-0 in the Skol Cup, Mo Johnston scoring the all-important goal.

Shaw was around more familiar faces, including Souness, who he had come up against for Villa against Liverpool. He came on for Tommy Tait and, according to the Kilmarnock Standard, saw a “dangerous cross” cleared by Nigel Spackman.

After another sub’s appearance in a 4-3 defeat to Airdrie the following weekend, Fleeting decided against signing Shaw on a permanent basis. He was “too similar” to what he already had, he explained.

Shaw was absent when Killie slumped to a third consecutive league defeat at the start of the season against Hamilton Accies. The next time he perhaps registered with many people was while scoring a four-minute hat-trick for Shrewsbury Town against Bradford that December.

“Who’s the boy with the golden hair?” Dundee United fans once sang at Andy Gray, Shaw’s flaxen-haired predecessor at Villa. There was never any need to sing that at Shaw.

“Everyone at Killie knew who he was,” says Mackinnon. And then, in the blink of an eye it felt like, he was gone.