Aston Villa fans plan to take umbrellas to Huddersfield game in honour of Dalian Atkinson’s greatest moment

ASTON VILLA fans are planning to take umbrellas to Tuesday night’s game against Huddersfield Town as a tribute to their former star Dalian Atkinson.

The Villa legend, who made 85 appearances for the club, tragically died on Monday aged 48 after being Tasered.

Atkinson was best known by neutral fans for his incredible solo goal against Wimbledon in the 1992/93 Premier League season which ended with a fan running onto the pitch and holding an umbrella above his head.

The strike was later named as the League’s Goal of the Season on Match of the Day.

As a result of the iconic celebration, the claret and blue faithful have started a Twitter hashtag, #umbrellasforDalian, to encourage fans to bring brollies to their Championship fixture against the Terriers at Villa Park.

One wrote: “Would be great for everyone going to Villa Park tomorrow to take an umbrella as a tribute to Dalian Atkinson. #avfc”

Another posted: “is it going to be possible to do a tribute to former player Dalian Atkinson tomorrow at the game by all bringing an umbrella ?”

One tweeted: “If youre going to Villa Park tomorrow, take an umbrella and put it up in the 10th minute in tribute to Dalian Atkinson”

But, sadly, due to safety reasons fans will not be allowed to bring umbrellas into Villa Park.

In response to a fan who mentioned the gesture, Villa owner Dr. Tony Xia tweeted: “We understand but it would fall foul of safety laws. So we will do something else. But a win ‘ll be the best tribute”

Atkinson is fondly remembered by Villa supporters for scoring the first goal in their 3-1 League Cup final win over Manchester United in 1994.

The star striker hit 23 goals in 85 games in his time at Villa Park.

Following his time at Villa, Atkinson appeared for Manchester City, Fenerbahce and Metz as well as South Korean sides Daejeon Citizen and Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors.

Atkinson started his career at Ipswich Town before moving to Sheffield Wednesday and Real Sociedad, where he impressed enough to earn a £1.6million move to Villa.