 Aston Villa have also featured on several occasions in prose . Stanley Woolley , a character in Derek Robinson 's Booker shortlisted novel Goshawk Squadron is an Aston Villa fan and names a pre @-@ war starting eleven Villa side . Together with The Oval , Villa Park is referenced by the poet Philip Larkin in his poem about the First World War , MCMXIV . Aston Villa are also mentioned in Harold Pinter 's play The Dumb Waiter . 
