delboy54

I have been reading comments this evening from opposition fans congratulating Stockport County on their promotion. I have to say it is a refreshing change from the Premier League and the plastic fans slagging each other off. Stockport County, sounds like a real football club!

Whilst the results have gone in favour of sha today and of course given them hope for survival, I am sure its not over yet. It would be wonderful to see them thinking that they are safe now, and then be relegated at the end of the last match of the season. However would we sooner see them as the perennial turds that don't flush every season, or be a big fish in league 1 and possibly do well in that league?

I can agree with this as an almost 66 year old! Yes it is more exciting to see a winger running down the wing and running at the defence, (only to probably lose the ball), but it is getting out of date this style of footy tbh and us fans need to catch up with the modern game. Its totally different game to the 1970's when I were a lad... The problem is we the fans have had years of rubbish football and are starved of good football and demand almost to be entertained. I stand (back of the upper Holte), and really tried to watch how the Villa play these days, Villa seemingly tippy tapping the ball about, but watching carefully it's all to do with drawing opposition players out of position. Look at where this "new football" has got us under Emery and compare what we had before and the limitations of the "older style". Yes it might not be so exciting to watch but we are winning more games.

Got back at 0115 last night after the long drive back home to Newmarket. This result has to favour Lille tbh. Shame we sat back and let in the inevitable goal, but I think the result was fair. I enjoyed the game but once again odd decisions from the ref, maybe Ollie made too much of the "penalty" that's why it wasn't given, perhaps he should practice like Kane. However I think Lille will have too much for us next week. Shame though but we are running on empty, have a hard game against arsenal whilst Lille can rest and prepare.

Also I read somewhere today that the Liverpool supporters trust had not be consulted by the club regarding the season ticket price increases. Sounds similar to the disconnect with Heck and our supporters.

Wow I remember that game, took my daughter to it for her first time to see the Villa play. We were in the middle of the upper Holte End, she still supports Villa even after enduring that spectacle! Was that the game we were all singing to Lescott "it's a weight off your shoulders" ? Following some comment he made. Also at half time the song "your not fit to wear the shirt"?..... This was 8 years ago......a lot has changed at Villa since those dark times !!!

I have always thought that refs have "unconscious bias" towards the so called sky favourite teams. This is reinforced by some players getting in the refs faces throughout the game with no bookings for dissent. Seen Villa players booked in the first 5 mins for an innocuous challenge whereas opposition players are foul consistently throughout the game with no punishment. I have seen enough premier league games not just Villa, to see that there is some significant favourable decisions given to certain clubs and that there is no consistency. If there is no consistency in decision making by a ref and VAR, and making up or reinterpeting the rules of the game, then all fans should be asking ourselves "why is that?"...

The way we are shipping goals recently we need to be winning 5 - 0 inthe first leg with 1 min to go, as if we concede in the last minute we could easily lose the first leg 5 - 6...

And this is exactly why man ci€y will get away with a token fine (that they will find a nefarious way not to pay) and a slap on the wrist. Whereas they should be relegated out of existence, but that's not going to happen in reality is it. This awful club is worth too much money to the Premier league...and that is what modern football is all about.....££££

We should have had an extra 2 points after the debacle yesterday We should have had 6 points off man yoo this season We should have beaten Sheffield utd at home Etc Etc Could have, would have and should have.....it always comes down to that, I hope we don't come to regret what happened yesterday...

Only ever watched a couple of episodes as I dont have access to sky or HBO or whatever it was on. However I am reading the first book in the series and the first half, approx 400 pages, is deadly dull scene setting stuff, hopefully it gets better. I agree with some comments and complaints about the author explaining to the minute detail the colour of someones armour or flag etc, and it is pretty tedious to be honest. However, it is nothing compared to Tolkiens Lord of the rings novel, where the description of some hobbits clothing goes on and on seemingly for pages and pages of drivel....

Wise comments above as normal from Mr TRO..... We do seem very prone to other teams refusing to lie down when we are winning and fighting back. This has always been a "Villa thing" from the decades that I have been following the Villa. Yet it seems to be happening more frequently now. Opposition now know that we can be "got at"... Two idiotic things from the game, all 3 goals came down from their left hand side and were identical and Dougie should have been subbed well before the final 2 minutes to prevent the ref from giving that yellow card. People keep saying we will learn from this, well so far I don't see a lot of evidence that we are. Scoring goals is difficult but we need to be able to see games out by having a defence that makes it more difficult for the opposition to score against us.

Please could someone clarify for me, so this booking means Dougie cannot play in the next 2 premier league games, I.e. is still ok to play against Lille on Thursday? Or does it mean the next two games I.e Lille (h) and Arsenal (a)?

At the end of the season if we dont qualify for CL next season (either in 4th or 5th position), we are not good enough "the league table doesn't lie". However if we don't qualify my fear is that some of our players will be looking to join a club that has qualified for CL....

I am sure the scouts from Lille are watching this game with interest....

I think that most footy fans want consistency in refs. It shouldn't matter who is playing who.

I work with a Leicester fan who has a ST goes to all away games as well. Good level headed conversations about footy with him. Texted me yesterday on way home after the loss at Brissol city telling me some of the Leicester fans were booing their team....

I think rumours will start being spread by Heck himself, that prices for ST's will rise upwards of 20% for next season.... Then the ST prices will be officially announced at only a 15% increase and Heck will take the credit for the "smaller" increase than was rumoured...

I have got tickets for the Villa West Ham game at VP. Never seen womens football live before. I am taking my daughter who has been with me many times in the upper Holte to see the mens footy, the wife who was seen only 2 games of footy in her life, one of them was the 6 - 1 win against Sunderland a few years ago. But.....I am also taking my 10 year old granddaughter who has seen Ipswich play a couple of times, but never watched a game of womens football and it is her first time at VP. She also supports Liverpool as all her friends at school do as well. I think I have failed as a grandparent...... I really hope that I can convert her...if not she can walk all the way back to Cambridge

Yeah my daughter has just turned 31, she will have to work to 131 before she can get the state pension

Thanks for all the advice guys. One more week to go now! I do (did) enjoy my job and that is so important. After all you spend near enough 1/3 of your life at it... Yes TRO good advice and thanks Mental and physical health is important and I need to look at this as a new chapter in my book of life. I love my grandkids, but they do drive me mad though sometimes!!! Following the Villa is a good outlet for me it's just the 2hr drive there and back can be a bind occasionally especially if we lose... Got a few things I want to get involved with such as volunteering at my local hospital and helping out at Cambridge Technology museum. Just need to ease my way into a new part of my life now ! Cheers lads, this is a great forum, some comments from many of you make me laugh out loud, and where would we be without timely Kenneth William's pictures and the ongoing saga of The best English Breakfast ....

I have also been rewatching the original series of Star Trek. Always entertaining to see if Kirk gets to kiss one of the women in each episode and how long into the episode it takes him! Also looking on wiki of the leading female roles that were in the original series, some famous actresses appeared, cannot believe that they are old grandmothers now.....mind you I am nearly 66 years old and can recall the original series being broadcast in the late 1960's. As the ideas ran out it did get worse and I can see why it finally got cancelled. I enjoyed deep space 9 especially the interplay between Quark and Odo. The next generation has dated slightly for me but still is good Voyager was spoilt by the character/actress Janeway. Enterprise was ok some duff episodes Picard ....wow Patrick Stewart is looking old now . Still a great actor and the best Captain. But I am not a "Trekky"........honestly!

Not been to Goodison park but I guess this new ground has got to be better. But it does look like all the other "new" football grounds, a bit soulless.

What is the point of playing friendlies and not experimenting with new blood and new formations etc and playing the same old players? Oh I forgot we have Safegate as England manager

I would like to change tack, I hope this is in the correct thread. This is my take on a potential future. I work for an American faceless corporation and all they are interested in is "the bottom line", returns for shareholders I guess. They view their competitors as the enemy and will do anything to discredit and destroy them, they view it as a war without bullets and killing people. Now expand this model to the wider picture. The EU is a competitor to the US, what better way to remove that "competitor" by allowing it to be destroyed by a non competitor I.e. by Russia both financially and materially. This will be done by the US disengaging from NATO and then stopping the supplying of Ukraine with weapons. First Ukraine will fall then the Baltic countries will get over run, Hungary will join Russia, then Poland will be absorbed again and then the dominos will fall. In my opinion Russia will not use nukes and the EU, well what is left of it, will not want to be seen as carrying out a first nuke strike. The European countries will be subsumed by Russia. It will be a blood bath and much hand wringing by the US, but they will be quietly happy as a competitor will have been removed. After all, the US made a lot of money by sitting on the fence in the first and second world war before being forced into taking sides. This is just my current pessimistic take on things, especially if Trump gets in again. The US will just sit back in splendid isolation and watch while Europe gets torn apart again. I hope others on here can put a more optimistic spin on the next 25 years. Maybe the Villa might have beaten man yoo again by then or even the FA cup......