GarryBarry

Cheers Lancs, Good to see you before the game. Thant lanky fella with me was my brother and bless him he had a tear in his eye seeing the '82 team parading around the ground. Perfect weekend from start to finish (though I didn't get the opportunity to take up the tours of BMH unfortunately) I was feeling a bit down that I wasn't going to have a ST next season (will be spending my time and a fair chunk of my money llooking after the newly born Peter Withe GarryBarry) but this was a fantastic game to sign off with. I'll still hopfully make a couple of games and the London away ones.

The new Chief Exec when interviewed about the badge said it was designed through somethng called 'voice of the crowd'. I'm not sure whether he meant that this was used for the consultation or whether it actually played a heavy part in the design itself. I'd suspect the latter as the badge/crest does appear a bit 'paint by numbers' . . .80% said wanted a star, right put that there, 52% said shield not round, so that's shape sorted then. You can almost imagine the mac monkey (sorry, junior designer) pointing and clicking as the survey results came in. I'm still undecided on the overall effect. I definitely don't love it but I have a feeling it might work in situ on a shirt.

Hi General, Two suggestions for the club. 1) In terms of the approach to Villa Park and celebrating the history of the team I'd really like to see us do something like this. My suggestions would be Dennis Mortimer or Paul McGrath but I'm sure there would be other contenders. 2) In terms of community work (and picking up on Randy's comments recently about the role of football) Villa have always been quite active in community activities but as fans we don't alwasy hear about it. Also I don't think the club has used the enormous fan base to help local causes in the same way as other clubs do (volunteering, football coaching etc). Any plans on this front? Thanks and congratulations on a lot of the work that has already been done!

General, Fantastic to have Jim Brown at the game - my knowledge of American Football is mainly built up while I was at high school but Jim was a legend even then. If I'd known he was going to be at the game I'd have worn my Jim Brown Hall of Fame shirt! If I had to make a comparison to a Villa player it would definitely be McGrath - for his legendary status and the attitude he brought to the game. Be interesting to hear any thoughts Jim had about the game/the team - make a nice feature for the AVFC website? Dave

Just to chip in with one comment on the season ticket/cut price games line. It seems to me that we can't moan about the lack of marketing and awareness of Villa and we can't expect continued success unless we start filling the ground. And that means in the short term finding the price at which the empty seats will be filled. Hopefully once people have experieced a few games at a full Villa Park and with increasingly successful football on the pitch, there will be less need to tempt them back on price. In marketing terms, the recent special offer to ST holders for the Watford game is an excellent example of how to hit both targets. £5 additional tickets for ST holders is a great bargain and if I hadn't been so slow off the mark it would have meant I could take my brother's kids along to a game for a change. Given the massive growth in MBNA and the recognition it gets for its marketing, I trust Randy, the General and the team to look after their 'key customers' in the long term. In the meantime I'm more than happy to see empty seats filled throgh price cuts if it takes the club forward. After all, it means I enjoy the game more because of the atmosphere and it's not as if the cost of my ticket has gone up. This is just my perspective on it and I know others might still feel a bit aggrieved

Cheers, thought I was imagining things there for a while Good news about Bardsley - let's hope we can keep strengthening

Didn't we give him a trial under O'Leary before Notlob signed him? I seem to remember Villa taking a look at him but deciding he wasn't good enough for the Prem?

At least we've got the new music decided for when the team come out onto the pitch. Evenin all