Half time seems to have been overlooked in all of this. The metallic shutters that kept blues villa apart some how after a good ten minutes of kicking in became open and the Blues were through, only for them to shut again almost instantly, to then open again with a bucket load of riot police.
After most of what I saw has been covered already.
As we left the the 200 yard police line at the away end it was just full of well known Zulu faces (you dont have to be a hooligan to know main player names) they were pushing Villa back, punching a few on there way, calling out for Fowler (who as far as Im aware has been on a banning order for a while and wasnt there) but what I coudnt understand that those of us who were at the front wasnt our firm, they were normal fans, but they became a front line so to speak and the Zulus just didnt care knocking a few to the ground. So much for only targeting like minded people hey?
What made matter worse was that the young Villa firm saw this and started pushing forward from the back meaning those like me were being pushed back into the front line for even more punches to be thrown our way. Eventually riot police decided to arrive and batton charged them down all the way to the island. After eventually clearing the route the police marched us down there. But then seemimgly thought that after the island no police was needed. MOst Villa fans had to head back into town which meant walking past The Clements pub which suprise supirse had a load of them waiting for us. At least this lot didnt attack normal fans from what I saw, they soon got what they were looking for from Villa who I guess you would have to say took advantage and even began to attack the pub too.
At this point a load more riot vans arrived from town and moved Villa on through Digbeth High Street where quite clearly to all of us we could see all the pubs on the road had yet more Blues outside waiting for us to pass
Police had numbers yes, but I think there problem is thay are all drafted in so just dont know the area. Having been to all but one of the away games since 2002 I reckon I could quite easilly tell you all the noses tactics, where they attack from and what pubs. God even my dad who I was with last night who hasnt been to Blues away since the 80s knew exactly which were there main pubs and just couldnt believe it when they were leaving us on our own to walk past The Clements.
I some times get the the impression the police want this to happen in the hope they get some good footage for afterwards to prosecute.