Stephen_Evans

Or will be in 2020/21.

I posted this in the history thread earlier, but it probably belongs in here: So many smaller things Doug did to Villa Park annoyed me, from an aesthetic point of view: - the cheap looking oddity housing a TV studio that occupies the space between the Holte End and the Witton Lane Stand - the external metal staircase leading from the Trinity Road pavilion down to the Holte End - the lower deck of the Witton Lane Stand blocking the corner of the Holte (built literally months apart!) - the Corner Flag restaurant - the footprint of this building has all kinds of funny angles, not a single parallel building line to judge from Google Earth! - a great big air conditioning unit in the players' car park Best not get started on the Trinity Road Stand itself.... Doug did not give two hoots what anything looked like. Even the old Holte was given a chocolate brown and red cladded exterior when they put on a £1/2m roof that lasted only 4 years before demolition.

Cheap and poorly finished. Whole walls made of nothing but sheets of metal. Half the "windows" at the level of the token brickwork are effectively boarded up with steel. It has no class, no style and is the perfect monument to the man who made it happen.

I do too, as long as I close my eyes walking past the Trinity...

So many smaller things Doug did to Villa Park annoyed me, from an aesthetic point of view: - the cheap looking oddity housing a TV studio that occupies the space between the Holte End and the Witton Lane Stand - the external metal staircase leading from the Trinity Road pavilion down to the Holte End - the lower deck of the Witton Lane Stand blocking the corner of the Holte (built literally months apart!) - the Corner Flag restaurant - the footprint of this building has all kinds of funny angles, not a single parallel building line to judge from Google Earth! - a great big air conditioning unit in the players' car park Best not get started on the Trinity Road Stand itself.... Doug did not give two hoots what anything looked like. Even the old Holte was given a chocolate brown and red cladded exterior when they put on a £1/2m roof that lasted only 4 years before demolition.

And as Simon Inglis hints at in his Football Grounds of England and Wales book, it was a fairly cheap looking “homage”. It looked more the part when Randy put the mosaics and stained glass windows in. Doug’s windows looked like something from a 3 bedroom semi & the Aston Villa name and badge were plastic.

I note the latest planning document refers to buildings being “not aesthetically pleasing to the owners”. Hopefully the owners paid close attention when inspecting the exterior of the Trinity Road Stand! I’m not saying it should be replaced but perhaps some clever architects could make it a little more Villa and a little less industrial estate.

Mine was born in January! Thankfully my wife is very happy for me to keep the season ticket even if I don't go to every game.

I was about that age when I wrote to ask why the Doug Ellis Stand lower (refitted in 1995) blocked seats in the lower Holte which had been built less than a year before. He told me it was something they recognised and would rectify at an acceptable level of cost. Well, why design it like that in the first place?

I was reading the Dunk piece on Birmingham Live and it states that Brighton were relegated.

The least of my worries about that particular design!

He’s been at Birmingham City. They grunt and make rude gestures at Blues so his English is bound to be rusty!

I love Cloughie’s quip that he didn’t regret selling Peter Withe but he did regret not buying him back!

Withe scored twice in his third game. Away to Manchester City.

West Ham have found yet another way to completely trash a claret and blue kit

But with a crowd noise only option. I didn’t need a commentator screaming banalities at me while I was at the game so I don’t need it for a DVD either!

Good argument for why we should not keep Whelan.

Said with authority! You know something for certain?

The “story” is that other clubs are worried there would be inadequate punishment IF we broke the rules, not that we actually did break the rules.

I keep raising this one. We need a competent editor of the matchday programme. There are too many typos, too many factual errors and too much waffle and banality. I don’t expect Daily Telegraph standard English but a step up from Birmingham Mail standard “journalism” is long overdue. In terms of format, binding, graphic design and photography, it’s actually really good.

Let’s just make sure the new ones have Premier League patches.

Imagine how the Derby fans and players are feeling. Probably like us pre-Fulham. We are better than they are. We must believe in the stands and get every last drop of talent and application out of our boys.

Yep, and the following year we lost at home to Juventus wearing...you guessed it...claret shorts!

Aesthetically, all claret is overkill. Villa look like Villa when there is a contrast between shirt and shorts, whether that’s white or, more unusually, blue. It was always a given that blue was the alternative to white if there was a clash. Then came the 1980s...

I'd sooner blue shorts with the home shirt than claret! But, yes, white for me too.