DaveAV1

I renewed on the phone yesterday (took me 58 minutes!). The lad who I spoke to said that the lower Holte was almost sold out and the upper not far behind. He thought the Holte would be virtually sold out next season and they were not just taking renewals but new season tickets too. I don't know if the new ones were ST virgins or returning to the fold. Still it's all good news

With the type of run we've been on results wise, I would have hoped that confidence would have been sky high and the team as a whole would have felt more like taking the game to the opposition. Even very defensive minded teams like West Brom under Pulis occasionally cut loose and score a few. However at no point have we looked like doing that. Yes we have had the odd 10 minutes spell here and there but at no point have we put a team to the sword. I've seen us win plenty of games 1-0 in my time and despite there only being a 1 goal advantage we've looked comfortable. This isn't the case with this team. I think it's fair to say in the last few home games I've watched, if the opposition had had a striker on fire like Kodjia they would have won comfortably. Set up to defend for 90 minutes and hope Kodjia scores isn't really a game plan that has any long term chance of success. We bought some apparently good midfielders in January, we need to start using them. Good sides are strong in defence and dominant in midfield. I assume SB would agree and has a plan to get the other half of the equation right?

Reading getting a tonking isn't so bad, their confidence will be shot to pieces when we play them next week. We just need another today to calm the nerves. Well mine at least!

That's more or less what everyone said about Timmy. We're a fair minded lot on the whole.

10 games left, we just have to win the last one at Wembley

A blast inside the box then an oportunistic tickle in the area..........?

The big advantage promoted teams have over the perennial strugglers, such as Sunderland for example, is momentum. They come up used to winning not losing. If we were to come up this season we would be on an amazing winning run which would hopefully give us a great start to next season. 2 seasons ago Leicester were virtually relegated at this stage. They took the momentum of their late run into the following season and the rest is history.

If a goalie makes 3 brilliant saves then lets one roll in between his legs he's rubbish. If a striker misses 3 sitters then scores the winner, he's brilliant. It's always been that way, that's why you have to be mad to be in goal!

Woow so even as we were tumbling we still got massive crowds. The time under Tommy Doc was just before I started going. Vic was the first manager I remember. I recall stuff in the papers about the big protests before Ellis came in and saved us. I view Doug with mixed feelings but I've got a soft spot for the old rogue. I think it was Graham Taylor who said that his problem was he wouldn't just go the extra mile and we missed opportunities because of that. But there's been worse and we don't need long memories to recall one here or look far across the city to see totally disasterous chairmen. Lets hope that the current man at the top can help us fulfill a few dreams. Especially for the lads and lasses who are too young to remember those wonderful days of the 70s, early 80s and even the 90s. Up The Villa

Thanks Mark. I'm just a sloppy old Villa fan. Hopefully the time is almost here to make some more happy memories!

Correction I think the crowd was 48000, a record for the 3rd division only beaten when Shefield Wednesday played Shefield United at Hilsborough a few years later. 57000 was the last game of the season vs. Sunderland when we'd won the league cup in 75 and got promoted. Another amazing day!

Vic Crowe doesn't get enough recognition for what he did for the club. He started the revival when he took over from Tommy Doc. At the time we were bottom of division 2 but he almost kept us up from a pretty hopeless position. The following season he restored some pride in the club and got us to the League Cup Final. The following season we stormed the old 3rd division, I think we got 70 points when it was only 2 for a win. Those of us old enough will always have fond memories of that season, my Dad had just started to take me to games. I particularly remember Bournmouth at home which we came back to win 2-1 after a great diving header from their Ted Macdougal, played in front of over 57000. We were outside and a bloke stopped my Dad and asked if he he wanted 2 tickets for the Witton Lane. The bloke pointed at the Holte and said, "The boy won't see a kick in there today". So Dad bought them at face value. That season we averaged either 4th or 5th highest crowds in the whole of England at home and away we were painting towns claret and blue. Nobody had ever seen anything like it in the 3rd division. Vic Crowe made the lion roar again!

What happens if we win all of our games in the run in and get promoted? Ha! Gotcha Keith! Then you'll have to eat your words lad and go out and get us Messi

Or after training

I was at that Liverpool game. What a night!!

For the last 30 years of my Dad's working life he taught at a special school. I can't recall how the invitation came about but the school was asked if they'd like to take a group of kids to BMH, to which the answer was obviously YES! Nobody was going to get that gig other than Dad and so off he went with about 20 kids. There was no real security then and so my Dad just walked into the old training ground building and the first person he met was Brian Little. He said Sir Brian was an absolute gentleman and knew exactly who he was and why they were all there. He said he'd just go and get the gaffer and set off to Ron's office. Obviously Dad knew of Saunders's reputation and didn't expect anything other than a quick hello, if anything at all. How wrong he was! Ron was absolutely wonderful, he made a big fuss of all the kids then took everyone out to the first team training pitch, where he halted training and set up a match for them all. He made them all feel very special. The players were all equally great and the kids all had a fantastic time. I'll always have that as a Ron Saunders memory, as much as all the wonderful things he did for the club. It's things like that, which makes me so proud to be a Villa fan and to know that whatever happens on the pitch and whoever comes and goes, Aston Villa will always be a truely great football club.

Perhaps we should check the guest list. I hope Steve wasn't being tight at the time, "Look at £60 a head we're just going to invite family and close friends. I wasn't even at the club when Christiano was there!".

I'm not trying to make out that he's the best player on the pitch. The point is, if those with more quality had applied themselves like Alan Hutton does we perhaps wouldn't have got relegated. Talent is no good to anyone if not applied and application can make up for deficiencies in other areas. And that applies in most walks of life, thank goodness as my talents are extremely limited!

If the rest of his colleagues over the last few years had shown the same professionalism as he has, then we would still be in the Premier League.

Cymru am byth. Is that Yamma you're speaking there Wezbid?

Thanks Doug.

Of Steve Bruce's 4 promotions, how many were top 2 and how many through the play offs?

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I think what sne is trying to say is that the perfect Steve Bruce team and performance would be solid and pragmatic. Not giving the opposition many, if any chances and being clinical with the chances we get. Think Mourinho. Where as what would be more pleasing on the eye and exciting would be a more attacking possession based approach. Think Guardiola. Both good managers who have won lots of trophies but chalk and cheese when it comes to style. If you look back over Steve Bruce's managerial career he's always been more Jose than Pepe and that ain't gonna change. He might give us a decent version of the former and get us promoted, if he tries to do a Pepe, which he won't, it would end in tears.

It's my wake up alarm every day

I'm hoping that our "football people" are now a greatly improved group of professionals now that Steve Round is on board. At the moment that is merely a hope and we probably won't know a great deal until sometime in the future, as these things take a long time to show fruit. Cultural change is required at all levels of the club.