Undesirable

I agree, I would happily pay to get to and from St.Andrews without any nonsense! Has to be done this way. Enforced trasnsport to the game, if you werent on the coach, you dont get in the ground. We have our own share of idiotic fans who will be there looking to cause trouble and this is the only way I can see to avoid serious prblems. Is the club looking into any soecial arrangements fot travel with this game? Not only would this infringe of peoples ability to get to the game (what if you are working in digbeth till 7pm and can't get to Aston in time to get the coach to Small Heath?) it would also be highly impractical. How many coaches would you need to transport 4,500 Villa fans 10 minutes down the road? Baring in mind the traffic will be a nightmare the whole idea is highly impractical. The option of coaches would be beneficial for some but to make it a compulsory means of travel is absurd in every way.

On the issue of our toliets, while i don't condone such behaviour it is the type of thing that happens when Villa visit the sty, last season the toilets were smashed and someone had dropped a log in the middle of the floor. It's a nightmare if you're wearing canvas shoes!

it was my understanding that we get 10% allocation in cup games, which would be approximately 3,100 tickets? Either way this is going to be a top night out, the atmopshere should be electric, a league cup time is the only time we would ever have a 7.45 kick off for a Villa blues game. Hopefully the fevour will be kept in the ground and won't manifest itself in physical violence.

My major concern is the absence of Gabby, he always pulls out the stops for the derby games, he knows what these affairs are all about, not to mention the fact that our play lacks dimension and options when he's not itn the team. I' like to see Albrighton start from this, he looked dangerous when he came on against Sunderland and he's a Villa lad so he'll be pumped up for it. We're going to miss Petrov, he often gets slated by some but he's always a calming influence on the team, with Sidwell and Coker in midfield we may have graft but we don't have the class and i think this may hinder us. I hate Small Heath with a passion, almost as much as i hate Sky Sports, what a **** joke that they haven't put this on the box, not that i care as i'll be at the game but it's the most hotly contested derby in this league.

We all find ourselves speaking to Macca at times. Lets hope we don't need his divine intervention on Sunday.

It's my understanding that group membership is currently at about 20.

They'll be advocating illegal parking and buying pirate DVDs before you know it, you should pass details of these upstarts onto the Home Office, get them on the domestic extremists database.

Should've been two, a free shot at goal, good save Brad!

Most will be open i'd imagine, they will be opening around 10am. Many will be members only though.

I can see the list of "domestic extremists" rocketing if this goes ahead, they'll probably start classifying anyone who visits the Unite website as a potential terrorist!

Spoke to the ticket office today and it sounds like this is very nearly sold out. It's always a top away day, i remember last year we were outside the 8 bells and some film Tom Hanks was in was being advertised on the buses, so everytime a bus with Hanks on came around the corner it got a huge cheer while every other bus got boo'd. This was also the same day my mate phoned the Speical Brew helpline and asked them why they are allowed to sell such shit, the man on the other end replied that he had no idea as he didn't drink it.

Thought we were brilliant in spells today, played some lovely, flowing passing football and looked really dangerous. We lacked that killer touch in front of goal and although Dunne made a couple of very good challenges it was a couple of lapses of concentration on his part that cost us the game. Apart from those lapes and Carew's inability to look up when he's on the ball i thought the team played really well and could have easily come away with a point. We're playing much nicer football than we have so far this season, long may it continue.

Guzan Warnock L.Young Cuellar Collins Reo-Coker Petrov Bannan A.Young Ireland Delfouneso Any idea how many tickets we've sold for this?

I don't think that there are any pubs where you'd go for a pre-match pint in stoke and post it under the heading "social"! Last season we were directed to the student union for a drink, it might be a bit busier on a monday night so i've no idea where the police will be telling people to go for a pint.

Stan Staunton is a legend, best left back we've had in the last 20 years, really nice bloke as well, still lives in the Midlands. I'd welcome him in some sort of coaching capacity, he must have some coaching ability or else teams wouldn't keep hiring him with what is a pretty terrible managerial record!

A great manager with a wealth of experience and a history of winning trophies, a great appointment. Beinvenue Gerard, all the best! UTV!

Aye, definately. I really couldn't give a toss about any member of staffs personality or how cordial they are as people. providing they aren't raving nazi's i'd have anyone at Villa providing they can do a job. All the animosity on here has more to do with the cult of the personality and peoples dependence on Sky Sports as a tool for forming their opinions than any meaningful concerns about Thompson as an assistant manager.

Ludicrous stuff here. It is not our right to finish 6th by any means. There are 8 clubs, including us now since Randy arrived, he was merely stating that the fans can not take this stuff for granted which evidently is what is happening. And even if he is not a Villa lover do you really think he would not try as hard? Do you think he would sabotage us from the inside? He is a professional, and since he had a successful playing career this is proved. So he will do his job. Sky pay good money. He wants to be more involved in the game though and this is a great chance to get back into it with a man that he had previous success with. I expect that was the same reason that Clough moved to Leeds, just to undermine the club and make himself look a bit of a plank. How about we imitate some of the Leeds fans then and have Martin O'Neil banners made for when Houllier and Thompson takes charge, that'll show em for trying to sink our club from within, those anti-villa bastards! :yawn: I can't believe the enmity towards Thompson and Houllier on here, isn't it fairly natural to disagree with pundits, to consider their remarks disingenuous, naive or biased? I can't think of many pundits i agree with 100% of the time, in fact many i can't even stand the sound of, but thompson wouldn't be coming here as a pundit whose going to be paid to made derogatory or contraversial remarks about the club or players, he'd be a bloody coach of assistant manager! As for houllier he's been out of England for a while but who was the last manager who won 3 trophies in a year with Liverpool? If they do take over then the very best to them and i'll support their villa team as passionately as i'd support any other managers.

Heskey will never endear himself to the villa fans, even if he was to score a hatrick people would still be taking the piss. We also have our own selection of scum **** so it wouldn't surprise me if certain slurs were uttered. On the Rapid fans, i met a few after the game who were going drinking in town with some villa fans, they were nice lads. Their support was incredible last night, even louder than last year and their ultra display was class.

Is anyone drinking in town before the game? If so it sounds like the Sqaure Peg might not be the best option

Away fans always outsing home fans If that was the case it wouldn't make it any less embarrassing. However it's not the case we out sang West Ham the first game of the season and there are plenty of away fans we regularly out sing at Villa Park.

I reckon you can just rock up to the Holte or Trinity road ticket office and buy a ticket, probably best to speak to the club first though to make sure.

Nah mate, ended Monday.

K7 is completely sold out, don;t know about K1 though. With the help of this offer i think we're going to have a full Holte End, goes to show that the interest is when people can afford it. Lets get the Holte rocking!

Dancing round like monkeys when Ash missed the penalty. If that's the case then it's a **** disgrace.