VillaAndLoyal

Not trying to be harsh but number 1, why take pictures of their club shop? :? And number 2, why get in the ground so bloody early? :shock:

Best thread ever.

there would be no where near enough demand for another allocation. this fixture seems to have took forever to sell out. unfortunatly small allocations will be often this season as there doesnt seem to be as much interest as last season. wolves is a great example of it as they were the most popular ticket last year where as this year its just about sold out with a smaller allocation than last year. im shocked we have taken 3000 tickets for sunderland as i cant see more than 1800-2000 going up there. Since when did we take a smaller allocation to Wolves this year than last?

"Bag full of Wotsits! You're just a bag full of Wotsits! Bag full of Woootsits!"

Yesssssssssssss! Get in there! ANOTHER derby win away from home with a goal in the last minute - you just can't beat it 8) I really don't like the Dingles so I don't care how the win came about - it was a derby - all that matters is the result. And we got it ONEEEE EMILE HESKEYYY!!!!

Going to help you out here; possession. you beat me to it!

We've won one game - and we're in the fourth round already! Work that one out! The first half was utterly dire. We couldn't string more than two forward passes together or get anywhere near the Blackburn goal, let alone create a chance. At that point I decided it was better to just enjoy the Heineken at half time and not let the Villa ruin my night. Now, I don't usually get pissed on one pint, but the strangest thing EVER happened in the Second-Half leading me to think I can't handle my lager as much as I think. With my beer goggles obviously already on (I thought) I witnessed Emile Heskey - of all people - rescue us and completely turn the game on its head! :shock: I was under the impression that smooth, Dutch Heineken was 5% alcohol, not 20%? And in my drunken amazement Heskey seemed to just get better and better - even playing an inch perfect pass for Ashley Young to tuck away. In fact, I think I even saw Emile try a couple of tricks and/or flicks during his cameo :? Needless to say by this stage I was in a happy delerium - I think I should drink Heineken more often! Maybe that's what some of our players did at half-time? **** Joking aside, well played Emile! Or whoever your body double was

A nice away day somewhere please! Or Blues, of course, home or away

Double post

Yes, well said. Bizarre change.

Presumably Dunne was taken off because he is fat.

Totally agree with this mate. WTF has happened to our away support this season & the back end of last? OK I know both games have been on the box & both not Saturday afternoon KO's this season, but the away support is dwindling by the game. I've been in the away scheme for about 7 years with my pal & it used to be a mare to try and get an extra ticket for a 3rd mate, now any man & his dog can get one. A friend of mine is a Geordie fan & the support they get away is unbelievable considering there location. He told me they took 7500 to Carlisle for a pre-season friendly this year & last season in the C/Ship took 4000 down to Plymouth - A 14hr 900 mile round trip !! It pains me to see these empty seats at away games especially as we all bill AVFC as one of the biggest clubs in England. Our away support is immense and I think a few of the fans who attend home games only would be SOLD on turning up away if they made the effort to come along & support for a game - I'd put money they would want to go again as we all know who go away it's an addiction & far far better than VP. I know moneys tight but other fans seem to find the funds so IMO it's all about making the effort. As for your player ratings - Very similar to mine. I think the fans who were at the game saw it different as we're not just following Sky's cameras. I'm glad though people are starting to see the obvious lack of concentration & poor tackling/distribution in Richard Dunnes game at the moment. He was woeful at Newcastle and really let Collins down last night. I've mentioned this a few times & been slated. I'd love to see Collins & Cuellar start against Bolton as I don't think they've both started as a CB pairing yet ? Good post mate, agree entirely. Put it this way - as you've stated in the case of Newcastle - other clubs of a similar size/infrastructure/stature take far more away fans consistently than us. And for a club of Aston Villa's size and considering the factors that dictate volume of fans I don't see where the excuse is. Maybe it is true that Birmingham is just not a footballing city? A lot of people moan about the media perception of our fans and the things they write - but we don't exactly do anything to change that perception. As much as I hate Newcastle (and believe me - I can't stand them) the media's perception of their "fanatic" away support is actually pretty accurate. It is fanatic, as is Sunderland's. Added to that West Ham, Everton, Spurs, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, United and Man City all (in my opinion) take larger numbers away than Villa. That puts us 11th in this fictional league table already. But then I'd also suggest that teams like Stoke, Wolves etc sometimes take equal/more than us as well. That is up for debate. Aston Villa is a big club with a grand history and situated in the middle of the country, in the country's second city, with FAR less successful clubs around them. We have a big ground, some great players and were the sixth best team - in the best league in the world - for the last three seasons. All of the above is why I find it very hard to swallow when I see about 2,300 Villa turn up to a local derby with standard ticket prices - with hundreds of empty red seats to my right. What the hell is going on? Are we Aston Villa Football Club or **** Fulham? It really winds me up and I'm glad quite a few on here share my opinion as did everyone I talked to at the ground last night. You can bitch about everything going on at the Villa on a messageboard untill you are blue in the face - no-one of importance hears. If more people spent less on their electricity bills and more on following the Villa lads then maybe we might have an away following that matched the stature of our club - and maybe the team would perform better as a result.

No - you're right it's certainly not the biggest of our issues but equally it's the one factor we can actually do something about as fans. And to my mind, a club like Aston Villa not even coming close to selling out in a local derby with the tickets priced at £30 (when we charged them £46 at our place last season) and when we've not had a single game for 16 days is utterly laughable as already stated.

I read eight pages of this thread and then finally got too annoyed at not reading one single mention of the superb Villa fans tonight who were an absolute credit to this club. I don't care if I get slated for saying this, and I know everyone seems to have a different reason under the sun for not attending matches, but I personally think it is PATHETIC, utterly pathetic, that Aston Villa Football Club cannot sell out 2,900 tickets for a reasonably priced away match not far up the road after a 16 day break without any football. It is quite simply laughable in my opinion. A good proportion of people who post on here have the benefit of television replays and the toning down of the microphones but for those of you who were there - you will know when I say that the Villa end was positively jumping at quite a few times during that game. Superb support from those who were there - it's just a huge shame there weren't more of us. Before anyone says I'm breaking any rules, I have not singled out anyone in particular and I am not saying I am a better fan than you, I am simply stating my humble opinion as a Villa fan that I think we have a woeful fanbase considering the supposed statue of the club and our location geographically in the country's Second city. It's almost like O'Neill took 6,000 fans with him when he left? We seem to have an awful lot of fans who very rarely or never go to the games. Hundreds of empty seats for a local derby does NOT look good and it certainly doesn't help provide the team with that 12th man. Luckily those that were there did a pretty damn good job of that themselves. There were eight players in that team tonight who didn't deserve to be on the losing side. Warnock is a complete liability - always dives into tackles, always loses out in the air, and always seems to slip at the crucial moment. Friedel did make a couple of fine saves, granted, but in particular in the first half he was completely woeful. Every clearance went out of play or to a Stoke shirt - for someone of that experience he often doesn't show it - and let's not blame the wind shall we. Richard Dunne... jesus wept... he looked like he had been downing pints of Guiness in Temple Bar all day, was he drunk? Seriously. He had an absolute nightmare of a game, and it's not been the first time in the last few months either. Special mentions go to Collins and Young at the back, Collins in particular who was an absolute rock and won everything. Downing after his goal was a different player - confidence is seriously under-rated in this League, it did him the world of good. And I also thought Ashley was class second half and for the end of the first - if only he could finish. Gabby and Reo-Coker also had very good games imo. As for the result, yes we lost and we unquestionably got our tactics wrong with the Heskey/Gabby switch. And yes, it was daylight robbery that we didn't even get a point when we looked to be cruising at one point. Painful isn't the word. And yes, despite what I may think about some sections of our own support - I am still so **** glad I don't support Stoke City. What a vile little football club with the biggest myth going about their so-called famous atmosphere. A combination of Stoke's bully-boy tactics, our inability to finish the game off, and Lee Probert lost us that game. That is all there is to it. Two of those factors are hard to manipulate - but we had our chances, glorious chances which we did not take. And in this league you almost always get punished for it.

As a former Sainsbury's online shopper I probably find that more amusing than most

I'm sorry but outside of Britain we have a very limited fanbase. Didn't someone mention Aston Villa FC have more supporters clubs, worldwide than Manchester United! You have got to be having a laugh, right? :shock: Guys I don't know about you but I live in the Far East and it's hard enough to find a Villa shirt on sale in shops, let alone spot people wearing them. Utd and Liverpool shirts on the other hand are EVERYWHERE. Nop I'm not having a laugh..someone posted on VT a couple of weeks ago that we have more official supporters clubs than United... Obviously less fans of course but then being run like a corner shop empire for 25yrs didn't help! What's the point in having "more supporters clubs" if there are clearly no people in them? It completely defeats any point you were trying to make. As Legov says, outside of Britain we have a very limited fanbase. To be honest I don't think our fanbase generally is that good - considering we are the biggest club in the Second city and all the other teams in the Midlands are pretty gash.

I'm sorry but outside of Britain we have a very limited fanbase. Didn't someone mention Aston Villa FC have more supporters clubs, worldwide than Manchester United! You have got to be having a laugh, right? :shock:

Not many people seem to be falling for your rhetoric Or maybe put another way, rather than some people focusing on what he doesn't bring to the team, others, the majority it would seem, focus on what he does bring to the team. Recognising that he plays an important role for the team. Sorry but it's not a fact. It may be a fact that more people on here are a fan of Reo Coker than not, as evidenced by the poll, but it is not a fact that all the people voted for him purely on the grounds you mention. That we are all football plebs who just appreciate the baser aspects of the game of effort and graft, but of course couldn't appreciate the finer aesthetics of the game like your high self. Please, you may not like Reo Coker for whatever reasons you might have, but don't try and debase the opinions of those that do because they disagree with you, it's just a shallowly disguised ad hominem attack. Well said. There are no facts in your post Chindie, just opinions. The one fact is at the top of the page, and I for one didn't vote for him because he's a "tryer" Your opinions though are pretty patronising - fact.

To be fair, two of those three positive posts came from me though

The "Reo-Coker can't pass for shit" myth is one of my favourite down the Villa Because it's entirely that of course, a myth... Anyone who can make C.Ronaldo look remotely average has a touch of class about him. And, as highlighted by this poll, the vast majority of people agree he is a good player for us Not exceptional, but a good honest player with many great attributes. And I for one would have him in the team over Petrov every day of the week.

I've said the same things in a far more little words and not as well put as that but I do agree. People have been saying, it's a joke if he gets it....well the guy hasn't done that bad really has he! Exactly mate I think he has the potential to develop into a top class manager - and if he DOES have the potential then Villa is going to be the club he shows it at, because he knows us like none other.

It struck me earlier just what a commendable job Kevin Mac has done under the circumstances - remember it wasn't him who walked out on the club with 6 days to go before the season started. I can only imagine what it must have been like working in the same job at a big club like Villa for 15 years and then suddenly - within the space of two days - you are the only person in charge of that club, with no previous experience and the so-called empire that O'Neill built up falling down around you. Because it wasn't just O'Neill who left at such short notice of course, it was four of his closest coaches as well, which left a gaping wide hole in our management. A scenario I'm sure O'Neill was all too happy to see. So for us to be sitting in 4th place after three Premiership games - despite everything that has gone on - is quite remarkable really. I was at Newscastle and yes, it's best not to mention that as it was a disgrace, but I have a funny feeling it won't be happening again. I was also at the Vienna game and whilst it was, again, hugely dissappointing Kevin Mac cannot account for his big players missing big chances when he picks a team strong enough to do the job. These clearly are unsettled times and, although it would be a risk keeping him on, I cannot understand the pessimism towards the guy if he were to take full control. In the midst of everything that has happened it is quite easy to see why he needed the international break before he decided whether he definitely wanted the job - after all it is an unprescedented step up. Who would have guessed that Mourinho, Bobby Robson's interpretor, would go on to become the greatest manager in world football at the moment? No-one. Everybody has to start somewhere and Kevin Mac has my full backing if he is appointed the new gaffer. I'd much rather him than Alan **** Curbishley, rocket polisher.

His odds are down to fore to one though. Dropped quite a fair way. He has too close links to St Andrews as well. i think him and sven are on a par But the Villa job does suit him to a tee. na i think he would be quite a rough choice I agree, i still think hes got a fair way to go! He'd have to iron out his tactical errors!

This whole manager thing is starting to do my head in now to be honest. It's like the Grand National... one minute Sven is favourite, then Moyes, then Bradley. **** Karen Brady will be the odds-on soon

General, Does Randy ever come round to yours for Xmas lunch? And if so, do you have sausages wrapped in bacon? They are my personal favourite! Many thanks VAL