Aston Villa Protest Group

[srsmithusa]

I hope to support whatever you do, and join in.  silence for a time at a time.  Banners up. Singing Lerner "show your face" or we are here, where are you?"  or really anything that lets me see the entire 90.  I know it's selfish of me, but maybe I'm not to the only one that has very rare chances to see a match.  With flight and all, I'm paying over 2K $ to see it (i know, I have no sense and I clearly enjoy misery) but paying all that $ and travelling all that way and missing some of it, is just more than I can bring myself to do.  Hell, I won't even go leave my seat at halftime.. I'll probably stand there and try to soak up the pitch for a long time after the final whistle.  I wont get to see it live next year and likely won't get to see it on TV next year.  For those of you who have season tickets and have endured many minutes of misery, missing 7 minutes might seem like a minor price... that price is MUCH greater for some of us.

[markavfc40]

6 hours ago, gilbertoAVFC said:

I get the sentiment, really do. But in truth, does anybody think these protests are achieving anything apart from making things worse? Just don't go! You will reduce the negativity in the ground and also not pay Lerner money. Maybe players will perform better with a bit of respite from verbal abuse.

The counter argument to that mate is that 20 odd thousand of us have already purchased tickets.

As for what it hopes to achieve then we are simply putting Lerner fully in the dock and asking questions of him, asking him to action certain requests. In a wider sense at a crucial time for those above the players and manager we are simply keeping up the pressure on them to make the right decisions.

As for the players and the hope that they would perform better with a bit of respite. In fairness the fans have been fantastic this season and it has only been since the turn of the year that the players started to get some stick. Even before that time though they were serving up dross week in week out.

Fans are in no way responsible for where we find ourselves and haven’t created this mess. We are simply victims of it.

Edited April 4, 2016 by markavfc40

[dont_do_it_doug.]

7 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

I think it's a great idea, and IF you could get that to work it would be powerful.

But I honestly can't see you being able to organise that. Fair play if you can, but I think that's a huge ask.

That sounds like challenge

[markavfc40]

4 hours ago, srsmithusa said:

I hope to support whatever you do, and join in.  silence for a time at a time.  Banners up. Singing Lerner "show your face" or we are here, where are you?"  or really anything that lets me see the entire 90.  I know it's selfish of me, but maybe I'm not to the only one that has very rare chances to see a match.  With flight and all, I'm paying over 2K $ to see it (i know, I have no sense and I clearly enjoy misery) but paying all that $ and travelling all that way and missing some of it, is just more than I can bring myself to do.  Hell, I won't even go leave my seat at halftime.. I'll probably stand there and try to soak up the pitch for a long time after the final whistle.  I wont get to see it live next year and likely won't get to see it on TV next year.  For those of you who have season tickets and have endured many minutes of misery, missing 7 minutes might seem like a minor price... that price is MUCH greater for some of us.

Mate this is all fair enough. We can’t force anyone to join in these protests and given your circumstances I would probably do exactly the same as you.

Have a safe trip over.

[Woodytom]

4 hours ago, srsmithusa said:

With flight and all, I'm paying over 2K $ to see it

[HanoiVillan]

5 hours ago, srsmithusa said:

I hope to support whatever you do, and join in.  silence for a time at a time.  Banners up. Singing Lerner "show your face" or we are here, where are you?"  or really anything that lets me see the entire 90.  I know it's selfish of me, but maybe I'm not to the only one that has very rare chances to see a match.  With flight and all, I'm paying over 2K $ to see it (i know, I have no sense and I clearly enjoy misery) but paying all that $ and travelling all that way and missing some of it, is just more than I can bring myself to do.  Hell, I won't even go leave my seat at halftime.. I'll probably stand there and try to soak up the pitch for a long time after the final whistle.  I wont get to see it live next year and likely won't get to see it on TV next year.  For those of you who have season tickets and have endured many minutes of misery, missing 7 minutes might seem like a minor price... that price is MUCH greater for some of us.

You're not just visiting to watch Villa are you? If you are, we need to find extra activities to make your trip worthwhile, or at least better value for money.

[Stevo985]

52 minutes ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

That sounds like challenge

Go for it.

I'm just thinking back to the last time there was a delayed walk in, Liverpool at home last season I believe (I was at that one and it was definitely a game I was at)

There was plenty of publicity for that and it just didn't work whatsoever. I don't think there's enough visual impact, it'll just look like a few people turning up late.

BUT if you can get enough people to make it effective, I think it would look great.

[markavfc40]

12 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

Go for it.

I'm just thinking back to the last time there was a delayed walk in, Liverpool at home last season I believe (I was at that one and it was definitely a game I was at)

There was plenty of publicity for that and it just didn't work whatsoever. I don't think there's enough visual impact, it'll just look like a few people turning up late.

BUT if you can get enough people to make it effective, I think it would look great.

Ben how much publicity was there for that really?

I intend to be on the local radio stations again today promoting this protest and will again do so on Friday prior to the game. We will also get it featured in the local written press and hopefully national. We will seek to get interest from Sky Sports.

Clearly for it to work we will need at least 4-5k coming in on 7 minutes. That would be enough in what is likely to be a crowd in the mid 20k’s to have a very visual impact.

It is a challenge but one we believe with the help of you guys on here and elsewhere we can achieve.

[Stevo985]

Dunno, I don't remember. But there were plenty of newspaper articles mentioning it, it was talked about a lot on here and other forums, and definitely mentioned on at least one football podcast.

Like I said, good luck with it. I think it'll be great if you manage it.

[dont_do_it_doug.]

35 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

Dunno, I don't remember. But there were plenty of newspaper articles mentioning it, it was talked about a lot on here and other forums, and definitely mentioned on at least one football podcast.

Like I said, good luck with it. I think it'll be great if you manage it.

Hopefully there is more desire for it now and perhaps with the momentum and good will for this round of protests we can crack it. 

I actually don't remember it either. What was the motive behind it? 

Edit - if we can get the same number as we did for the walkout it will certainly gather attention. So somewhere between 3-5k

Edited April 4, 2016 by dont_do_it_doug.

[Stevo985]

I don't remember either. Lerner Out probs

[Demitri_C]

I hope we dont see any "we will be back" signs when are down. just reminds me of the sky blose and look what happened there!

 

 

[PieFacE]

Personally I like both ideas of getting to the ground late and turning your back on 74.

I think turning your back on 74 will be easier to arrange, but I also understand why some may not feel comfortable doing it. 

So entering the ground 7 minutes late seems like a good option!

[Danwichmann]

1 hour ago, Demitri_C said:

I hope we dont see any "we will be back" signs when are down. just reminds me of the sky blose and look what happened there!

Haven't been at VP this season (being in Nepal makes it difficult). Have we started singing "The Villa is Ours" (as opposed to the City is Ours) yet? Remind our board and our 'custodian' who the club really belongs to?

[Stevo985]

1 hour ago, PieFacE said:

Personally I like both ideas of getting to the ground late and turning your back on 74.

I think turning your back on 74 will be easier to arrange, but I also understand why some may not feel comfortable doing it. 

So entering the ground 7 minutes late seems like a good option!

I always think the things you can join in with will have the best effect.

Walking out worked because people saw it happening and thought "oh yeah they're having that protest, I'll join in"

Same with the banners. The guys provided signs and people joined in. You only need a few hundred people for these ideas to start the ball rolling and then everyone else joins in.

 

Staying out of the ground for 7 minutes will be much harder to "join in with", imo. You won't see people not going into the ground and join in. Most people will have taken their seat before people clear the concourses anyway.

 

[Rob182]

My concern is the same as Stevo's. It's a nice idea, but I don't feel that it'll have the same impact as '[do this] on 74' has had.

If you manage to get 3000-5000 joining in, that'll still only be 10-20% of the attendance, and I don't feel that it'll be noticeable in the ground or on any match coverage. The main focus would need to be on the people outside the ground for 7 minutes (as I know DDID has said), but even then, you're relying on people to actually get there on time and stand for 7 minutes in a group, chanting.

I don't know. I think it's a nice idea if you get enough support. But I do prefer [throw paper aeroplanes on the pitch / bring in inflatables / throw biscuits on the pitch] on 74, as I feel it gives people something to look forward to, and more people take notice when it's happening in the ground.

[Demitri_C]

23 minutes ago, Rob182 said:

My concern is the same as Stevo's. It's a nice idea, but I don't feel that it'll have the same impact as '[do this] on 74' has had.

If you manage to get 3000-5000 joining in, that'll still only be 10-20% of the attendance, and I don't feel that it'll be noticeable in the ground or on any match coverage. The main focus would need to be on the people outside the ground for 7 minutes (as I know DDID has said), but even then, you're relying on people to actually get there on time and stand for 7 minutes in a group, chanting.

I don't know. I think it's a nice idea if you get enough support. But I do prefer [throw paper aeroplanes on the pitch / bring in inflatables / throw biscuits on the pitch] on 74, as I feel it gives people something to look forward to, and more people take notice when it's happening in the ground.

Everyone come as clowns or with a red nose and throw it on the pitch in the 74th minute shows we think lerners a clown and these waste of space players like lescott, gabby etc

[powell91]

Maybe fill out the stadium for an U21 game to show our support for our academy boys.

Rather than going to watch the first team.

[Gary Thomas]

Loads of respect for the organizers, but I am not sure you need to change the form of protest for Bournemouth given the timescales. The banners out idea had loads of support and it worked well in terms of impact.  Why not just build on that and encourage more supporters to bring their own banners?  Alternatively, just ask every fan to bring a scarf and raise it aloft on 74 minutes for a sustained chorus of Villa till we die or something - keeping it positive for Acorns day, before doing something bigger against Newcastle.  I would like to think that every fan would get on board with that.

Edited April 4, 2016 by Gary Thomas

[limpid]

Just a reminder. Do not encourage people to throw things on the pitch. It's a criminal offence and may lead to the thrower being suspended from all football grounds and travel restrictions placed on them..