Preview

I’m getting a bit worried. Previously I’d resigned myself to writing off this game as another defeat before we get down to the following six potentially winnable matches. Now, bucked up by our performance against Chelsea and the return of key players, I’m starting to entertain the Arch Fiend, optimism. Villa have drawn at home against Boro and Blackburn recently and have also lost away to Fulham so they can wobble and we’ve got nothing to lose. Of course we were very unlucky not to win the home fixture back in December. It’s 9.30am and I’m sitting at home in West London, about to head up to Birmingham. I hear it’s snowing in the Midlands. By the way, just before I woke up this morning I was dreaming about the match and we’d gone two up by then.

Getting There and Getting In

I got to Marylebone in plenty of time to catch the 11.20 to Birmingham Moor Street and there was plenty of red and white on there with me. Marylebone is a beautiful station and apart from hosting the opening scenes of ‘A Hard Day’s Night’, it’s got a real old fashioned station bar that’s worth a visit in itself. Moor Street is a very tasteful place too. Time was getting tight but I legged it round to New Street, caught the train to Witton and was at Villa Park just before 2.15. I didn’t have a ticket and after a half-chance of one came to nothing I chatted to the ALS sellers and was directed to a guy who had a spare. He wouldn’t even take the face-value price for it. One again the generosity of other fans warmed my cockles. Surprisingly there was no alcohol on sale inside the ground so, after the most expensive portion of chips I’ve ever had, I went up to take my seat. The sun was shining away and continued to do so for most of the match though, having experienced the earthquake a few weeks back, I thought we were having another one as the stand trembled. A large balloon ball was being battered among the crowd and of course I wanted to whack it but as is the nature of such things, it bounced off me when I wasn’t looking and when I did get a good swing at it, the guy next to me got there first and I nearly fell over. I had a bit of a hangover and those flashing advertising screens were making my head feel worse.

The Match

I was glad to see Chops and Richardson warming up and then it dawned on me that Kenwyne was nowhere to be seen. Villa had some big lads in their team especially Carew and Knight and they even made Nos look comparatively small. We started off brightly with a couple of chances in the first few minutes and my mood of optimism continued. O’Donovan had a great chance set up for him in the 20th minute but skied it way over though he did better five minutes later with a good header that went narrowly over. In between these two efforts the officials made a big mistake in my view, and I was sitting right opposite the action, when Carson clearly carried the ball out of the area and wasn’t penalised. Several other decisions went against us including a handball in the box and at half-time there were loud chants of “The referee’s a wanker!” as the teams went off. The first half had been even enough and we’d defended well and created a number of decent chances but, as so often, final passes and positioning weren’t good enough.

The scores at half-time were going generally well for us. I was happy for Newcastle to stamp Fulham down a bit more and then we can pick them off separately later. There was a bit of a roar and then I realised that there was a kids’ five-a-side match being played in the corner of the ground occluded by a guy standing in front of me. The Leap Year stuff was still going on as evidenced by a Louise Dougan asking Tom Scott to marry her via the big screen and the announcer. A few minutes later Tom, or maybe somebody claiming to be Tom, had accepted. There was much booing from lads around me and one bloke, who’d projected copious amounts of saliva on all and sundry during his anti-referee/Murphy/ Whitehead tirades was moved to shout, “Fuckin’ wanker!” Who said romance was dead?

There were no changes for us as the teams re-emerged and the game continued in a similar pattern to the first session with us defending very well - Collins and Evans looked particularly good to me – while Reid had an air of authority and both he and Richardson got us moving a lot. Once again Gordon showed his quality. Edwards played well but seemed rather slow and presumably needs a few more games to get him up to speed. He was replaced by Leadbitter in the 67th min. after Chops had come on for O’Donovan just before the hour-mark. As the minutes passed, and boy did I notice those minutes, my confidence grew and grew and 0-0 was becoming a serious possibility. Villa’s best chance had come in the 58th minute when a rare slip by Nos allowed Harewood to get through and somehow he put it just to the right of the post. A draw would have been a joy but when Chops ran onto a pass from Richardson, held off the Villa defence and shot past Carson seven minutes from the end our lot went berserk and some of the players came over to celebrate along with us. Just after that Gordon made a crucial stop with his feet but we continued to attack ourselves and finally those three added minutes were over and we’d won. There was a terrific buzz in our end and the place was jumping while the rest of the stadium rapidly emptied. After so many narrow defeats this season this victory was all the sweeter and as we slowly shuffled down to the exits every face had a glow.

ALS Books click here