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| Well, you can try... |
£12 return to Brum by train too, proving it IS possible to charge folk reasonable rail fares AND stay in business. Naturally, this was via the slower Chiltern line and had nothing whatsoever to do with Virgin (ba5tards).
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| Holte End car park including big screen with big match preview. Nice touch. |
I'd always fancied visiting Villa Park even though I'm finding it hard not to dislike Villa, the team. What do they DO, apart from hang around the Premiership, taking up a space? They're the modern-day Coventry City, though at least they won the FA Cup. Villa must be one of the most pointless clubs in the land, an underachieving side from an underachieving city. Apparently they once won the European Cup, but since all football began with the Premiership, I guess we'll have to erase that one.
I arrived at Moor Street station and made my way through the Bullring shopping arcade to the perennial building site that is New Street station, for a train to Aston. Being New Year's Day, they were only one every half hour. I should have been warned for later.
At Aston, I followed the crowd. I had an hour to spare but fancied a wander around the stadium rather than a pint. Good job - later experience proved it's very difficult getting into any of the local pubs.
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| If ever the back of a football stand summed up Birmingham... |
I picked up my ticket from the Trinity Road ticket office, and efficient service it was too, everyone's tickets divvied up alphabetically. (You can tell I'm not used to this.) Welcome to the Premiership! After mucho photo taking I headed into the stadium. The gentleman's called.
I'd plumped for the North Stand upper, mainly cos I'm a tight sod. £27 (compared to £35 in the Holte Upper - why?) One good thing about Villa's website is that it showed you the view from that particular part of the ground, which is why I didn't go lower tier. And you can pick your actual seat, so I bagged a lone chair near the front of the upper tier, smack behind the goal. Sadly, Villa are one of these teams who put away fans at the side, partly to diminish their noise, partly to rob them of even more money by charging them increased prices. My dislike of Villa is increasing.
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| The Palace contingent, upstairs and down. |
It's been a while since I'd seen a Premiership game. Must be at least 4 years (Arsenal v Spurs?). So I was excited to see what the fuss is about. And in Villa's case I'll tell you: play as slowly as possible, take few risks, never take a player on and never kick the ball forward when you can kick it backwards or square. They really are the most tedious side I've seen in a long time. And you;d be amazed how many times a side can f*** up a square ball, finding touch. Their entire game can be summed up in one player (actually, more than one, but I'll pick on this one), Tom Cleverly. What a one-paced nonentity this bloke is. Didn't he used to play for England? Well, only cos he played for Man U. I presume the other players made him look good.
Now, Paul Lambert isn't very popular in our house, since Villa nicked him from Norwich, but I think Norwich got the better end of this deal. As one Villa fan summed up the 1st half, 'F*** off Lambert you bore draw f***ing specialist.' I later learned no-one in the league had scored less than Villa. Why am I not surprised?
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| Premiership superstars take to the pitch. |
Cleverly was dragged off after 64 minutes, by which time I was enjoying watching him, in a perverse sort of way. Which is how I felt about Villa as the game dragged on. The last thing I needed was for them to spoil a perfectly awful display by scoring a goal. A late free kick and a couple of scrambles from corners gave them that chance, but it wasn't to be. A flying save from the free kick, a defender's block and the left back blazing over from 10 yards. Those and Alan Hutton having a close range effort charged down by Speroni in the 1st half were the sum of it. Sounds better than it was to be honest.
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| Looking towards the Holte End. |
As for Palace, while they didn't have much possession, at least they tried to do something with it when they did. With Bolasie, Zaha and (later) Gayle, a fast break was the order of the day and Bolasie should have profited when Villa's defence disappeared and he ran unchallenged from his own half before cracking his shot off the bar. I've seen him enough times now to realise that however dangerous he looks, if he had composure, he wouldn't be playing for Palace.
As for their fans, while Villa's were virtually mute, dividing Palace between tiers didn't help the away atmosphere. After a promising start, the game, the home fans, the rain, the city...took hold and few could be bothered, save for a rousing 'You're ground's too big for you' after the attendance was announced (12,000 spare seats). They're a big club doncha know!
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| Good use of club colours |
As for a trip to Villa Park, it's a great stadium sadly wasted on the Villa. Perhaps you can try and get a ticket for when Villa aren't playing, like a cup semi. Oh. Otherwise, do what everyone else does and wait till one of the Big 4 come to town and actually fill the place (nearly).
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| North Stand lower, fairly busy (the cheap seats) |
£14 travel
£29 ent (inc. £2 booking fee)
£3 programme
£2 fanzine (Heroes and Villans one-off special; excellent)
£6.60 pie and a pint
The Tunes:
It's Album Time (Todd Terje)
St. Vincent (St. Vincent)
Just for a Day (Slowdive)
Sheet One (Plastikman) - repetitive beats at their finest
Tales of Ephidrina (The Future Sound of London)
Loveless (My Bloody Valentine)
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| The match highlight...fans trying to land the ball on the target at HT. |
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| Great idea, zero takers. |
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| Villa have so many club shops they don't even open 'em all |
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| The grand facade of the Holte End. |
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| I didn't know the Trinity Road Stand actually goes over...Trinity Road (?) |
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| Angles at the Villa: Trinity Road and Holte End |
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| For them who don't know the history of the Villa. Like me, for one. |
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| The massive Trinity Road Stand. It's massive. |
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| Angles at the Villa: Doug Ellis and the North Stand |
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| Doug Ellis Stand |
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| Season's greetings to you all! |
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