1st November: Keinan Davis is out for three or our weeks, which means not see him until Christmas at the earliest. settled out of court with Keith Wyness, and with any luck the last see or hear from him.

2nd November: Villa 1 Liverpool 2. Gutted At kick-off time, with Jack missing, it was time to hope for a miracle, or more likely, that we going to get too badly beaten. Then we started the game better than anyone could have wished for. That we went a goal up when a perfect free-kick from John McGinn was met by Trezeguet was no great surprise; at least not as much of a surprise as when VAR finally worked in our favour, ruling out a Liverpool equaliser for offside. The second half was the expected war of attrition and just as it seemed as though we might, possibly, hold out there was no way to defend a cross that was every bit as inch-perfect as in the first half. The sickener here was that it came from a player who have been on the pitch after being guilty of at least four bookable offences, and maybe more. Then that final corner defended and the same player scored. It was horrible but there was still much to be taken from the afternoon. We go again.

5th November: The League Cup quarter-final will be on 17th December. They ll be sending their youth team.

7th November: A police officer has been charged with the murder of Dalian Atkinson.

9th November: Inevitability time Uefa are looking at holding the 2024 Champions league final in the USA. Luckily have got fed up with winning it by then. called up for the Brazil squad.

10th November: Wolves 1 Villa 2 was nothing like the honour in defeat of the previous week. We were diabolical, a point Dean Smith acknowledged afterwards, even allowing for the beginning of the annual injury list expansion. Three out, Jed Steer off after eight minutes and uphill struggle got ever steeper as the first half progressed, with Villa making little impact going forward and our defence struggling to cope. The only real surprise was that it took so long for Wolves to score, a goal that was followed on the stroke of half-time by a further injury, this time to Matt Targett. Villa improved after the break, although they have been much worse, although they never really looked like getting back into the game and second was always more likely than an equaliser. Trezeguet did pull one back in stoppage time, but that more of a confidence booster for him than any other glimmer of hope on an afternoon to forget. Having so many injuries before and during was always going to cause problems but that was no excuse for the lack of effort we saw here.

11th November: Jed out for two months, which is a bit of a pisser for him and us.

15th November: Prices for the reserves/youth team game with Liverpool have been announced and not exactly cheap. got a current Brazilian international, as Wesley plays against Argentina.

19th November: You wait 145 years for a Brazilian international, then two come along at once. Douglas Luiz comes off the bench against South Korea. Manchester United are going to pay £50 million for John McGinn, although the story comes from a source noted for running smears against us, namely the Birmingham Mail website.

20th November: Congratulations to goalkeeper , currently on loan at Livingston, who made his debut for Montenegro against Belarus. They won 2-0.

25th November: Villa 2 Newcastle 0. Their manager got the reception he deserved, ie pretty much ignored, and his team got the result he deserved as well. There were a few contrasts on the night, the most obvious being the way both sides treated the ball. We knocked it around, they tried to knock it out. It helped us that Newcastle were awful, and feel sorry for any other set of supporters. For all our possession we look much like scoring until a well-worked out free-kick was put in the back of the net by Conor Hourihane after 32 minutes, then four minutes later a similar situation and some gloriously incompetent defending saw Anwar El Ghazi score. Two up at half-time, and we let them into the game for a bit after the break. Then we got on top again, missed a couple of good chances and saw the game out with little fuss. We missed a couple of chances that would have given the final scoreline the look we deserved and Newcastle had given up hope long before then. The league looking a bit better now.

26th November: Christian Purslow, in a Talksport interview, says that we be selling anyone soon. Like stop the stories. Then for some reason, an announcement that most of our under-23 games will now be at Bodymoor, be free to get in but all-ticket, take an umbrella and please drive there unless you can help it. It sound the most attractive date night in the world and together with the almost total lack of information about these fixtures from the Villa website, think that someone was trying to stop us from ever finding out about these matches.

27th November: The inquest into Jlloyd Sam death rules that he died as a result of a road traffic collision with no suspicious circumstances. a sad conclusion to a very sad incident.

28th November: David Duckinfield, after admitting negligence under oath, is found not guilty of manslaughter. Work that one out and still have some faith in British justice. 29th November: Dean signed a new four-year contract, and congratulations to him for it. 1st December: Manchester United 2 Villa 2 was perhaps the most significant result of the season so far. We came, we saw and we in the slightest bit overawed, for only the second or third time in a quarter of a century. Jack was the star of the show, scoring what I belied the young people call a and having his bootlace offside to prevent Trezeguet from getting a second. And we could have another one or two more, but Tyrone Mings had to make his weekly mistake, which inevitably led to a goal for them before half-time. Their second was no great surprise, but our equaliser straight afterward was, with Mings making up with a volley that gave Kevin Friend the chance to have an attack of conscience and allow. There was a lot of defending towards the end, and I do wish Dean would use subs a bit more, but it cost us and at the final whistle we were the team most disappointed that we win. At Old Trafford. progress.

2nd December: the FA Cup third round draw, and the Gods of away trips make sure going to Fulham this season, which is how it should be.

4th December: Paul 60th birthday today. Chelsea 2 Villa 1 much of a present - top four contenders beating relegation battlers without breaking sweat. With John Terry making his triumphant return the other part of the story was written as soon as Tammy Abraham was announced fit and lo, he promptly scored after being given far too much room by our defence, again. Just before half-time we somehow managed to draw level when a cross from Ahmed Elmohamady was bundled over the line by Trezeguet, despite the best attempts to clear the ball after his mis-timed header. And then, just when we thought we might have a chance of getting another good result, three minutes after half-time Abraham created winner. They could have scored a few more, we never looked like getting another equaliser. If going to get anything from somewhere like Stamford Bridge every player has to be on top of their game, and tonight almost every player fell well short.

5th December: Liverpool s squad for that world club thing is announced and it looks like we ll be playing their schoolboys XI. It ll end in tears

heroes and villains Website: www.heroesandvillains.co.uk E mail: iotp@heroesandvillains.net Facebook: www.facebook.com/handv Twitter: @thevillafanzine Editor: Dave Woodhall Contributors: John Russell, Richard Keeling, Alex Russon, Simon Page, Frank Pattison, Stacy Murphy, Colin Brown, Mark Richards, Robin Wilkes, Chinchilla & Jon Follows Next issue: 3rd January. Contributions in by Sunday 29th December, please. Of hitting the streets of Aston Sheffield United on 21st December. Buy one.

The thing with supporting the Villa is that the club is steeped in folklore, whether it be stories of gas lamps, the melting down of a lost FA Cup trophy or a star inter-war forward keeping chickens in his front room. The list can go on and on, but the story about Charlie Athersmith and an umbrella is something that poster MorrisNielson thought he could actually look up and see if was true or not.

Le Grand Depart, Grimsby Town, Huddersfield Town, Wigan Athletic, Everton, Warrington Wolves, Newcastle United, Wigan Warriors, Leeds Rhinos, Gloucestershire CCC, Leeds United, Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, Bristol City, The MCC, Sunderland, England Rugby Union and many other clubs and sporting organisations have all worked closely with and benefitted from the work of Sporting Memories, several of them have made matches Sporting Memories games to raise awareness of dementia and mental health issues and to publicise the charity. The charity won three prestigious national awards for their work last year and lots of positive coverage in the national press.

In February 2015 the government launched Dementia 2020 highlighting their aims and some of the work being done. Naturally no mention is made of any of the above or the work done by Sporting Memories Network but the one football club that worked with a certain massive charity which the government provide hundreds of millions on funding to got praise for their work in the field. Funny that. Have a guess how much Sporting Memories have got in funding from the government.

Go here for more information on Sporting Memories.

...where we go down?

Legion asks the question we are all asking ourselves.
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