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61
In General / Our neighbours
« Last post by martin@ on October 10, 2012, 10:55:08 AM »
It's about time this got another airing....

The fact that every time the Hawthorns gets near capacity they can't cope, the Alex Cropley game when they set out for ninety minutes to kick anything in claret and blue, Alan Baker, John Woodward, Ray Graydon, their sanctimonious holier-than-thou we're only a little team and we're going to enjoy ourselves everybody likes us attitude, the fact that their most famous supporter made a career out of humiliating their most famous ex-player - a man who it is now known was suffering from a degenerative brain disease, their absolute hatred of us (and me or Coops can supply a list of places to pop into before or after the match for anyone who thinks that they're all nice and friendly), the time we beat them 7-2 in a reserve match then in the return a month later they had nine of their first team playing because they couldn't bear losing again, their pretence of being nowhere near Birmingham despite their post code and phone number, their stupid jumping up and down and making twats of themselves in the name of atmosphere, letting the likes of Soccer AM makes fools of them and degrading all football supporters everywhere by implication, still going on about Ronnie Allen and 1959 like it's the most important thing to ever happen in their sad, woebegotten lives and it probably is, not being able to get a drink anywhere near the ground, constant whining of it ay fair and the world's against them, just watch tomorrow how many of them blame the referee for all seventeen of our goals, moaning that the local press are biased against them despite the fact that they've got more supporters in the media than us and Small Heath put together, Adrian Chiles, Skinner again, endlessly complaining that they would have won the league in 1979 if the weather hadn't turned cold in January like it wasn't the same for every other club in the first division, bleating on and on and on about how loyal they are just because their crowds didn't get as low as the Wolves like that makes any difference, having the highest percentage of middle aged fat blokes walking round supermarkets in football shirts of anywhere in the world including Newcastle, having a civic reception for finishing third in the third division, showing Ossie Ardiles what Smethwick looks like from the top of a double decker bus then wondering why he fecked off the next week, every time a player leaves them they always moan he's only gone for the money even when they're swapping Smethwick for Madrid, Willie Johnstone, that bloody stupid bird stuck on the top of the scoreboard, those executive boxes with corrugated iron roofs, playing the Liquidator just like their big bad rivals in the Stadium of Yellow, that stupid metal sheeting at the back of the old away end that meant I missed every goal when we were three up at half time there, having to play in the morning in the FA Cup 1990, the half time message in the second division "Will Villa supporters please move forward, there are still some trying to get in", boasting about giving a policeman brain damage at Villa Park in 1978 but they're still nice & friendly, being surrounded by the bastards in the Witton Lane stand in 1974, never enough buses back down Holyhead Road, being the only local league club to insist on playing Birmingham Senior Cup games at home and thus depriving the local non-league teams of a decent gate, thinking they have a God-given right to park anywhere they like and moaning when they get tickets for parking on double yellow lines, you can bet there'll be more face paint and stupid wigs per supporter than at any other ground in the country and I include Newcastle in that again, the six wankers shouting their gobs off on the bus when I was going back home after the game in 1982, the very quiet one who was left when his five mates got off, the 1887 cup final when they planned to get the train back via Worcester to avoid travelling through Birmingham with the cup, except the cup went straight back to Aston without them ha fucking ha, coming up and saying that they weren't going to spend any money because they wanted to go straight back down and use the parachute payments to get back again, Skinner and Chiles walking up and down Witton Lane looking for camera crews, making out Bryan Robson was a returning hero when they'd hated him ever since he left, forgetting now that they wanted him hung a month after he became manager, the day they stayed up and reckoned everybody in the country loves them because they're such a nice inoffensive club with wonderful fans, having to get coaches to come three miles down Island Road, that fucking sanctimonious Grorty Dick fanzine that used to call us arrogant yet made out that they were such a big club, then had a celebration issue when they beat us in a youth match I kid you not, being the only Villa supporter in a school of 1,600 of the bastards when they didn't care about Wolves, getting a manager sacked because of a low crowd for a pre-season friendly, Alex Cropley again, Eric Clapton and I'm sure UB40 used to say they supported them when they were good, the fucking Albion that is not UB40, having their end named after a city they hate, an evening paper that treats playing Manchester United in the league in the same patronising way that Kidderminster Harriers would get in the FA Cup, Jim Cumbes dropping down two divisions because our crowds were bigger, treating reserve matches as something really big and important, having a shopping centre in the town and gates at their ground named after a player who scored in a cup final and cost England the World Cup, this supposed 'big vlub' making a fuss of winning the third division play-offs, Terry Wills who although he is a very nice man should be told that he does not have to go on every radio station after every match,asking us to play friendlies and still treating our supporters like shit, wanting every manager sacked after three defeats, Bob Taylor, every one of their supporters over fifty was at the ground when they relegated us in 1959 and will talk forever about it but none of them remembers us stopping them winning the league four years earlier, you're not telling me it's a coincidence that Alistair Fucking Brown got a job working for them after his thuggish career was mercifully brought to an end, knowing more about how Bayern Munich should have won the European Cup in 1982 than Bayern Munich do, my irritating little shit of a cousin Luke who used to support Manchester United then got a season ticket up there when they got into the Premier League, including Prisoner 820468 Hughes, L, in a book called Cult Heroes and I bet the family of the bloke he killed have got a better and similar description for him, some knobhead I heard saying all he wanted to do when they went down was come back up win the cup and kick fuck out the Villa then talked about football for ten minutes and never once went off the subject of how much he hates us, I bet that Everton fan they blinded thinks they're lovely, a town centre where the best pub is a Wetherspoon's and the best restaurant is McDonalds, how every time we beat them and there'sa  lot to choose from they always complain that they'd rather lose than play like us like they have a choice, putting reserve teams out in games they're going to lsoe anyway but it's alright for them to do it, every tiem they come up saying they don't intend to spend any money because we're ony a little team and we're doing ever so well to be here in the first place, Tony Mowbray always claiming moral victories...

Read more or join in the discussion at Heroes & Villains Fourm
62
Features / Villa in Europe 77/78
« Last post by martin@ on October 10, 2012, 10:48:39 AM »
Pretty poor quality and in Spannish but will bring back a few memories for some.

Villa v Barcelona 1978

Viila v Bilbao 1977

63
Day by Day / Worst awaydays past and present.
« Last post by martin@ on October 10, 2012, 10:40:40 AM »
What in your opinion is the worst present awayday? Also, what was your grimmest from the past?

Past:
Oldham Athletic, grim little shed of a stadium, horrible concrete block of an uncovered terrace behind the goal with no facilities what so ever.

Present
Has to be Old Trafford. Nowhere to drink around the ground for away fans. Totally sanitized football experience with a lot of their support being daytrippers from all parts of the globe

64
Day by Day / Unpopular Villa players
« Last post by martin@ on October 10, 2012, 10:35:50 AM »
It's never nice to see fans turning on their own players but sometimes it just cant be avoided.  Plus these are multi millionaire professionals paid to perform, it isn't Sunday league.

What other standout unpopular players were there over the years and which of them were a little hard done by?


65
Day by Day / Grounds you never got to and never will now.
« Last post by martin@ on October 10, 2012, 10:28:19 AM »
Which grounds did you always seem to miss out on when the Villa were there and wish that you hadnt because they no longer exist ?


66
Features / Worst News as a Villa Fan
« Last post by martin@ on May 27, 2012, 08:42:23 AM »
Other than relegation, what was the worst news you have had as a Villa fan ?

Mine was when we sold Andy Gray to Wolves it seemed like it was the end of the world !!

<<<<<<<   Read More  >>>>>>>
68
Day by Day / Says it all really....
« Last post by martin@ on December 13, 2011, 09:01:45 AM »

Following a discussion on Heroes & Villains, the fanzine received permission from the club to erect a plaque to those players, officials and supporters who served in wartime. This is now on display on the wall of the Trinity Road Stand by the pavers. (photo by Lee Baker) Click image to enlarge.

After talking to a plaque manufacturer, suitable wording was agreed. The plaque is off English brass & bronze with deep embossed lettering. The metal itself is cast from a specified ingot brass/bronze. The raised text, borders and outside edges are hand polished and finished. The thickness of the plaque is approx 4 to 5 mm.

Unfortunately the following part was not able to be incorporated, due to various difficulties.

Those long uneven lines
Standing as patiently
As if they were stretched outside
The Oval or Villa Park,
The crowns of hats, the sun
On moustached archaic faces
Grinning as if it were all
An August Bank Holiday lark

From MCMXIV, by Phillip Larkin
69
Day by Day / William McGregor's grave
« Last post by martin@ on December 13, 2011, 08:59:11 AM »

Football League founder William McGregor's grave rededicated

The grave of the founder of the Football League and former chairman of Aston Villa has been rededicated.

William McGregor was born in Braco, Perthshire, in 1846 and became chairman of the Birmingham-based club in 1886 before founding the league in 1888.

The Aston Villa Supporters Trust has raised about £1,000 to clean up the gravestone.

Trust chairman, Peter Warrilow, described McGregor as "a towering figure in world football".

He said: "William McGregor was far more than a director and chairman, he was the promoter of the first football league in the world.

The trust also helped commission a statue of McGregor which was erected outside Villa Park in 2009.

Mr Warrilow described him as an "inspirational man" as he was the driving force behind the first organised sports league in the world.

He said: "Before McGregor there was no certainty for spectators - games would be cancelled whereas if there was a league and a proper structure teams couldn't pull out."

Peter Lupson, a football author and historian, brought the issue of the grave to the club's attention while writing Thank God For Football.

He said: "McGregor's one of the three most important men in the history of football.

"As father of the Football League he's effectively the father of all football leagues - the one he founded was the prototype.

"He ranks alongside Ebenezer Cob Morley who gave the world the name soccer as we know it and also Charles Alcock who created the FA Cup and launched international football - he's up there with those people."

Mr Lupson said it is important to remember the role Mr McGregor played in the modern game, along with other people involved in the early days of the football league.

He said: "He's been forgotten for the same reason that all the great pioneers have - people are so involved in the present day that there's no time to focus on the past.

"I made it my mission to rescue the names of some of these great men from obscurity."

Lord Brian Mawhinney, president of the Football League, and officials from all 12 of founding clubs attended the service at St Mary's church in Handsworth on Tuesday.

The gravestone also had the words "Founder of the football league and chairman of Aston Villa FC" added to it.

Aston Villa's archivist, Laura Brett, said: "It's a hugely important recognition, not just for Villa but for football in general across the world.

"It's important to ensure that's he's not forgotten."



More photo's from Legion HERE and on the forum HERE

From AFVC (includes video)

We can only speculate what the great man would have made of it.

As Lord Brian Mawhinney mused, though, William McGregor would most likely have been "chuffed" that a service was being held in his honour a century after his death.

Exactly 100 years after McGregor's passing, we gathered in St Mary's Church, Handsworth, and later beside his refurbished grave, to pay tribute to the founder of the Football League.

It was very much a game of two halves, both of them dominated by the Villa legend.

As former chairman Doug Ellis pointed out in a television interview, McGregor is the most important figure in football history.

At Villa Park, we treasure his immense contribution to the club in various roles, including chairman, treasurer and vice-president, from 1877 until his death on December 20, 1911.

The wider football world, meanwhile, will forever be grateful to the man who, in 1888, launched a "fixity of fixtures" that evolved into the strongest league in the world.

The congregation - many of them sporting claret and blues scarves - were welcomed by Villa's chief executive Paul Faulkner.

Fittingly, the other 11 original Football League members were also represented, all of them no doubt reflecting on their gratitude to the man who set organised football in motion.

The speeches were passionate, too.

Peter Lupson, who spearheaded the project and is a leading authority on McGregor, eulogised for 20 minutes. Lord Mawhinney was on his feet for 15 minutes - and both spoke with an affection which almost suggested they had known the man known as the Father of the Football League.

Lupson described McGregor as someone who "radiated joy" and whose characteristic was the smile on his face and the twinkle in his eye - a man who never sought publicity or notoriety.

While they were saluting someone who has passed on, though, there was no funereal atmosphere about the proceedings.

As the service drew to a close, the Bishop of Aston, the Rt Rev Andrew Watson, amused us with his comment that the first half was drawing to a close and that the second half would take place outside in the graveyard.

McGregor's grave, situated more than a football pitch length away from the church, stands out proudly in sombre surroundings following its painstaking refurbishment.

The re-dedication was performed by Bishop Andrew before the representatives of the dozen founder member clubs lined up for a team photo behind the gravestone.

As the Rev Canon Brian Hall, rector of St. Mary's, observed it was "an unusual but very special occasion."

70
In General / Say's it all really
« Last post by martin@ on July 24, 2011, 01:34:17 PM »
[float=left][/float] Following a discussion on Heroes & Villains, the fanzine received permission from the club to erect a plaque to those players, officials and supporters who served in wartime. This is now on display on the wall of the Trinity Road Stand by the pavers. (photo by Lee Baker)

After talking to a plaque manufacturer, suitable wording was agreed. The plaque is off English brass & bronze with deep embossed lettering. The metal itself is cast from a specified ingot brass/bronze. The raised text, borders and outside edges are hand polished and finished. The thickness of the plaque is approx 4 to 5 mm.

Unfortunately the following part was not able to be incorporated, due to various difficulties.

Those long uneven lines
Standing as patiently
As if they were stretched outside
The Oval or Villa Park,
The crowns of hats, the sun
On moustached archaic faces
Grinning as if it were all
An August Bank Holiday lark; From MCMXIV, by Phillip Larkin

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