For this second part of my journey through the wonders of Birmingham’s football clubs, I have decided to ditch most of the text and concentrate on colour. This is what has come out of it, I hope you enjoy it.
Villa Park beckons. To understand what Aston Villa is really about, I thought a looking out on Villa Park’s hallowed turf would be a good starting point. On Friday morning I joined the Stadium Tour after paying the moderate amount of ten pounds. As I was waiting in the player’s lounge I was fortunate enough to make some acquaintances among my fellow tour-mates. Now, take a look by yourselves at “the famous ground that boasts traditional heritage with state-of-the-art facilities”. Well, at least that’s what the advert on the website says.
Next day was match day in Aston. My idea was to watch the match on the nearest pub’s TV set and collect some of the regular’s impressions, as I have done last week in St. Andrews. Problem is I was completely ignorant about some of this country’s regulations or what is the same: I didn’t know they don’t show three o’clock matches on Saturdays, for God’s sake! But there is a solution for everything in this world, or if you want to be more specific: the internet has a solution for everything. At this point, you might have figured out what I did, so I’m not going to get myself into trouble by giving out the details. If you want to be really picky, I suppose you could ask me: “Why didn’t you buy a ticket, you tight bast***?” Answer: Because I am a student. By the way, before this I had the chance to share an interesting conversation with an Aston Villa of over 35 years. His name is Dave Sherwood, and as he told me, he is “over 50” and “chases people for money”.
There is not much I can say about the match itself, you probably know everything about it. Villa trashed helpless Bolton in a 5-1 demolition. Bolton’s defensive incompetence helped to expand the score in favour of Villa, nevertheless some of the home players put in breathtaking performances. Brave James Milner was my absolute favourite, giving two goals and scoring once.
And so concludes this second chapter. Before you leave, please help me out on this one, tell me which other football ground I should write a story on. It is time to expand my horizons.
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