so, we finally know who our F.A Cup fourth round opponents are. Doncaster.
yes, those bastards. they who beat us 3-0 last time. yes, doncaster.
it's a saturday kick off at 3pm. i can't get to this game because i'm virtually skint and i'm already going to portsmouth away on tuesday so bah. i'll have to find a stream somewhere on the internet that's showing it.
i love f.a cup weekends. well, as long as we're playing in it still. when we're out...the f.a cup weekends are worst than being at court.
well, maybe not quite so bad...but you get the idea.
on paper, this tie should be easy...but the villa never make anything easy and so i fully expect it to be 0-0 with 5 minutes to go and then gabby goes and scores.
i'd take that, really i would...but it'd be so nice if for once, just once, we could finish a game off before half time and then we could relax and i'd have some fingernails left.
...wishful thinking?
(if) we get to the 5th round...i'd like a home game this time. and i'd quite like it to be a team NOT in the premiership. if the lords of football could make that happen (along with villa in the 6th round draw) i'd be very happy.
...i'm also hoping cardiff can knock clumps out of arsenal this weekend. if van persie could pull a hamstring or something...that'd be very nice. almost as nice as a villa win this weekend.
van persie is the only one keeping arsenal going without fabregas. take him out of the team and i'd say they'd struggle to hold onto 5th let alone fourth.
anyway, i've got one more day at work tomorrow and then i can sit back and enjoy the f.a cup weekend. :) here's hoping for a great weekend for the villa. (and cardiff haha...)
Thursday 22 January 2009
Saturday 17 January 2009
introductions to the madness of being a villa fan
i have a confession; i love Aston Villa Football Club.
i bleed claret and blue, and sometimes i end up nearly seeing that blood because (depending on our result that day) i end up wanting to slit my wrists.
of course, it could go the other way and i end up wanting to orgasm off the face of the earth; but that's the joys of following a football team.
the whole quality of your weekend, actually make that your whole week, depends on 90 little ol' minutes. 90 minutes you have absolutely no control over. it's up to 11 men, sometimes 14 depending on subs. the 11 men that you spend your money on, obsess over and pretty much live and breath for.
those 11 men can either make your saturday the best fucking day ever...or completely screw it up and make you want to sit in a cupboard somewhere and obsess over if young didn't make that foul, then such and such wouldn't have scored against us from that free kick.
if gabby had just turned left instead of right then he'd have cleared that goalkeeper and slotted the winner home.
there are so many what if's in football and that's what really makes each point dropped hard.
that cupboard may be dark, but god...it still doesn't stop your brain from going into overdrive.
today, i am happy. i am happy because we won 2-1. i am even happier because of the nature of that win...
sunderland away is always a tough game. they can be total tosh for weeks on end and then surprise, surprise...we come to town and waddya know? they go 1-0 after ELEVEN MINUTES GONE.
yes, that's right...11 minutes was all it took to put me in a mood and make me sulk in the car.
what i really wanted was to be there. i'd have loved nothing more than to be at the stadium of light, wearing claret and blue and singing my lungs out "on the piss, my lord, on the piss..."
in fact, i was sitting in a car, ringing my other half every 5 minutes to see what the score was.
i timed my shopping trip so i'd be back before 3pm but no, that went down the pan and so i had to make do with updates for the first 45 minutes.
apart from a sunderland goal, and an awful first half performance from the villa there really wasn't much to report.
i was home by the second half, and was watching soccer saturday on my tv, and a live stream of the game on my computer.
now, if you watch streams of your teams games often you'll know how bloody frustrating they are.
the stream cuts out just when your team is on the break, the picture quality is normally worse than your grandma's first tv set from back in the day and to cap it all off...it's normally about 5 minutes behind real time. so, if your team scores...everyone knows about it apart from you.
5 minutes doesn't seem like much...but when you're 1-0 down away from home it's a fricking lifetime.
in fact, i only learnt of jame's milner's equaliser because i happened to look at my tv scream at just the right time.
my computer was showing sunderland attacking us and, with head firmly in hands, i looked up at the tv to see jeff stelling getting all excited (and believe me, with your tv on mute...that's quite a funny sight). 20 seconds later and i realised that the screen was showing the villa score again. and it had changed. SUNDERLAND 1 -1 ASTON VILLA.
i then look at my live feed on my computer and it's showing the goal. genius from ashley young, and quite an amusing finish from milner.
still, a goal is a goal and we were right back in it.
by this time, my heart beat had rose by a few hundered extra beats a minute and i could not stop punching the air and screaming "COME ON VILLA!"
obviously, as time went on i become more and more agitated. i know the villa have made late goals a fashion this season but i really couldn't see us sneaking this one.
then ashley young got sent off and i felt like the bottom had fallen out of my world.
ashley and james milner were the only players who seemed like they could turn this one around for us and now we'd lost one of them. great.
i couldn't, and wouldn't complain. it was a red card fair and square. i don't think ashley meant any damage...he commited to a tackle and tried to go for the ball. unfortantly, he went in with two feet and made a (h)ash of it. (like what i did there? lol...)
at this point, i think most villans would have taken the point. the villa had other ideas, though, and suddenly we were awarded a penalty.
there was some crazy argument that it was outside the box and the ref had got it wrong - i have yet to see the highlights of that because my live feed had cut out by that point so was just looking to soccer saturday for updates.
now, penalties can be even more frustrating than live feeds. you get awarded one, you go crazy for a minute or so like you've just scored...and then if you miss it you feel like a total cock and boy, don't the opposition fans rub it in.
luckily, i had no such experiance today because mr.gareth barry stepped up and did what he had to do - he buried it and now my saturday was looking a whole lot more rosy.
SUNDERLAND 1 - 2 ASTON VILLA.
the next 10 minutes or so of the game was total torture. something i have become used to with the villa recently.
i mean, the everton game was total nail biting, heart attack inducing madness.
west ham away was frustrating. we didn't look like scoring at all, and when we finally did...we had to put up with 11 or so minutes or trying to hang on.
i was behind the goal for that game in the villa section and we didn't even realised we'd scored at first. milner was running off to celebrate and we were all standing there shouting "CORNER!"
it was an odd goal, that one...but now i'm rambling and getting off of the point.
then there was the arsenal game on boxing day. that one still bothers me. in reality, we should have won that game 3 or 4 nil.
however, arsenal did what we couldn't and put their chances away and punished us. luckily for us, they then bottled it and when zat knight scored THAT equaliser in the final minute of stoppage time...i am not ashamed to say i ran up to my tv and kissed him on the screen. on the cheek, mind.
i may have ended up with a thousand dust mites from the tv in my mouth, but my god...what a feeling.
i remember saying to my mum "THAT is what football is all about. THAT is what we're all here for. THAT is why i care so much."
then there was the hull game. frustrating, annoying and all types of piss taking; we had to wait around 87 minutes for a goal, and then when we DID score...i thought we'd thrown it all away when hull were awarded a penalty in the dying seconds...
...except it wasn't a penalty and the referee saw sense in the end.
much was said about how the villa crowded around the referee but FFS...it WAS.NOT.A.PENALTY.SO.OF.COURSE.THEY'D.DISPUTE.IT!!
anyway, the f.a cup game against gillingham wasn't much better.
to be fair, they outplayed us and we were lucky to come out of there unscathed. gillingham were really, really up for it...and why not? it was their game of the season, in front of a full house of fans and ITV1 cameras. i wasn't expecting it to a picnic, and it wasn't. in fact, it was more like the intigestion AFTER the picnic.
admittidly, we were without a lot of our first X1 but that's no excuse, really. if we want to win trophies like the F.A Cup then we need players who can play against anyone and do well.
nickey shorey was shocking. yet again, i was behind the goal in the villa section and everytime he got the ball i was sure he'd end up doing something stupid. in fact, at one point i was sure he was going to get the ball from the half way line and run the ball all the way into our own net. just because.
all in all, i could not complain really. milner scored a great little goal, petrov was fantastic, the fonz got a run out, we got through to the fourth round and i got on tv when the camera panned the crowd.
by all accounts, it wasn't a bad day out, really.
west brom was a tad frustrating. i was already devestated because i had tickets to it but was struck down (how dramatic) with a massive case of the flu and could barely blink or breath let alone attend a football match.
i was further devastated because, yet again, we couldn't kill a game off and ended up hanging on at the end and (whisper it) were lucky not to be given a penalty against us in the last minute.
...and then there was today.
i suppose, really, i'm out of order for whinging because we've had worst results this season. we've lost to boro, to newcastle, to stoke, to chelsea.
apart from the latter...all of them were pretty much winnable games.
things are very, very good at villa park at the moment. if luck keeps going our way...we could not only break the top four but maybe even the TOP THREE.
personally, if we ended up in 5th i'd still be proud of the villa. we've come on leaps and bounds and the only way is up from here on in.
not only do we have a great team, but we also have a great club.
there is a massive difference between the two things.
to have a great team you need the players and the results. to have a great club you need the players, the results, the fans, the owner, the manager, the whole staff really...
they all need to click into place to make the whole thing function. you need the whole club to pull together and make sure no distance gathers between the team, the staff and the fans.
aston villa, and possibly everton, are the only two clubs that seem like football clubs. everyone else just seems like a business.
maybe i'm wrong, and if i am then i apologise...but when i go down to villa park i feel like i'm going to see my favourite nan and her side of the family to sit by the fire with them all for an afternoon of nice hot meals and board games.
in other words, i feel warm, safe and part of something special that i belong to.
when villa play, you sense that the boys are so close and together that nothing and no-one can touch them. the fans look out for each other in a way the fans of the other top five teams can only dream of.
i go on to rival team's forums and they're all accusing each other of glory hunting and not giving a shite. the villa forum is so, so different...and it translates outside the grounds we visit, as well.
i've never felt scared at an away game...even against teams we have serious bad blood with.
that's because i know that if i was in trouble, a complete stranger in claret and blue will always have my back.
i could be a million miles away from home but still never feel safer.
anyway, i've strayed from the agenda somewhat...but my point i hope is clear.
villa are owned by someone who cares. their directors care. their players care. their fans are loyal, passionate and never give up. we may not have the money of man city, we may not have the substitutes bench of superstars like chelsea and man united have had, and we may not have the recent glory that arsenal have enjoyed...
but we are the villa...and you can shove your arab owners, your superstars and your doubles up your arse...
...there is nowhere i'd rather be than villa park. warning to the so called "top four":
if football is like poker: not only do we see your teams, but we raise you a club, too...and we're not bluffing.
i bleed claret and blue, and sometimes i end up nearly seeing that blood because (depending on our result that day) i end up wanting to slit my wrists.
of course, it could go the other way and i end up wanting to orgasm off the face of the earth; but that's the joys of following a football team.
the whole quality of your weekend, actually make that your whole week, depends on 90 little ol' minutes. 90 minutes you have absolutely no control over. it's up to 11 men, sometimes 14 depending on subs. the 11 men that you spend your money on, obsess over and pretty much live and breath for.
those 11 men can either make your saturday the best fucking day ever...or completely screw it up and make you want to sit in a cupboard somewhere and obsess over if young didn't make that foul, then such and such wouldn't have scored against us from that free kick.
if gabby had just turned left instead of right then he'd have cleared that goalkeeper and slotted the winner home.
there are so many what if's in football and that's what really makes each point dropped hard.
that cupboard may be dark, but god...it still doesn't stop your brain from going into overdrive.
today, i am happy. i am happy because we won 2-1. i am even happier because of the nature of that win...
sunderland away is always a tough game. they can be total tosh for weeks on end and then surprise, surprise...we come to town and waddya know? they go 1-0 after ELEVEN MINUTES GONE.
yes, that's right...11 minutes was all it took to put me in a mood and make me sulk in the car.
what i really wanted was to be there. i'd have loved nothing more than to be at the stadium of light, wearing claret and blue and singing my lungs out "on the piss, my lord, on the piss..."
in fact, i was sitting in a car, ringing my other half every 5 minutes to see what the score was.
i timed my shopping trip so i'd be back before 3pm but no, that went down the pan and so i had to make do with updates for the first 45 minutes.
apart from a sunderland goal, and an awful first half performance from the villa there really wasn't much to report.
i was home by the second half, and was watching soccer saturday on my tv, and a live stream of the game on my computer.
now, if you watch streams of your teams games often you'll know how bloody frustrating they are.
the stream cuts out just when your team is on the break, the picture quality is normally worse than your grandma's first tv set from back in the day and to cap it all off...it's normally about 5 minutes behind real time. so, if your team scores...everyone knows about it apart from you.
5 minutes doesn't seem like much...but when you're 1-0 down away from home it's a fricking lifetime.
in fact, i only learnt of jame's milner's equaliser because i happened to look at my tv scream at just the right time.
my computer was showing sunderland attacking us and, with head firmly in hands, i looked up at the tv to see jeff stelling getting all excited (and believe me, with your tv on mute...that's quite a funny sight). 20 seconds later and i realised that the screen was showing the villa score again. and it had changed. SUNDERLAND 1 -1 ASTON VILLA.
i then look at my live feed on my computer and it's showing the goal. genius from ashley young, and quite an amusing finish from milner.
still, a goal is a goal and we were right back in it.
by this time, my heart beat had rose by a few hundered extra beats a minute and i could not stop punching the air and screaming "COME ON VILLA!"
obviously, as time went on i become more and more agitated. i know the villa have made late goals a fashion this season but i really couldn't see us sneaking this one.
then ashley young got sent off and i felt like the bottom had fallen out of my world.
ashley and james milner were the only players who seemed like they could turn this one around for us and now we'd lost one of them. great.
i couldn't, and wouldn't complain. it was a red card fair and square. i don't think ashley meant any damage...he commited to a tackle and tried to go for the ball. unfortantly, he went in with two feet and made a (h)ash of it. (like what i did there? lol...)
at this point, i think most villans would have taken the point. the villa had other ideas, though, and suddenly we were awarded a penalty.
there was some crazy argument that it was outside the box and the ref had got it wrong - i have yet to see the highlights of that because my live feed had cut out by that point so was just looking to soccer saturday for updates.
now, penalties can be even more frustrating than live feeds. you get awarded one, you go crazy for a minute or so like you've just scored...and then if you miss it you feel like a total cock and boy, don't the opposition fans rub it in.
luckily, i had no such experiance today because mr.gareth barry stepped up and did what he had to do - he buried it and now my saturday was looking a whole lot more rosy.
SUNDERLAND 1 - 2 ASTON VILLA.
the next 10 minutes or so of the game was total torture. something i have become used to with the villa recently.
i mean, the everton game was total nail biting, heart attack inducing madness.
west ham away was frustrating. we didn't look like scoring at all, and when we finally did...we had to put up with 11 or so minutes or trying to hang on.
i was behind the goal for that game in the villa section and we didn't even realised we'd scored at first. milner was running off to celebrate and we were all standing there shouting "CORNER!"
it was an odd goal, that one...but now i'm rambling and getting off of the point.
then there was the arsenal game on boxing day. that one still bothers me. in reality, we should have won that game 3 or 4 nil.
however, arsenal did what we couldn't and put their chances away and punished us. luckily for us, they then bottled it and when zat knight scored THAT equaliser in the final minute of stoppage time...i am not ashamed to say i ran up to my tv and kissed him on the screen. on the cheek, mind.
i may have ended up with a thousand dust mites from the tv in my mouth, but my god...what a feeling.
i remember saying to my mum "THAT is what football is all about. THAT is what we're all here for. THAT is why i care so much."
then there was the hull game. frustrating, annoying and all types of piss taking; we had to wait around 87 minutes for a goal, and then when we DID score...i thought we'd thrown it all away when hull were awarded a penalty in the dying seconds...
...except it wasn't a penalty and the referee saw sense in the end.
much was said about how the villa crowded around the referee but FFS...it WAS.NOT.A.PENALTY.SO.OF.COURSE.THEY'D.DISPUTE.IT!!
anyway, the f.a cup game against gillingham wasn't much better.
to be fair, they outplayed us and we were lucky to come out of there unscathed. gillingham were really, really up for it...and why not? it was their game of the season, in front of a full house of fans and ITV1 cameras. i wasn't expecting it to a picnic, and it wasn't. in fact, it was more like the intigestion AFTER the picnic.
admittidly, we were without a lot of our first X1 but that's no excuse, really. if we want to win trophies like the F.A Cup then we need players who can play against anyone and do well.
nickey shorey was shocking. yet again, i was behind the goal in the villa section and everytime he got the ball i was sure he'd end up doing something stupid. in fact, at one point i was sure he was going to get the ball from the half way line and run the ball all the way into our own net. just because.
all in all, i could not complain really. milner scored a great little goal, petrov was fantastic, the fonz got a run out, we got through to the fourth round and i got on tv when the camera panned the crowd.
by all accounts, it wasn't a bad day out, really.
west brom was a tad frustrating. i was already devestated because i had tickets to it but was struck down (how dramatic) with a massive case of the flu and could barely blink or breath let alone attend a football match.
i was further devastated because, yet again, we couldn't kill a game off and ended up hanging on at the end and (whisper it) were lucky not to be given a penalty against us in the last minute.
...and then there was today.
i suppose, really, i'm out of order for whinging because we've had worst results this season. we've lost to boro, to newcastle, to stoke, to chelsea.
apart from the latter...all of them were pretty much winnable games.
things are very, very good at villa park at the moment. if luck keeps going our way...we could not only break the top four but maybe even the TOP THREE.
personally, if we ended up in 5th i'd still be proud of the villa. we've come on leaps and bounds and the only way is up from here on in.
not only do we have a great team, but we also have a great club.
there is a massive difference between the two things.
to have a great team you need the players and the results. to have a great club you need the players, the results, the fans, the owner, the manager, the whole staff really...
they all need to click into place to make the whole thing function. you need the whole club to pull together and make sure no distance gathers between the team, the staff and the fans.
aston villa, and possibly everton, are the only two clubs that seem like football clubs. everyone else just seems like a business.
maybe i'm wrong, and if i am then i apologise...but when i go down to villa park i feel like i'm going to see my favourite nan and her side of the family to sit by the fire with them all for an afternoon of nice hot meals and board games.
in other words, i feel warm, safe and part of something special that i belong to.
when villa play, you sense that the boys are so close and together that nothing and no-one can touch them. the fans look out for each other in a way the fans of the other top five teams can only dream of.
i go on to rival team's forums and they're all accusing each other of glory hunting and not giving a shite. the villa forum is so, so different...and it translates outside the grounds we visit, as well.
i've never felt scared at an away game...even against teams we have serious bad blood with.
that's because i know that if i was in trouble, a complete stranger in claret and blue will always have my back.
i could be a million miles away from home but still never feel safer.
anyway, i've strayed from the agenda somewhat...but my point i hope is clear.
villa are owned by someone who cares. their directors care. their players care. their fans are loyal, passionate and never give up. we may not have the money of man city, we may not have the substitutes bench of superstars like chelsea and man united have had, and we may not have the recent glory that arsenal have enjoyed...
but we are the villa...and you can shove your arab owners, your superstars and your doubles up your arse...
...there is nowhere i'd rather be than villa park. warning to the so called "top four":
if football is like poker: not only do we see your teams, but we raise you a club, too...and we're not bluffing.
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