New Season, New Owners, New Players, New Optimism, Same Old Travel Problems.

By Tim Wykes – The Travelling Villan

New Season, New Owners, New Players, New Optimism, Same old travel problems!!

As the first home game of the season approached my excitement was building. A solid 3 points away at Hull, although certainly not a vintage performance was a great way to start. The ‘will he stay or go’ Grealish saga and the capture of a few players late in the transfer window only added to the tension as match day approached.

I live on Walney Island, on the very West Coast of the Lake District, the excitement of match day is always tempered with the dread of having no idea how long the journey will take, for anyone who uses it regularly, the M6 is an absolute joke right now.

Twice last season, I left home as usual at 09:30 for a Saturday 15:00 KO and turned around at 14:00 still being at least 90 mins away. Totally soul destroying…Not for this game though, I took the Friday off work and headed down a day early. Friday traffic and bad luck meant the journey too over 6 ½ hours, but, no stress, I had plenty of time in reserve.

Saturday morning, up nice and early and arrived at Powerleague to get parked around 12:00 and have time for a wander down to the new shop and get the obligatory Balti Pie.

£7.50!!!! Yes, that’s right… £7.50 to park, I had forgotten it went up last season, I’m so used to it always being a fiver. As I pulled into the car park, I saw that the exit down to Spaghetti junction was coned off down to one lane, its Wacky races getting out normally, so having only one lane open when trying to start the long journey home didn’t fill me with joy.

The sun was out, and the walk up to the ground was uneventful, I did the usual wander around the ground and then headed for ‘The Holte Pub’ to get a drink.

This season, the pub is reserved for Lions Club members only again; personally, I don’t get it, why would you want to segregate fans?

To be honest, the pub is such an infuriating experience, every time I go in there, they have lots of staff, none of which have any idea how to work a bar, on top of that, a huge building, big rooms, one small bar with seats for about 30 people. That place could make so much profit if only it was run well.

With an hour before KO, the place was so rammed, 5 deep at the bar, I gave up my stool to an elderly lady and headed out to sit in the sun on the Holte End steps. I love just sitting there, soaking up the vibe, eavesdropping on the conversations and gauging the mood and expectation. There was a positive buzz, helped by the weather, but also just first game excitement. I sat there wondering if my season card would work and actually let me in, or if there was going to be an issue, I had received no correspondence from the club with regards to my season ticket whatsoever.

Aston Villa has always been terrible at doing the simple things.

I headed into the ground, a quick pat down by security and was then surprised that my season card flashed the LED green, the turnstile clicked and in I went. The Holte concourse was busy, big queues for food and drinks as usual, again, seems like every member of staff are making their debuts. Bruce would be sacked if he played a completely new team and they didn’t perform.
Off up my seat, stopping for a chat with the Steward who I have known for years, but can never remember his name, he is smiling and feeling good for the season ahead. As I get to my seat, I see the usual people who sit around me, we greet each other warmly with smiles and vigorous handshakes and begin the usual pre match analysis that I imagine everyone goes through.
The game was billed as a sell-out (Not counting the Upper Trinity), but there were quite a few empty seats in the Trinity and Doug Ellis stands, great atmosphere though, and a real buzz around the Holte as the players all received their individual cheers, Grealish was singled out for a special cheer and round of applause as expected.

Kick off

Decent start, moving the ball quickly and Bikir dropping deep to collect the ball and work it out of defence. New signing John McGinn, got a big cheer the first time he rattled into a hard challenge, something that happened a lot throughout the game. I am struggling to think of a player’s debut that was as impressive as McGinns. He reminds me of Ashley Westwood on speed and very, very angry. The Holte loved him instantly; his set piece for the opening goal was inch perfect and straight after he flashed a snapshot just wide.

Throughout the game, when we played football, we were much better than Wigan, to their credit, they pressured us for around 30 mins in the second half. During that time, we lost our composure and stopped playing. I thought it was noticeable that we didn’t seem to have a leader on the pitch that, took control, and forced the team to slow it down and play. Terry did it brilliantly last season, we need to find that personality in the team as soon as possible.

To win the game, in the manner we did, is not something that happens often at Villa, in recent history, we have conceded late on and dropped points turning the atmosphere during the exit from the ground sour.

Winning at the death, does a lot more for team spirit and supporter attitude than an easy 3-0 win. We can build momentum, drawing on the belief that we can turn it around, the crowd believes, and this resonates to the players, ours and the opposition.

Even though I have a long drive, I have only once ever left before the final whistle, and on Saturday, I wondered how the early leavers felt walking away from the ground and hearing the roar as that late winner hit the back of the net right in front of the Holte end. Why would you leave?

The walk back to the car was fantastic, chatting to loads of people all happy, smiling, laughing. John McGinn’s name was bouncing along the crowds like it was surfing, everyone agreeing that he could be something very special for us.

I got to the car, was out of the car park within 5 minutes and bizarrely, the single lane actually seemed to help the traffic getting out. 10 minutes later, I was Northbound on the M6, for once the journey home was smooth, no traffic jams, it just felt like that late winner had aligned my Karma and everything was going to be OK.

Can’t wait for the next game.

Up the Villa