By Kerry Lenihan
Friday was touch and go, as to whether I’d actually make it back up to Brum from the snowy capital for the game on Saturday. However after receiving the go ahead from the Villa family via Twitter, I trundled across the city, jumped on a train and 2 hours later found myself in the Briar Rose, 11am and time for a pint…soon followed by many more.
Around 4pm we braved the breezy outside and headed towards Snow Hill. Chanting a few cheery tunes along the way ‘Oi Oh Oi Oh… it’s up the Holte we go,’ as we crossed Pigeon Park, a solitary snowball flew past; I can only assume it was thrown by one of the ‘many’ noses en route to St. Andrews.
The station was buzzing, mostly with flashes of Claret and Blue, a warning from the nearby police to ‘calm down or risk not attending the game’ prompted a round of ‘shhhhhh, shhhhh’, luckily they’ve got a sense of humour. The train journey itself was far from quiet; the rowdy Villa lot provided enough entertainment to make the short journey pass almost instantly. Everything from ‘My old man, said be a city fan,’ to, ‘his name is Jesus, he does what he wants’ (If you don’t know Jesus, you are missing out).
Now I don’t know about you, but West Brom have never really been big rivals of mine personally, my school was either Villa or Blues, and I only know a single season ticket holder at The Hawthorns, however for some reason the Baggies lot seemed to believe Saturday’s game was on the same level as an FA Cup final. ‘We know what you are, we know what you are, obsessed with the Villa, we know what you are’ echoed around the station, down the train, and up the stairs long before we were seated.
Never been a huge fan of the mammoth hill as you exit the station, and the ice/snow made it all the more treacherous to climb, a fair few slips occurred, much to our amusement. Once we’d been frisked, and allowed to enter the ground, ‘Paul Lambert’s Claret & Blue army – A.V.F.C’, bellowed through the terrace. We’d sold out our allocation, but thankfully the space was much more accommodating than the squished conditions at Valley Parade.
As we made our way to our seats for kick off, they were replaying some shots from the ‘yam-yam cam’, an initiative I find most peculiar, considering the ‘yam-yam’ language is possibly one of Britain’s worst. This prompted a delightful round of ‘yam, yam, yam, yam, yam, yam, yam, yam, yam, yam’ to the tune of Two Unlimited’s ‘No Limits’.
The atmosphere was pretty decent to begin with, except for the idiot who set off a flare right next to us, without any prior warning. Didn’t expect to be seeing blue for the first 5 minutes. When did this become a thing that we do? Oh well, the joke was on him when it set on fire and he couldn’t put it out.
The first half was pretty good, our fans were very lively, and so were the team. Benteke’s goal was an absolutely belter, Charlie was on fire slotting a smooth through ball to provide Gabby with the assist for another beautiful goal. ‘We’re winning away, we’re winning away, how shit must you be, we’re winning away’. As half time approached, the claret + blue army were on cloud 9, whilst the yam yam’s weren’t so pleased, sure I heard them boo their team off the pitch. However good as the first half had been, we all know the Villa, this wasn’t over yet.
To be honest their fans were rather flat, which did make me miss the real Brum derby a fair bit; least there’s a bit of banter there.
As (sadly) predicted, we lost our heads in the second half, throwing away leads is just the kind of team we are at the moment. Brunt smacked home a scorcher a few minutes after play resumed, and we turned into headless chickens, the fear set in, again. This half was much more subdued, from both sets of fans, which I found odd, if Villa somehow managed to turn a 2-0 deficit around, I feel we’d be going mental. As the second goal for West Brom was slotted home by Odemwingie, I don’t think anyone flinched, you could see it coming a mile off. Dropped points once more.
Things turned sour after the final whistle, as a mass brawl erupted, with stewards, doing their best to keep both sets of fans apart. I didn’t expect to be taking flight down the chairs on my way out, but cheers to the steward who tried to protect me. Another thing, when did we start fighting with our own fans? I’m not sure where the idiots have suddenly come from, but kindly leave. We’ve enough problems on the pitch, let alone off it.
Kerry can be found on Twitter here
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Thats a minority and i agree walking out after 30 mis is an embrassment and i wouldnt ever do it. Yet you still cant beat us! no point mocking when you cant beat us yourselves. yes a pathetic turn out for us i agree but we still got more than your sell out crowds! Glad your happy with these bites, we’re just pissing ourselves at you wanting a rivalry with us and constantly singing our name! does make us all laugh.
Oh dear,oh dear, oh dear. What with the fans sneaking out after half hour and losing to a side that hasn’t won away all season. How far the mighty have fallen. The game might as well have been played at the Hawthorns, the pathetic turn out for such a big club, maybe Randy should consider a ground share, with perry barr dogs. No doubt, you’ll all get your own back tomorrow evening after we’ve played Everton. Arrive derci.
weknowwhatweare No chance the dogs would never stand for it. There is no way there going to mix with that lot.
Got the champagne chilling will open it the minute the villa are officially down. Wonder what the odds are on double relegation the vile and the dingles. that would really be cause for a celebration.
So no other team clap and chant there teams names?, 8th minute for our defeat at Chelsea or is the lead you lost at Reading?. Saying how awful we have been this year you still couldnt beat us?. We have been top dogs of the midlands for the past how many years yet we didnt sing about the Midlands once? cause it really doesn’t bother us. Why call us historians? cause we have a PROUD history which we are proud of? We won things when they were won the proper way and money didnt influence the league or cups etc. Take the piss out of us all you like we know its been tough for you the past years, what is the championship like by the way? and the whole Boing Boing Bang thing? its your bubble which burst along time mate! OBSESSED WITH THE VILLA YOU KNOW YOU ARE!
AVillain82 I agree, it would help their argument if West Brom actually beat us this season. It does leave at least reasonable doubt that they aren’t the Midland’s finest.
Sorry Villain, but, you’re proving my friend Jessica right, poor grammer, abuse etc. At the moment I’m enjoying toying with you. it’s too easy. Argument lost I’m afraid when it comes to swearing. Did you like the bit about the litle kid in the playground bit, you know, better car and bigger bag of sweets? I thought that was rather good for football banter. This might actually shock you, but, I hoe you lot beat Newcastle tomorrow. Thank you for explaining the Boing Boing bang thing…. it’s sort of Cannon and Ball to my Reeves and Mortimer i’m afraid. Toodle Pip.
Came to see what the fuss was about. Saw the horrendous use of grammar. Now leaving again. Capitals after full stops boys.
Jessica, I apologise for the lack of capital letters at the start of each sentence, but, i’m not very computer literate. I do try hard to utilise the fullness of our beautiful language. I’ll try harder in future and keep depressing the caps lock button. Your affectionate, friendly Baggies fan.
weknowwhatweare Excellent news.
weknowwhatweare Excellent news. I really appreciate it. I may even read your comments now, since you were so friendly. Definitely expected some form of abuse.
That’s just it Jessica (lovely name by the way), I don’t resort to abuse. If you look at my postings on here, I’ve defended my club and tried to give reasoned replies to the questions asked of me. Others have resorted to abuse, but, I feel I’ve won the argument (difference of opinion) as they’ve degenerated their arguments with abuse. I even re-iterated the point that the “we know what we are” song isn’t directed at Villa at all, but, a reference to the fact that WBA are punching above their weight in the greed league. Now, with regard to my poor use of grammer I have to inform you that I’m actually a published poet, with work currently on display in the British library (true…really). Hope to hear from you again, breaking the barriers of Midland rivalry.
as for “BOING BOING BANG” my sides nearly split laughing, what’s that all about? everybody else in the football world understands the irony in the song “we know what we are” it is not the fact that we’re top dogs (currently) in midland football, it’s the fact we’re up amongst the high rollers and we’ve not spent the millions they have. we may only be your noisy little neighbours, or the little kid in the playground, but we’ve got a better car than you and more sweets in our bag too. (at the moment)enjoy the championship next year…. (you may even get to wembley then)boing boing bang, (very funny..thanks)
aah, here we go, the one way banter as displayed by the school bully, everyone has to enjoy the big boys humour, but when the little kid says something funnier back, he gets nasty. typical seal. on the few points raised by our not so eloquent vile fan below.the 8min applause…. is for the hammering you lot took at stamford bridge, even the man utd fans joined in at old trafford when we did it. 78,000 people found it funny that day. but, i expect it’d still be hurting you seals to actually note the funny side of it.seals… we’ve always called you seals (due to your rendition of your extremely difficult to learn the words of song, VEEEELA, VEEEELA) the way you all look like the circus seal when slapping his flippers together after getting a fish. but, we also call you historians, librarians and of course the vile. wolves fans are dingles, dogheads and neanderthals. blues fans are our cousins, or clowns or just plain bluenoses. man utd fans we call GHB’s or cockneys. stoke city fans are plane watchers or NBA fans.
hope that is of help.
Seals? 8th min applause?cheers for proving us right. Weve never hated you you just suddenly think you can gloat as your finally finished above us once foe the past 30 years. concentrate on your black country derby with wolves. we couldnt give one about you. Oh btw we are so terrible you couldnt get our ‘shit’ team… support your own team and stop obsessing with the villa! boing boing BANG!
A tad sensitive aren’t you Villa obsessives? If you want to be the Pride of the Midlands and all that bull, you should have a little more self-assurance and not rise to what is a fun personal account by the writer. You only have delusions of grandeur at the moment…win something and we’ll discuss… Read and learn: https://myoldmansaid.com/pride-midlands-bill-rights-wba-measure/
Dimwit article. So much biased rubbish, typical dimwit.
by the way, we joined in with the applause for stylian petrov and the response was superb. (all proper fans hope he gets through this), but, on a lighter note i didn’t hear many of the seals applauding in the 8th minute as a tribute to chelsea. as for the “yam, yam, yam” comments, we’ve been singing it for years…. no truth in the rumour that randy has bid for yacob and mulumbu to help keep you up. along with brunt, foster, long, olssen, jones, morrison, dorrans, macauley, popov, thomas, reid, ridgewell et al. sorry but as private fraser once said “!!!”
what a truly awful piece of drivel. “small ground”, “obsessed with the villa”. you sound just like the dingles. the most hilarious thing about your demise has been that i’ve managed to get a very cheap weekend away in london in feb, due to an overconfident seal at work booking the hotel for the final…. before you’d played bradford!!! this just highlights the typical seal, arrogant, dismissive of any other team, blinkered to what is going on around them. the other so-called midland giants who reside at the custard bowl will no doubt enjoy their derby against you next season, whilst we’ll enjoy the big midland premiership battle against stoke city. goodbye seals, enjoy the championship, you can tell the good people of barnsley and tranmere that you once won the european cup! oblivion awaits.
weknowwhatweare Humour bypass?
What biased nonsense where you still under the influence when you wrote this biased crap. The atmosphere was great throughout the match. First half Villa had a lot to sing about and did second half they were fairly quiet but to imply the Baggies fans did not take the roof off is typical Villa nonsense.
Disappointing not to Win Villa are sinking fast to looked a shambles in the second half the Baggies are now the top club in the Midlands sorry but your just going to have to get you head around it. Past glories are exactly that in the past