Aston Villa Away Supporter experience at Manchester City – 2012
Arriving in Manchester bright and early on Saturday morning I headed to meet the boys and girls for what promised to be another away day fun day. They’d been drinking since 9am so were already suitably merry when I joined them. The pain of United had subsided and everyone was feeling optimistic…nothing to do with the breakfast beers, honest.
After watching Arsenal spank Spurs we headed for the taxi rank towards the ground, I was surprised we seemed to have taken a lot less fans than last season, considering you could practically cartwheel up and down the refreshment area, but luckily with the Villa faithful on hand it certainly didn’t sound like it.
As ‘Right here, right now’ echoed around the Etihad, the Villa supporters chanted their own warm-up song: ‘Paul Lambert’s claret + blue army… A-V-F-C’. As has now become custom, this continued for quite some time.
As for on the pitch, the boys weren’t doing too badly, however City had the upper hand as might have been expected. The 19th minute did Stan proud, with a visual display from the Mancunian club, (perhaps with the help of Mr Barry) and a standing ovation from both sets of fans, the gesture was followed by another round of applause for the home fans from Lambert’s Limes, a nice touch indeed.
The first goal just before the half-time whistle, came as a bit of shock considering it was never a corner in the first place. But at 1-0 down at half time, there was a sense we’d been let off a little bit; a bit of fighting talk from Lambert in the dressing room was needed to rally the flailing troops.
It wasn’t till the second half when things turned really nasty, one minute we were enjoying a little banter with the Blue Mooners to our right, next the linesman was waving for a penalty… no-one had a clue what was going on, none of their players or fans protested and an air of general confusion fell across the stadium. Two minutes later and we were two-nil down none the wiser as to why. Obscenities flew towards Mr Holmes, as we were left feeling cheated as another decision fell against us. ‘Handball, Corner, Penalty’ greeted every pass which followed.
Just 10 minutes later and we fell victim to another controversial decision, as a sliding Barry Bannan was penalised for another handball, this time slotted home by Tevez. Just a few minutes after Aguero made it four. Directing our frustration towards Tevez, ‘The Falklands are ours, the Falklands are ours, f*** off Tevez, the Falklands are ours’ was the away fans response.
Not really sure it phased Carlos however, as five or so minutes later, he popped in another, just to rub salt into our wounds. The final goal was entirely our own undoing to make the final score 5-0. Even rallying calls of ‘we’re gonna win 6-5’ couldn’t save us now, and the fans began to leave.
Down but not out, the mischievous claret & blue army decided to pick on a very bored looking Joe Hart with chants of ‘Sweden’s Number one’.. fair play to him though he did turn around to raise a smile. The small proportion of fans who stayed till the very end were rewarded by the players heading over to show their gratitude after a bleak display.
One point I will make, is why when your beloved team has just won 5-0 at home, is your stadium half empty with five minutes left to go? Not even a round of applause? … Those Citeh folk love beating the traffic aye 😉
Another fun-filled away day weekend overall, but Sunderland aside, going home without any points is becoming far too familiar. Let’s be honest, we have a lot of work still to do if we are steer ourselves out of trouble… here’s to QPR, if Harry hasn’t got stuck in by then… UTV!
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