Villa on Tour
Well, the master plan had been to make it three 3-0 away wins on the trot against teams in the play-off spots, but in the end Villa were even denied the three points after the officials suddenly seemed to go blind in injury-time at the Hawthorns.
First, they didn’t see the foul throw that started the build-up that ended in a double handball as the ball rolled into the Villa net to give the Baggies a lucky 2-2 draw.
Villa’s travelling supporters were well and truly robbed by the officials after a decent evening’s entertainment.
With Max Stokes still recovering from the excitement of appearing on the My Old Man Said podcast (see below to listen), his trusty right-hand man Owen Thompson reviews the night’s proceedings and the hassle at the train station at the end of the game.
Below is the video of Villa on Tour’s trip to the Hawthorns, followed by Owen’s review of the game and impressions of the ground.
You can read all the other VoT away day reviews and watch the corresponding videos – here
If you’re on Youtube, make sure you subscribe to their channel, so you’ll know when the next away day video drops.
Villa Away Day at the Albion Video
Date: 7th December 2018
Score: West Brom 2 Aston Villa 2 (El Gjazi 2)
Ground: Hawthorns
Attendance: 26,513
Away Review of West Brom
By Owen Thompson (Villa on Tour)
Away Atmosphere – 9/10
With the hype around the game with the local rivalry as well as their respective positions in league, this game was always going to be a hot contest.
Villa sold out very quickly and were in fine voice throughout especially after taking the lead both times. With the away end situated in the same stand as the home fans, there was always going to be some fun over the divide.
Away End facilities – 4/10
Not a fan at all with what the Hawthorns has to offer. Besides the fact you have to walk up a mountain to get to the away end, the concourse isn’t very impressive at all. The first thing to notice was the laminate wooden flooring which seemed rather odd. The other thing to note was there wasn’t much space at all and the toilets were insanely cramped.
(If you went to the Hawthorns fill in the FSF survey about your own experience)
Home Fans Atmosphere – 7/10
Although good, I can’t rate this as high as perhaps it should have been, because their focus was more on us than themselves. Having equalised the first time, you’d have thought they would try get their team going. Instead, straight away they resorted to singing about Villa.
That stupid song about cabbages went on for about 25 minutes but was silenced by El Ghazi’s rocket. They spent the whole game singing about Villa, so that’s why there was room for improvement.
Still, overall a decent enough Championship atmosphere compared to most games.
Empty Seats My Lord?
With this being the biggest game of their season, of course there was no empty seats. Considering there was so few spotted against Brentford on Monday, it baffled me as to why they all turned up for this one. Only come to see the Villa?
Best Thing about the Ground?
Quite simply, there isn’t one.
Classic Moment of the Away Day?
Probably when El Ghazi fired off his rocket to silence the Tesco bags. Like I mentioned before, the stupid cabbage song was really winding some people up… all until El Ghazi takes a touch and cannoned it past Johnstone, to which the away end went absolutely berserk. The home fans were not impressed.
Anything funny happen?
Not a lot, just the constant winding up between both fans. The home fans were really getting into it bless them.
Any other business?
The police had a nightmare dealing with fans afterwards. They kept sets of fans outside the station for 20 minutes or more, despite initially telling fans the train was six minutes away, which caused congestion and crushing for Villans.
Then there was a lot of shoving and pushing occurring (despite there being kids around), which didn’t help anyone, but the police just could not control the fans, so they had no choice but to let us all through.
It was all rather annoying when you just want to get home after seeing the state of the Albion equaliser….
UTV
Follow Owen on Twitter here – @otvillayouth
Follow Max on Twitter here – @mjestokes
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