Merry Christmas Everyone

I know I am..I'm sure I am....

Unbeaten in five games? Five points from three games in ten days including two tricky aways? It's all good isn't it?

Isn't it?

Not really.

The fact is, in recent games we've been absolutely dire to watch. Indeed for vast tracts of the “unbeaten run” there's been nothing to watch at all. We hardly keep the ball long enough to create anything in the way of entertainment.

Some people seem to think this is fine and dandy as long as the results go our way. They do. Honest. Though you have to wonder whether their seats are actually facing the pitch. Football is supposed to be fun to watch. You are not supposed to spend the ninety minutes grinning inanely because the opposition (hello Mackems) is as woefully ineffective as you are.

We simply won't get away with letting the other team have the lion's share of possession forever and even if that were possible we'd be doing it in front of ever more dwindling crowds because frankly the level of performance served up at Villa Park this season has matched McLeish levels of dullness and ineptitude.

Paul Lambert describes nigh on every one of these performances with a bunch of superlatives. "We were outstanding” he enthused after the Southampton game. Paul, we were not outstanding. For vast periods of the game Southampton barely let us have a kick and we seemed incapable of doing anything about it. We won because we were brutally clinical when chances came our away, and because Brad Guzan was in sparkling form. On another day we'd have got thumped. Certainly we played better in the games against Spurs and Everton at Villa Park but didn't get anything.

I'm all for Mister Lambert staying positive and doing all he can to keep our players' confidence up but there has to be some relation between his flowery language and what is taking place on the pitch.

Are you really happy Villa pilgrim? Are you enjoying the fare served up at Villa Park? Were you so entertained by our Southampton performance that you didn't want the game to end or were you screaming at the ref to blow the whistle so we could creep back up the A34 with all three points, like a thief in the night?

A Southampton regular informs me that he was amazed that his team had managed to lose that game, citing it as one of their best performances of what has been a pretty remarkable start to the season. He felt mugged, just as Albion had done the week before. Even rock-bottom Sunderland boss Gus Poyet felt hard done by.

The issue is plain and simple and frustrating in the extreme. When in possession we don't seem to have a clue what to do with the ball. The defence are often reduced to passing the ball dangerously between themselves because there is too often zero movement from the midfield to ensure a safe forward pass is on.

Fabian Delph has been by far our most effective midfielder this season but his long awaited return from sick leave didn't instantly provide the instant fillip required in the middle of the park because he now seems shackled to the left, as a sort of pseudo-deputy left back, stationed to cover the positional inadequacies of Ciaran Clark or Tony Moon.

Form is also an issue. Matt Lowton has managed to lose his place to a bloke who a) is still getting used to the pace of the Premier League and b) isn't even a real right back while Benteke has lost his mojo and Andi Weimann has been a shadow of the player who consistently had us all out of our seats on a regular basis last season.

There was much cause for optimism in the summer, with Lambert's shiny new signings from across Europe giving us hope of a stronger squad and a brighter future. To a man, they've yet to settle.

Tonev's penchant for a pot shot as soon as he's within a nine iron of goal has become a standing joke amongst the Villa faithful while Nick Helenius seems to have disappeared completely. His rare appearance for the Under 21s as Fulham knocked them out of the cup asked more questions than it answered. Up and coming teeny-boppers Callum Robinson and Jordan Graham looked far more impressive.

Maybe I'm worrying over nothing. Maybe I should stop fretting about the quality of the performances. Maybe I should be more concerned about the points on the board, even if most of our current football is painful to watch.

There's a problem with that.

I am watching it.

And it is painful.

Movember

You can donate at : http://uk.movember.com/donate

Why BT getting into bed with UEFA could shaft us all

Not everyone is happy with BT

"Money is the root of all evil".

That could prove to be true if the new TV deal for UK coverage of the Champions League is anything to go by. Some people may think it's good for football that the best part of a billion pounds will come into the game.

They'd be wrong.

For a start, that billion pounds doesn't appear out of mid-air, it has to come from somewhere and that somewhere is more than likely going be YOUR wallet – whether you actually pay for your football coverage or not. Secondly, all that money goes to the elite clubs, the ones that are so awash with cash already that they pay obscene salaries and ludicrous transfer fees, making life even tougher for the cash strapped clubs lower down the food chain.

This massive influx of what will inevitably turn out to be YOUR cash, will do nothing to help beleaguered clubs struggling to stay in business or local community projects trying to get kids away from their games consoles and on to the pitch.

Let's look at some of the implications:

ITV

Do you know that there has never been as much live football available free-to-air as there is at the moment? This deal sees the end of that.

Adrian has bugger all left to do

ITV may not be everyone's cup of tea but they have invested in football in recent years and their Champions League coverage and Europa League coverage on ITV4 gives viewers the chance to see not only the top English teams but the cream of Europe live and without subscription.

This has not only been a good thing for viewers, but also for advertisers and UEFA's sponsors who've got maximum bang for their buck from a large mainstream audience. This coverage has also been to Sky's benefit over the years, with many viewers choosing to pay for Sky Sports to get more of the football they develop a taste for from the terrestrial offering.

ITV will lose the FA Cup as well as the European games thanks to BT Sport's land grab of sporting rights. They have retained the England games, but it is highly likely that quality of ITV's England offerings will start to fall if this is the only football they can offer. With less games, there's nowhere to amortise the costs.

There's no point them paying out the big bucks justified by covering several tournaments when they only have a few internationals to cover. A denigration in the quality of their product is all but inevitable.

Bad news for us viewers.

Sky

Those people living under the delusion that their bill for Sky Sports will decrease thanks to them losing Champions League are living in cloud cuckoo land. The upwards pressure BT Sport is putting on sports rights will surely only push the price in the opposite direction.

James and Rupert Murdoch

More bad news for sport fans is that Sky are not going to use the money they would have spent with UEFA on other sports rights, but are going to invest in “original programming” which will undoubtedly mean drama.

This is bad news because Sky have always had a vested interest in nurturing a sport rather than just slapping it on the screen, because they wanted the best product possibly to attract the biggest number of subscribers, sport being at the very heart of their business model.

Sport isn't the beating heart of the BT operation, more of a weapon. It would appear that they've only got into the television to attempt to stop the inroads that Sky (and others) have been making into their core communications business (i.e. Broadband).

This seems to be a long term strategy to damage Sky (check what the deal did to Sky's share price if you're not convinced) and strengthen their own position.

BT has the financial clout to scupper Sky but once they've done that, there's nothing to stop them hiking up their price for their sport channels. Check in your small print and you'll probably see that if you're a BT Broadband customer, you are not going get it free for ever.

The Premier League

Even "dodgy" rich Russians won't help

An inevitable consequence of this massive increase in fees for the broadcasting rights to the Champions League, is that those clubs at the top table are going to get even richer, even more unstoppable.

Even if a rich Arab sugar-daddy or Russian playboy oligarch comes along to invest in a club not at the top table, FFP rules will make it very difficult for that club to compete with the clubs at the top soaking up all the Euro-gravy.

As the gap between the top tier and the rest gets bigger, the actual viability of the Premier League will come into question and inevitably, talk of a breakaway into a European Super League will become more and more of a likely proposition. There have been whispers for years that this is the ultimate aim of the elite European clubs and has been been for the last two decades.

England

The deal won't help Greg's commission much

More money for the top clubs and the threat of losing out massively financially if they can't stay at the top will inevitably lead to them utilising that financial clout to buy ready made players, rather than nurturing and bringing through home-grown English players.

Further more, as they splash the cash on the best foreign players available, established English players get less game time. You've only got to look at Manchester City to see the truth of this.

We've already seen the damage this does to the quality of players available to the national team.

This deal makes the situation worse.

The Fans

Currently you can get two live free to air games in the Europa League every matchday on ITV4. BT Sport's commitment to showing these free to air is not entirely clear, other than the final, the only guarantee of free games appears to one each for the three English teams (should they all qualify), so a lot less than currently.

For the Champions League, ITV currently gets first pick of the Tuesday games to show live free-to-air. Again BT's only commitment is show one live game from each domestic club involved and there's no commitment to the quality of the opposition in those games, so they'll likely keep games against Barca or Bayern to their paying customers and leave the likes of Plzen for the freebies.

Also, even though the coverage will be “free-to-all”, it'll be tucked away in the far recesses of the EPG which means it won't pick up the casual viewer and will inevitably score far less highly in the TV ratings than coverage on ITV would.

Champions League will effectively become ghettoised and Europa League games will reach a minuscule audience (some Wigan Athletic games on BT Sport have barely registered any viewers). This can't be a good thing. Look what ghettoisation has done to boxing.

The biggest impact for fans will be financial, because sooner or later, BT will need to get that money back from somewhere, be it higher prices for the sport channels or an increase on the cost of broadband.

Even if you're not with BT, you'll probably end up forking out. Virgin Media had to broker a wholesale deal for the channels to stop sport obsessed fans jumping ship and you can bet your bottom dollar that'll increase on the back of the Euro-deal and Sky will have to bid big to retain the Premier League and or they'll be in big doo-doo.

A few parasitic football agents will no doubt think all this is fantastic but it's bad news for the rest of us.

It might even be bad news for the parasites.

One of these days, the football bubble is going to burst.

This deal could very well turn out to be the pin.

Excellent? Pull the other one...

“I thought we were excellent” sayeth Paul Lambert.

The fezzed-up author of this article

Again.

He's like a stuck record these days isn't he? I didn't think we were excellent. Or that good. Or even passable. Maybe Paul Lambert has a different dictionary to me.

The game may have given us a desperately needed and all too rare home win but on performance terms it ranks alongside some of the worst home displays. We've played far better and lost frankly.

Just like at Upton Park a week ago, we didn't seem to have a clue what to do with the ball when in possession, so the plan seemed to be to let Cardiff have it at every available opportunity, safe in the knowledge that they didn't know what do with it either. The Premier League prides itself on being one of the best leagues in the world, yet here were two clueless, feckless teams, seemingly intent on doing precisely nothing for the best part of 75 minutes.

It was a woeful display from both teams, jittery in defence, terminally uncreative in the midfield and devoid of spark and movement up front.

It's true to say that - if we include Jores Okore into the equation – Lambert was without more than half his first XI. However, football is a squad game these days and he has spent a few million quid on the players expected to come in to fill the gaps. Some of them need to do better.

To me, the inclusion of Kozak in the starting line up was part of the problem. So few teams set up with two out and out central strikers any more, which means that any team that does is putting themselves at serious risk of being out gunned in the middle of park and suffering possession-wise as a result. This certainly was the case against Cardiff, with our share of possession dropping to less than 40% at one stage of the game. Less than 40% at home against Premier League newcomers is completely unacceptable.

It would be unfair to blame Kozak himself though. Indeed, he seemed the livelier and more mobile of the two strikers, Benteke looking dejected as he struggled to shake off the manacles imposed by the extra defensive manpower his growing reputation has created. You have to wonder what the deal is with Helenius, who- it seems to me - would be more suited to dropping off the main striker and must be frustrated at not getting a chance even in Gabby and Andi's absence

The midfield so badly missed Fabian Delph that it hurt, Westwood and Sylla too often going for the safe rather than creative ball (and even then sometimes giving it away) and El Ahmadi being so vanilla as to be barely noticeable at all. Tonev scampered about the place like an excited puppy, all energy and goodwill but with very little in the way of tactical nous. Having a wayward hopeless shot from miles out when there are far better options is rapidly becoming his trademark and he's already garnering such an unfavourable reputation amongst the Villa faithful that will prove hard to shake off. Reading his name out on the team sheet now creates an audible groan, which is most unfortunate.

A lot of people expressed dismay at Lowton's omission, but I wasn't one of the them. I thought Matt Jarvis had made him look quite ordinary at West Ham. The issue here is that while Bacuna can do a competent job at right back, what we really want to see is him hurting opposition defences at the other end, so it is to be hoped that Lambert can be convinced to give young Matt an extended run in the team to get his mojo back and utilise Leandro to give us some much needed creativity further up.

Bacuna seems to me such an adaptable player and now he's settling in to the league, a role with more freedom could give us the spark in the midfield we're so obviously missing. They'll certainly be a great buzz whenever we get a free kick from here on in.

While some say the defence has improved with two clean sheets on the bounce, I remain unconvinced. Cardiff and West Ham merely lacked the operatives to pounce on the silly mistakes that are still being made by both Clark and Baker, though I will concede that Vlaar is looking far better now he seems to have curbed his tendency to go wandering off.

So do I trust Paul Lambert to sort it all out? Well, I do actually. I'm sure he's aware of areas where we need to improve and was probably as frustrated as we were at half-time yesterday. It's our job to get annoyed and his job to fix it and put smiles on our faces. I think he can, but it is gonna take time and dodgy performance or not, the three points his team put in the bag yesterday does give him some more time and should muffle the burgeoning "Lambert Out" faction for a few weeks longer. Wins against the Tesco boys and the Mackems and everyone will wonder what all the fuss was about.

I suppose it's the done thing to describe your team as “excellent” when talking to the media and you don't wash your dirty linen in public. Doesn't stop me swearing at the radio though.

And just remember the next time he describes the fans as “excellent”, he has a very loose interpretation of the word...

A win is a win is a win

What you gain on the swings, you lose on the roundabouts.

I couldn't help thinking how aggrieved I'd felt that we'd got nothing at Stamford Bridge in our second match of season. That Kevin Friend had helped Chelsea to three points and they could so easily have been ours. Because yesterday, the balance of the universe was restored as we mugged Manchester City of three points, ably assisted by the lino and shampoo salesman Joe Hart.

The positivity that has been emanating from the Villa faithful as a result of the unlikely victory is undoubtedly a good thing, but some of you seem to have watched the game through claret and blue tinted spectacles. For vast periods of the game Manchester City played truly wonderful football. For vast periods of the first half, Villa were abject.

Indeed we never truly got our attacking play going in the way we had against Arsenal, Chelsea or even the second half against Liverpool. The Liverpool match, which disappointed most was actually a more coherent performance, but it didn't glean any goals and if your slick build up play doesn't produce the required results, large swathes of the crowd are never going to love you.

After the cup game against Spurs, in which a disjointed ragbag of Villa players had failed to show anything like cohesion, I was expecting far better as a more recognisable line up took to the pitch, even given the quality of the opposition, but in that desperate first half, we just couldn't get going. Weimann and Kozak found it impossible to hold the ball up, leading to wave upon wave of Man City attacks. The pluses for us were that there was no Aguero to take advantage of our opponents massive possessional advantage and that James Milner now looks a shadow of the player that had bloomed in his final season at Villa Park. Nasri was a constant problem, although his short temper makes him his own worst enemy.

Thankfully, Lambert's decision to go with three centre halves solved the problem of our full backs being caught dangerously out of position and while our defending may have lacked technical quality, it was full of energy and determination, meaning that our illustrious visitors were finding it nigh on impossible to fashion chances from their dominance in open play. What they were able to do though is win an awful lot of corners, and from these, they always looked dangerous.

We could debate for hours the benefits of zonal versus man-to-man marking, but whichever system you plump for, you need to make sure that your team is capable of playing it. We are still worryingly unsecure at set plays.

Yaya Toure, the intimidating architect of many of their best moves, finally managed a goal that for a long time had seemed inevitable. Half-time, I thought, would be brief respite. It turned out to be a turning point.

Your reaction to the El Ahmadi equaliser was different depending on whether you've actually played football or not. Those who can't remember when the last time was they pulled on a pair of boots went into instant celebration. The rest looked straight at the linesman to check their hadn't been a flag, because they were certainly expecting one. Like I said though, swings and roundabouts. On other days, an offside would definitely have been given, but with the  number of dodgy decisions that go against us, we're surely entitled to the rub of the green occasionally.

Being level at this stage was a definite bonus and if only we could hold the line, we might get an unlikely point. If only we could hold the ball and stop giving set pieces away. We couldn't. Another dangerous Nasri corner wasn't dealt with and Dzeko met with little resistance as he headed home.

Dead and buried? We would have been last season. If anything, going behind again proved to be the catalyst that stirred Villa in a more meaningful passage of forward play. Suddenly, Pellegrini's expensive charges seemed jittery, and as Villa advanced up the pitch, tackles became more reckless and ill-thought out.

Then the moment of magic. A free kick outside the area. Ron Vlaar looked as if he was lining up but Bacuna was lurking ominously. In came the kick, a thunderbolt, perfectly placed. Even if Joe Hart hadn't made life difficult for himself with his positioning and hadn't stayed rooted to the spot, he might not have got near it. It was a glorious moment for the young Dutchman, who some fickle Villa fans had instantly written off after his shaky start against Liverpool. They are easy to spot, these trolls, the same ones who also think Tonev is a waste of space.

Not that it's their fault, it's hot-wired into a Villa fan's DNA to be hyper-critical of our own players. People round me used to catcall Gary Shaw and Tony Morley for not doing enough while we were in the process of winning the league. Some people just like being miserable sods.

After all the hot air about Villa being a long ball team, the style of the winner was delicious. It couldn't have been more route one if it had been scored by Graham Taylor's Watford in the 80s. What you have to admire is Brad Guzan's vision. Manchester City's defence had a Chuckle Brothers moment, Kozak's flick on was sublime and Andreas Weimann was the epitome of cool as he calmly went past the charging Joe Hart and rolled the ball casually goal-wards. Slightly too casually for my nervous ticker, but hey it eventually rolled over the line.

They say time moves quicker as you get older. That last twenty minutes didn't go quickly. Not at all. Manchester City wanted it, we didn't want to let it go and scarily Yaya Toure looked as good in the game's last knockings as he did in the pomp of City's first half dominance.

The final whistle. Three points against the favourites for the league title – and I'd maintain, justified favourites on this showing – but most importantly for us, a taste for our players of how sweet Villa Park can be when we graft out a win.

So yes, it wasn't pretty. Yes, we were completely outplayed for long periods of the game. Doesn't matter. Without, you could argue, four of our key players, we've beaten a quality team. 

Let's build on it. 

Let's give Potatohead a torrid time, use the international break to recharge the batteries and then show Spurs that this time, we won't get caught with our pants down.

Aston Villa? Cup Winners in 1985? Wednesfield Social?

In the last "Dek's Rant" I wrote about the Bradford Fire in 1985 and the subsequent charity game featuring the late, great George Best.

Now, as you'll appreciate, that game took place over twenty eight years ago, so although the bulk of the piece came from memory, with such a long gap, I thought it well worth trawling my archives to check out the facts.

Dragging out the mid-eighties stuff, I came across two pieces of A4 paper that were in fact, the official programme of the 100th Birmingham County FA Senior Cup Final, a game which I attended.

This game was treated very much in the same way as a Central League Match and Bill Shorthouse's charges didn't play that well on the night, but did enough to claim the cup, so this is a perhaps forgotten piece of Villa achievement.

Though Dean Glover was reserve team captain, Dennis Mortimer - making one of his last ever appearances in a Villa shirt - was allowed to pick up the trophy.

Like the George Best match which would follow just a few days later, there seemed to be little to no information about this small piece of Aston Villa history on the web, so I've scanned in some pics, wrestled the villamad.co.uk Twitter account off the news minions and shone a light on it.

The trophy is actually very nice, far nicer than that thing the size of a coffee mug that they handed to Paul Merson when we "won the Intertoto"...but that's another story....

Those tweets are here. Enjoy.

Blast from the Past: "Programme" from the 1985 Birmingham Senior Cup Final. Charged 15p for 2 sheets of A4 #avfc pic.twitter.com/1FaokCzPjA
— villamad.co.uk (@villamadtweets) September 27, 2013

Blast from the Past: Teams from the 1985 Birmingham Senior Cup Final: #avfc pic.twitter.com/MzRaTTl82C
— villamad.co.uk (@villamadtweets) September 27, 2013

Blast from the Past: Dennis Mortimer accepts the 1985 Birmingham Senior Cup as #avfcbeat Wednesfield Social 3-1 pic.twitter.com/81JdTwpC6A
— villamad.co.uk (@villamadtweets) September 27, 2013

Blast from the Past: The Villa team celebrate winning the 100th Birmingham Senior Cup in 1985 #avfc pic.twitter.com/duDBzsfGN0
— villamad.co.uk (@villamadtweets) September 27, 2013

Although Bernie Gallacher was listed in the programme for the Senior Cup win, a Brian Little shot in a 5-a-side broke his wrist...
— villamad.co.uk (@villamadtweets) September 27, 2013

...and Matthew Hellin played instead...
— villamad.co.uk (@villamadtweets) September 27, 2013

For the record, Villa ran out 3-1 winners, Dean Glover, Ray Walker & Dennis Mortimer getting our goals. Dave Morrison scored for Wednesfield
— villamad.co.uk (@villamadtweets) September 27, 2013

Despite missing the final, Bernie -who had played in every other round - was still awarded a medal
— villamad.co.uk (@villamadtweets) September 27, 2013

It was the 19th time that Villa had won the Birmingham Senior Cup...
— villamad.co.uk (@villamadtweets) September 27, 2013

George Best: He played for Villa you know...I know, I was there

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

In 1985, the sport of football was not what you could call in good shape. A combination of escalating terrace violence, economic malaise, and frankly, poor quality football played in decaying stadiums had left the national game in deep trouble. Attendance figures were dropping through the floor.

May 1985 would see the situation get even worse but in the true spirit of the phrase “every cloud has a silver lining” tragic events in Yorkshire would lead to a true one-off.

George Best would play football for Aston Villa.

As Villa's 1984-85 season petered out into mid-table mediocrity, there was little to shout about. We'd lost our last home league game of the season to Luton Town by a single goal and were playing away at a Liverpool with one eye on The European Cup Final on the last Saturday of the league season. Not being that bothered about the game and with Dennis Mortimer's Testimonial looming on the Tuesday, I'd decided not to go.

Saturday afternoon would be spent glued to the radio.

11th May 1985

We didn't have Jeff Stelling back in those days, so I was taking part in the tradition of the time, switching between George Gavin on BRMB and whoever was in charge of the goals klaxon on Radio WM (probably Tim Russon) and tellingly on this day, Sport on 2 because they always mentioned Villa a lot more if were playing the red half of Merseyside. The telly was switched to the Oracle teletext service to keep up with the latest scores.

Fire halts the Bradford-Lincoln game

Towards the end of first half, a Radio 2 reporter announced that there appeared to be smoke and a few flames coming from the stand at Bradford and the game against Lincoln had been halted. It was fairly unusual for the BBC to mention Bradford at all, so it must, I reasoned, be a significant happening. As it was just before the interval I was, as a matter of course, turning off the teletext to catch the half time reports on the BBC's Grandstand and ITV's World of Sport. Yorkshire TV's cameras were at Valley Parade and World of Sport quickly abandoned their half time reports sequence to show the unfolding scene.

There only seemed to be a few flames at first, but just as commentator John Helm said that it looked serious, the small fire became a major conflagration. As fans began streaming onto the pitch, the roof caught a blaze. In less time than it takes to make a soft boiled egg, the whole of the roof was ablaze, raining fiery debris down on those making their escape. Helm put into the words the terrible thoughts of those us around the country witnessing agape as the tragedy unfolded and people began to emerge from the stand, some white with burns and even, in some cases, still on fire.

Valley Parade - the whole stand went up in minutes

The speed and fury with which the fire claimed the stand and with it the lives of dozens who had just gone out to cheer on their football team was truly frightening. Bradford had just gained promotion and this was supposed to be a day of celebration. The joy had turned to abject horror in little more than the blink of an eye.

For us football fans, used to standing or sitting in many ramshackle stands no better or safer than the one whose destruction we were gaping at, there was a real feeling of “there but for the grace of god go I”. 

It really hit home.

It was devastating. Horrible. Gruesome. Tragic. And one more word. Avoidable.

Yes avoidable and anyone who knew anything about how football was being run and fans were being treated knew it only too well. If we'd been cattle the RSPCA would never have stood for it.

Villa lost 2-1 at Anfield that day but I'd never been less interested in how my team had got on in my life.

As the extent of the afternoon's events began to become clear, the football family was dealt another kick in the teeth. A twelve foot wall had collapsed during severe crowd trouble between Birmingham City and Leeds United and a 15 year old boy had died as a consequence.

It's probably difficult for those who weren't around at the time to understand just how dire things had become for the game but it really felt at the time as if football was dying too. The events of that horrible day felt like nails in the coffin.

This was of course the era of Band Aid and so the reflex response of a shocked public to the fire was to start fund raising. Gerry Marsden would resurrect his hit “You'll Never Walk Alone”. The football world responded with benefit matches, but it seemed such a game featuring Villa would be unlikely.

With Villa Park booked for Dennis's game in midweek and with many potential opponents still having League fixtures to fulfil, it seemed we wouldn't be getting a game at all. The Express and Star had other ideas and it seems to have been their drive that got the game to happen. Saturday was a no-no as this was FA Cup Final day and the cup was treated with the utmost respect in those days. It was still the jewel in the crown of the football calendar. 

14th May 1985

The Mortimer testimonial took place on the Tuesday. Many of us were of the opinion that these sort of friendlies were all rigged and a high-scoring draw was on the cards. Wrong!

With so many England regulars playing for their clubs that week though, the England XI of fringe players must have seen it as an opportunity and took the game seriously and we got thumped 4-1, Peter Withe getting ours and our very own Paul Rideout scoring against us! Garry “Bruno” Thompson found the net twice with Sunderland's Nick Pickering getting the other one. A crowd of 5,451 turned up to see it and word started to get round that we were playing a game for the Bradford fire fund after all, against West Bromwich Albion and that one George Best was going to turn out for us.

"Yeah. Right" was the reaction of many of us.

At this stage of his life, George had managed to pick up a reputation for being less than reliable and for being three sheets to the wind on TV chat shows so most of us took George's potential involvement with a pinch of salt. Mister Dependable he wasn't.

17th May 1985

The attendance at the Mortimer match probably influenced the decision not to open the Holte End and so it was that on Friday 17th May 1985, most of us in the crowd of 5,663 were packed into Trinity Road Stand. Despite its beautiful brick façade, much of the Trinity's structure was wooden, an irony that wasn't lost on us on the night.

So hastily had the game been organised that there had been no time to print a proper programme so a four page newspaper type document from the Express and Star provided the pre-match reading material. Players who weren't taking part in the game were mingling around the refreshments stands and I clearly remember really struggling to decipher Tony Morley's thick accent. By this point, Tony was plying his trade for the opposition.

Then came the team news: Kevin Poole in goal, full backs Gary Williams and Tony Dorigo, Evans and Ormsby at the heart of defence, Ray Walker, Stevie McMahon and Sid in midfield, Peter Withe alongside Paul Rideout up front and in the number eleven shirt...oh yes! George Best!

Yep!

George in a Villa shirt!

Nicky Cross dazzled by George's brilliance

Legend has it that the only stipulation George made was that Villa provide the footwear. Incredibly, one of the most skilful players ever to grace the planet no longer owned a pair of football boots!

It is absolutely true to say that George wasn't in prime physical fitness, being just shy of his 39th birthday at the time, but all the skill was there and his every touch was greeted with yelps of delight from the assembled Trinity Road throng. The first half may have been goalless, but it was joy to watch the ball control, brilliance and cheeky back heel passes of a true maestro at work.

He made Albion's awestruck players look ordinary, which probably didn't do much for their self esteem.

I was certainly awestruck, so much so that I couldn't find it in my heart to sing the old classic "Georgie Best. Superstar. Looks like a woman and he wears a bra." Mind you, the emerging middle-aged spread and the full beard made the song somewhat redundant anyway.

Tony Godden keeps Peter Withe at bay

In the second half, we even got some goals to cheer. Paul Rideout combined well with Steve McMahon who put Villa one up as a consequence before a corner from Mister Georgie Best himself found Allan Evans and we were coasting.

Or at least I thought we were.

Albion stormed back into it, Steve Mackenzie scoring a penalty before Tony Grealish levelled it. Garry Thompson continued his week of being a thorn in Villa's side by putting the Baggies ahead.

George managed an hour in a Villa shirt and what a wonderful hour it was, but it was the player who came on for him, Didier Six, that netted Villa's equaliser. The game finished 3-3. We'd got the high scoring draw we'd expected on the Tuesday.

Didier Six fires home Villa's equaliser

It was a true honour to witness a player of George's calibre wearing a Villa shirt and the night would also prove to be the last chance of seeing Peter Withe, Paul Rideout and Didier Six in their Villa colours.

The local press reckoned we raised about £10,000 for the disaster fund on the night.

It was a special night, one to treasure, but we should never forget the reason we were there... and if football people thought things couldn't any worse, the Heysel Stadium disaster was less than two weeks away.

56 people died in the fire at Valley Parade:

ACKROYD, John Douglas 32 Baildon
ANDERTON, Edmund 68 Bingley
BAINES, Alexander Shaw 70 Bradford
BAMFORD, Herbert 72 Bradford
BULMER, Christopher James 11 Burley-in-Wharfedale
COXON, Jack Leo 76 Bradford
COXON, Leo Anthony 44 Halifax
CRABTREE, David James 30 Bradford
CRABTREE, Harry 76 Bradford
DEMPSEY, Derek 46 Morley
FIRTH, Muriel 56 Baildon
FIRTH, Samuel 86 Bradford
FLETCHER, Andrew 11 East Bridgford, Nottinghamshire
FLETCHER, Edmond 63 Pudsey
FLETCHER, John 34 East Bridgford, Nottingham
FLETCHER, Peter 32 Gildersome
FORSTER, Nellie 64 Bradford
GREENWOOD, Felix Winspear 13 Denholme
GREENWOOD, Peter 46 Denholme
GREENWOOD, Rupert Benedict 11 Denholme
HALL, Norman 71 Bradford
HALLIDAY, Peter Anthony 34 Bradford
HARTLEY, Arthur 79 Bradford
HINDLE, Edith 79 Bradford
HINDLE, Frederick 76 Bradford
HODGSON, Moira Helen 15 Oakenshaw
HUDSON, Eric 72 Bingley
HUGHES, John 64 Bradford
HUTTON, John 74 Bradford
KERR, Walter 76 Bradford
LOVELL, Peter Charles 43 Bradford
LUDLAM, Jack 55 Bradford
McPHERSON, Gordon Stuart 39 Bradford
McPHERSON, Irene 28 Bradford
MASON, Roy 74 Silsden
MIDDLETON, Frederick Norman 84 Bradford
MITCHELL, Harold 79 Bradford
MUHL, Elizabeth 21 Leeds
NORMINGTON, Ernest 74 Shipley
ORMONDROYD, Gerald Priestley 40 Bingley
ORMONDROYD, Richard John 12 Bingley
ORMONDROYD, Robert Ian 12 Bingley
POLLARD, Sylvia Lund 69 Bradford
PRICE, Herbert 78 Shipley
ROBERTS, Amanda Jayne 20 Bradford
SAMPSON, Jane 18 Leeds
STACEY, William 72 Sleaford, Lincolnshire
STOCKMAN, Craig Albert 14 Bradford
STOCKMAN, Jane Ashley 16 Bradford
STOCKMAN, Trevor John 38 Brighouse
TURNER, Howard Malcolm 41 Bingley
TURNER, Sarah Elizabeth 16 Bingley
WARD, Simon Neil 18 Shipley
WEDGEWORTH, Robert 72 Guiseley
WEST, William James 78 North Hykeham, Lincoln
WRIGHT, Adrian Mark 11 Bradford.

Villaparkaphobia

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. It was all going so well wasn't it?

A crop of fresh bright talent bought from across Europe, complimenting the players who emerged from last season's nightmare with credit, a promising pre-season in which established first teamers dovetailed well with the rising stars of the development squad, all topped with a glorious three points in the season's opener at the Emirates; what could possibly go wrong?

Of course it can all go wrong. This is Aston Villa. There is always a point in the season where the phrase “wheels off everywhere” comes into play. Mid-September and we're there already. We're not quite crying like a gaggle of One Direction fans, but there is cause for concern.

The summer signings did add quality, but potential quality is probably a fairer phrase. The newbies are a skilful bunch and no mistake but you can't buy experience. (Actually you can buy experience but either Paul Lambert doesn't want to or Randy Lerner won't let him.) What we have spent a fair few millions pounds on are players that hopefully will realise their potential really quickly and the only way they can do that is by playing regularly. Snag is, they will have to force their way into the team first.

Even Spidey couldn't catch everything in time

What's stopping them then? After the Newcastle game that probably is a pertinent question.

Let's start at the back. Right at the back because a fair bit of criticism has blown Brad Guzan's way for Newcastle's second goal after the plucky American could only parry Ben Arfa's rasping shot. I think it's fair to say that a fair amount of that criticism has come from people who've never pulled on a pair of keeper's gloves in their lives.

People should remember that Brad is made of flesh and blood and is not a gaming avatar. Unless you've fingers like Peter Parker (Spiderman not the former head of British Rail) you can't hold everything, sometimes you just have to keep the ball out of the back of net as best you can and hope your defence is alert and agile enough to deal with the consequences. Alert and agile are words seldom used to describe our back line.

Peter Parker, Chairman British Rail

The tragedy of Okore's injury is that he has all the tools to be a great defender, needing in my view just a solid first season in the Premier League to add some better decision-making to his undoubted talents. Even having said that, we looked more solid at the back with him than without him, and with us seemingly unable to get through a match without a central defender going off injured, it's surely only a matter of time before we see Chris Herd pressed into service at the heart of our defence.

Sends shivers down my spine that.

It's more than fair to say that both full-backs were poor against Newcastle. Loic Remy had a field day against Matthew Lowton, in part because our right back needs to go back to school when it comes to positional play, often showing the tactical nous of a primary school defender. You certainly can't afford to give the likes of Loic a head start.

Tony Moon, meanwhile, was gaining a whole new education from the feet of Ben Arfa. The worrying thing here is that the rest of the team could clearly see what a torrid time our left back was having but did little or nothing to help him. It's a team game guys. Where was the support from midfield? Indeed what were the midfield doing for much of the game?

When a team mate is getting torn a new one, HELP HIM OUT!!!!

Against Arsenal and Chelsea, we looked impressive because our midfield three pressed the opposition on the ball, giving them no time to settle or find any kind of rhythm, hence forcing the mistakes which enabled us to counter with stunning pace. 

Back at Villa Park, we seem content to stand back and let the opposition pass as they please. Then when we do have possession - and believe it or not we had the lion's share of the ball against Pardew's men - there is a disconnect between the midfield and the attack, with hopeful rather than thoughtful balls pumped forward in the manner that made the Villa faithful turn venomously on Barry Bannan. When we have the sense to pass to feet accurately instead of playing aimless or speculative balls, we look something like a good side.

Against Newcastle, the midfield finally got it's collective arse into gear at the start of the second half, and for twenty-odd minutes, we were creative and dangerous. We were. Honest. It seems many people have forgotten this decent passage of play due to the direness of the rest of our performance, but things were swinging in our direction at one stage. Don't forget that if Gabby hadn't missed a sitter and Tony Moon hadn't crossed when it was ten times easier to score, we could have actually nicked all the points.

The decision by Lambert to bring on Kozak at expense of a body in midfield was a poor one and killed our period of dominance stone dead, though it could be said that the bouncing Czech's very presence in the box made it harder for their defence to deal with Big Chris for our goal. Sadly, we barely got a look in after that, Karim's exit leaving us totally overrun in the middle of the park and the move to swap the ineffective Weimann for the two-footed Tonev came far, far too late to have any impact.

It's interesting to note that Weimann was one of the names Paul Lambert mentioned when pressed on our lack of an attacking midfield playmaker. There's been precious little evidence of him looking like he could fulfil that role in the Villa Park games.

Against Liverpool of course, Lambert had tried something different in midfield by dropping El Ahmadi in favour of Bacuna. Here came proof positive that Villa Park isn't an easy arena in which to ply one's trade because the young Dutchman made an excitable and error strewn start. Shockingly, sections of our own support failed to realise that this was the young lad's competitive Villa debut in front of a packed Villa Park and instead of giving him chance to find his feet, wrote him off as "rubbish" straight away. Lunacy. This is one very talented player and even though he'd stopped making the silly mistakes long before the first half had even finished, many had picked him out as a whipping boy by then.

We really can be our own worst enemy at times.

So where do we go from here? The situation at Villa Park is likely to get worse before it gets better, with Manchester City looming, while the newbies at Spurs will undoubtedly have started to bed in by the time they rock up, and they have enough quality squad players to give us a tough time in the League Cup too.

The answer is not going to be an injection of new expensive talent in January either. The Okore situation may force Lambert into another defensive purchase, but certainly don't expect it to be the old head we need to steady the ship. It goes against his ethos and this worries me greatly.

The only way through the tough times is going to be hard work. The players that were rewarded with new shiny lucrative contracts have got to show that they are worth them. This means getting their heads down in training and striving to improve their games. With Bacuna prepared to play anywhere just to get into the team, no one should feel they are untouchable. If I was picking the team, I'd make abundantly clear to the likes of Lowton and Westwood that their places are in jeopardy if they can't find it in themselves to improve.

It's hard to judge how much the fringe players are pushing those selected when we can't see them play. The likes of Bennett and Albrighton aren't being given run outs in the Under 21s so we as fans have no way of gauging their form. Mind you, gauging the form of anyone in the Under 21s is difficult when games are played in far off Burton. It's a great pity that AVTV aren't providing live TV pictures from the games at the Pirelli, but will provide pictures from the Villa Park games that are far easier for most fans to attend.

It's also a crying shame that our young lads have been denied the opportunity to defend our NextGen crown due in no small part to the new ludicrous UEFA Youth League. While the Next Gen invite teams to play based on the quality of their academies, Michel Platini's new baby simply invites youth teams from those clubs that have qualified for the Champions League. Daft really.

Just another example of UEFA ensuring that the chosen few get all the gravy. 

The loan-outs of Burke, Carruthers and Grealish not only give them valuable first team experience but also allows some of the other lads their chance in the Under 21 league. Clearly the development of the players is more important than having success in this league but it's impossible to watch a team in Villa colours without being desperate to see them win.

Keep an eye on Kevin Toner and Riccardo Calder. Could be a big season at this level for those two.

Benteke: The Musical. Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

"Music has charms to soothe a savage breast" -  William Congreve

When the news broke of  Christian Benteke's transfer request late on Monday evening, there were many reactions. I'll admit that mine was initially one of rage and vitriol, though I had to rein this in somewhat because I was flying the villamad Twitter account at the time, so I was biting my tongue to a large extent and reserved my most rage filled comments for texts to mates or responses on Facebook.

It soon become clear that Villa fans were in mood for levity either. When I posted a jokey tweet that we'd missed out on Grant Holt too, more people than usual actually took it seriously. You always get the odd "Margo" who doesn't get the joke, but this was different.

Villa tweeps were losing the will to laugh collectively, possibly by a combination of the "shock" of the Benteke news and being desensitised after several days of poking Julie Bayley with sharp sticks.

(If you're not aware of the Julie Bayley saga, you are better off out of it to be honest.)

As we headed in to the wee small hours, the extent of the Benteke bombshell was evident by the fact that the angry mob of Villa fans on Twitter hadn't gone to bed. Tweeting pictures of severed heads didn't seem to help calm everyone down.

Might make a similar pic with Lambo and Benteke tomorrow...RT @dekhogan: Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned... pic.twitter.com/9pKvNBVifQ
— Dek Hogan (@dekhogan) July 8, 2013

So I wrested control of the villamad Twitter account back from the overnight Minions and began tweeting break up tunes:

villamad spinning the choons to get you through this long dark night of the soul #Benteke #Deserter
— villamad.co.uk (@villamadtweets) July 9, 2013

Now I see no reason why ONLY people  who were sitting up reading Twitter at two in the morning should get to wallow in misery, so I've Spotified the playlist.

So kick your summer shoes off, pour yourself another Pimms and have a thoroughly miserable time, while Benteke tries to come to terms with the fact that Villa support in Germany has already moved on and adapted Seven Nation Army for Nicklas Helenius:

Stan Petrov: Gold Standard

When I was a kid, one of the things that got me interested in football was all the lovely football paraphernalia that you used to to get from the likes of newspapers, packets of tea and of course petrol stations.

I loved my Daily Mirror Goal Action Replay flick books, my Mobil map of the football grounds with club badges to collect and stick on, the collectable cards in PG Tips and I used to love the old football coins you could get...and of course the infamous Panini sticker albums.

We've sort of done the "vintage cigarette card" thing to death this season (and we will do next) so when I was trying to come with suitable graphics to liven up our somewhat predictable villamad.co.uk awards article, it was the old football coins that I revisited to draw inspiration.

Now, I did knock these up fairly quickly, so, pleased as I was with the positive feedback, it came as no massive surprise that some trolls decided they were about as lifelike as the waxworks at Great Yarmouth (at least we know where the trolls were before the Norwich game).

However, even some of the positive feedback was tinged with criticism. "Where was the coin of Stan Petrov?" was the cry. Why no award for our popular and outgoing captain?

It's a good point. We shouldn't have left Stan out!

So, just in time for Petrov Day, I've knocked up a Petrov coin design...and with no expense spared (or spent, I just fiddled with the hue and saturation), it's a gold one!

So here it is:

Stilyian Petrov becomes the first player in our Gold Standard Hall of Fame Gallery, a truly inspirational captain who has won as many plaudits for his conduct and demeanour off the pitch as he has done for his industrious performances on it.

To say that Stan will be missed is an understatement, but as so many former players have discovered in the past, once you're Villa, you're Villa for life and I'm positive we'll still see plenty of Mister Petrov in the future.

Good luck Stan, you'll always be loved at Villa Park

Tales of the Unexpected

It's a bit of a short rant this time because I don't want to keep going over the same ground.

But..

I'm not sure what surprised me most on Saturday. Was it Britain's World Heavyweight hopeful David Price lying in a crumpled heap while serial loser Audley Harrison was launching yet another comeback? Or was it the stunning realisation that the Arsenal game had left me happier with Joe Bennett's performance than the one that Christian Benteke had seen fit to put in?

Can't say I was expecting either event, but having spent much of the week in startled disbelief at the way the South African legal system works, and with the way their police deal with crime scenes, nothing should surprise me.

I suppose the least said about the Pistorius situation the better at this stage, but if they ever make CSI: Pretoria, they'll surely cast The Chuckle Brothers as the lead detectives.

Back to the Benteke question though. Quite why he didn't put in his usual shift is open the question. Fair play, every player can have an off day, however this particular one came after a week of fevered press speculation over the young Belgian's future and against a team that is rumoured to be his childhood favourite. Maybe I should have seen it coming after all.

That said, even a below par Benteke offers more to the team than Darren Bent would have done, had he been fit. He's crocked yet again though, rapidly becoming the modern day equivalent of Dalian Atkinson.

So why am I praising Joe Bennett? Well I'm not really, but you have to give credit where it's due and he certainly seems to be trying harder, putting a foot in and bearing in mind I'd started the game thinking he'd get a complete roasting, I thought he stood up rather well. Indeed, the defensive efforts of our youthful back four even brought praise from John Motson's commentary on Match of The Day. Motty was in admiration of our “stout defending”. Usually when someone mentions stout in connection with our defenders, it's because Dunne's been at the Guinness again.

Arsenal are no great shakes at the moment though. In our situation, plucky displays that garner no points are as much use as a chocolate fire guard. That game was there for the taking yesterday. Yes, Cazorla impressed and Wilshire was good in patches, but The Gunners were tentative at the back and ragged in midfield while Giroud was firing blanks. We should have taken something and we didn't. It was the sort of game that some our fellow relegation strugglers would have taken by the scruff of the neck and wrestled something out of.

And we didn't.

We played some nice stuff going forward again, but we need to start scrapping now too. Fighting tooth and nail for everything.

And we can't.

We don't have the personnel.

When the going got tough, we went into retreat, invited Arsenal on and it cost us big style.

It would be easy too to point the fickle finger of blame at Andi Weimann for losing his man for the Arsenal winner. Except the plucky Austrian had spent fair chunks of the afternoon shredding them down the other end. Plus, in my view, our right back Matt Lowton was getting back with all the urgency of a small child who is being forced to kiss his maiden aunt, the one with the facial hair problem.

So are we doomed? It's going to be a close run thing and I can see the likes of Sunderland getting sucked into the mix but it may actually come down to the last away at Wigan.

And they do know to scrap.

Stop I Don't Love You Anymore

On Texas songstress Sharleen Spiteri's 2008 solo album Melody there's a track I was particularly fond of entitled Stop I Don't Love You Anymore, the title of which pretty much sums up how I'm feeling about Paul Lambert at the moment.

So what has led to this sudden epiphany? What has caused me to stop seeing the man who rode into town to save us from the misery of McLeish through eyes misted by hope and optimism?

Is it our continuing defensive failings? No.

Is it our habit of constantly capitulating from winning positions? No.

Is it our slide to inevitable relegation humiliation because we've been incapable of conjuring a win for a month and half? No.

Is it his inability to strengthen his defensive squad during the window? No.

Is it the fact that he seems to have forgotten how to shave properly? No (but it does seem indicative of a lack of discipline that leads to players slipping out of formation or getting needlessly booked for dissent).

Is it Rosemary, the telephone operator? No

No gentle reader, the straw that broke the camel's back for me was a throwaway comment in the post match presser, when our "leader" was asked inevitable questions about our ability to defend from set plays.

Lambert was quoted as saying 'I am sick of talking about conceding goals from corners'.

Are you Paul?

Are you really?

Well I tell you what sunshine, you're not half as sick of talking about them as we are at having to watch them go in!

You (swear word redacted but it began with “c”)!

Fair play, a lot of us would have taken a draw at the start of the game, but we are not in a position to enjoy that luxury any more. We have to scrap for every single point on offer because with our frightening goal deficit, it could well be that factor that leads to our Premier League demise. We have to scrap and fight from the very first second to the very end of the ninety-sixth minute if that's what it takes.

There were some lovely moments in the match as we counter attacked with aplomb. Matt Lowton seems to have recaptured his joie de vivre, tearing down the right; our Gabby seems to have remembered how to be a striker after a couple of lacklustre seasons under Houllier and McLeish (I suppose we should give Lambo some credit for that); the Beast of B6 struck such fear into the heart of the Everton defence that a clearly traumatised John Heitinga seemed to be a quivering wreck by the time he was withdrawn.

But we know all about quivering wreck defenders don't we?

David Moyes master-stroke was including Anichebe in his front line. Oh, how I wished he'd picked Jelavic. Ciaran Clark was bossed by the big man all afternoon. It would have been a situation that would have been quite easy to rectify. Was there no-one on the pitch to tell Ciaran where he was going wrong? Two words would have been suffice.

“Too tight!”

I was shouting them, if you're astute enough to be reading this blog then you were shouting them, half the pundits in the country were shouting them. Did Ron Vlaar, Villa's captain and Clark's defensive partner shout them? He bloody well should have done! Perhaps he did and Clark thought he was complaining about the size of his jock strap.

I doubt we'll ever find out.

Ciaran's inability to deal with the big man and the constant threat of Fellaini meant that we were on tenterhooks all afternoon. Even with a two goal lead, only the most optimistic Villa fan – or one who hasn't seen us play much this season – would have been confident that we'd close the match out. They don't seem to know how.

When Everton pulled it back to 2-3, the alarm bells should have rung. Keep possession, run it into the opposition corners, make it awkward for the home team and let the clock run down. Simple. Not Lambert's Villa. We seemed intent on bagging a fourth of our own, no matter how reckless the attempt and ignoring the fact that each failure would lead to yet another menacing Everton attack. Ironically, I'd have applauded this cavalier behaviour if we were happily ensconced in mid-table. We're not. We're deep in the sweet and sticky.

Having seen Fellaini's equaliser several times, I wonder if I've been a tad harsh on Ron Vlaar for losing his man. My initial fury that yet another victory had been snatched from our grasp by a late leveller – and from a set piece at that – fogged me to the fact that it had been a bit of deft play from the talented Belgian that enabled him to give Concrete the slip. Credit to the opposition sometimes but it really hurt.

It would have hurt even more if Everton had pulled off a winner and yet again, Villa heads dropped and we looked like rabbits in the headlights as the Toffeemen came a gnat's breath away from nicking all the points.

So where are we now?

Well whatever the deficiencies of Paul Faulkner and Randy Lerner during January, we are where we are. There's nothing an emergency cheque book can do to resolve the situation now. They could get rid of Paul Lambert of course, but anyone coming in would have to work with the same squad of players and admitting they'd got yet another managerial appointment so terribly wrong would be tough to do.

What they could do is bring in someone with a bit more football nous at boardroom level to make these ongoing rickets a bit less likely, pick up some of the slack between the board and the manager and take some of the pressure off a visibly greying Lambert. Not necessarily an ex-footballer but at the very least an administrator steeped in the game. A Steve Stride like figure if you will. Someone like, well, Steve Stride.

Realistically though, Mister Lerner needs to decide whether he really wants to continue with Project Aston Villa. If he does, then he needs a new strategy because the current one doesn't work and is diminishing the value of his investment. If he doesn't, he should be actively seeking a buyer.

As for the on the pitch side of things, even if our trust in Mister Lambert has been tested to the extreme, I think we have to persist in the short term. What even he must see though is that something has to change and the future of his coaching staff must be under review. The problems at the back can't be that hard to fix.

I can sum it up no better than Richard Jolly in The Observer: “Until they can defend a corner, they are unlikely to turn one”.