Sunday 7 November 2010

Shoes off if you love the Villa!

I have followed the Villa for many years (I am typing this with a brummie accent) and yesterday I had a birthday treat by getting to see the boys play against Fulham. Craven cottage is a great ground to watch football although early in the 1st half when the ball was hoofed out of the ground by a Fulham defender it became clear that there was only one ball at Craven Cottage. Times are hard even in the West of London. It felt like a few minutes later that someone eventually managed to get the only ball back.

But the most surprising moment of the afternoon, apart from Fulham having a shot in the second half, was when I turned to see the massive Villa support who stood and sang throughout all waving their shoes in the air. This is totally true, hence the "shoes off if you love the Villa" chant. Apart from getting cold feet, football stadiums have come a long way that anyone would brave removing a shoe for fear of standing in all the rubbish fans leave behind. I never saw anyone on the Holte End in the 80's wave their shoe in the air. It was a spectacle with plenty of cameras being used to record it. Just wait for Sepp Blater and FIFA to find some way of banning this sort of behaviour.

Back to the game, 1-0 up at half time - super Marc Albrighton! Villa's dominant second half display lulled us into false euphoria that this was the easiest 3 points until the 94th minute Fulham scored, bubble burst. It felt like a defeat! Gutting, but I'd reconnected with all the passion of being a football fan. Even if I didn't take my shoes off.

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