Anyway, half-time in East Anglia and we find that the toilets are already an inch deep in overflowing piss and it’s pretty grim. One of our lot bellows out “Welcome to the Premier League” Nothing had changed, it was division one with a fancy satellite bow on it.

Fast forward 32 years. Yes, THIRTY-TWO.

A summer of change off the pitch as season ticket holders are now forced to accept digital tickets to gain entrance to Villa Park. Some are lucky and are accepted for a physical card at an extra cost. Some, like myself, are not.

As always, the online ticket office have left everything until the last minute. A continuation of seasons past where the communication is non-existent, the website is a shambles and the service via the phone lines is shambolic. This is an area at the club that is not fit for purpose and in my opinion and should be addressed as a matter of urgency. Getting 40,000 people into a stadium is surely one of the most important jobs for the club and there is nothing quicker than tapping that small plastic card against the reader and heading through the turnstile. Nothing.

Chris Heck has been telling everyone who’ll listen about the “upgrades” around the stadium, so against Arsenal our first upgrade as GA Peasants is that the turnstiles aren’t open ninety minutes before kick-off. In fact, they’re not open a hour before kick-off either, and this on a day when the majority are trying to access the stadium via a smartphone for the first time. There are not enough stewards, apparently.

The queues snake back as far as the eye can see and it’s clear that the days of us turning up fifteen minutes before the start are over. Some people are heading back through the melee as they’ve clearly had a problem.

So, after Heck’s boasts in the summer, our first visit back sees the Lower Holte toilets overflowing, just like at Ipswich all those years ago. This time thirty minutes before kick-off. It’s 2024 and it isn’t acceptable. Fans have been moved. Some have been turfed out completely. Horrible treatment of some of our most loyal supporters.

Stories are starting to be told as people finally get in. Looking around a few rows in our section, there are around fifteen empty seats all game. We’ve lost a scoreboard in the corner between Trinity Rd and the North Stand – it now says “This Is Villa Park”, just in case anyone was unaware.

The pre-match music has, incredibly, got even worse. Hi-Ho Silver Lining has been pushed back, and now our big build up before the teams come out consists of dance music that means nothing to the club and has no impact on fans whatsoever.

We’ve lost a whole section of the North Stand that would sing and have some banter with the away fans. That’s GA+ too now – no singing anymore and plenty of empty seats well into the second half. Those Arsenal fans, who will probably be amongst the quietest to visit this season, must have been laughing themselves silly at the non-reactions from everyone. None of that daft claret & blue in the players tunnel either.

I can see where this is all heading, and I don’t like it. If the success continues, we’ll end up like Manhester City, Chelsea and the rest, with a sterile stadium largely filled with the people who have the most money. Football doesn’t mean a shitty few days after a defeat or anything remotely important to them.