In which a great European adventure begins.
The week started with the news that you hoped wouldn’t happen but knew was inevitable. Gary Shaw has died, aged 63. The reaction was truly astounding – it seemed as though every set of supporters in the country joined with us in mourning and every news medium carried the story. Of all the tributes the most poignant were perhaps from Stan Collymore, a player who idolised Gary, and Brian Little, who Gary idolised himself. We will never see his like again.
The Athletic runs a piece about the rumblings-on from the first two home games and how the Witton Lane missing seats problem still hasn’t been either explained or sorted. It’s either incompetence or a deliberate act of not caring about the ordinary supporter. Perhaps both; nothing surprises about the Villa’s matchday operation anymore.
Unai pays his own tribute and says we’re aiming to beat Young Boys for Gary. Talking of which, the Champions League anthem is played and we’re there rather than watching on TV. Not only that but we have the easiest introduction we could have hoped for, beating Young Boys 3-0. Youri Tielemans and Jacob Ramsey put us in the lead at half-time and Amadou Onana got a late third. Ollie Watkins and Jhon Duran scored but the goals were disallowed for a couple of handballs, the second so ludicruously late after the incident that the ref re-started play with a kick-off. Our very own one-man chaos zone managed to get booked after his; we have the only player on earth who could get booked for scoring a goal that didn’t count, and long may he continue. The tributes certainly did, with a nice montage on Match of the Day.
After the game there’s a bit of a problem when Ollie Watkins is seen to be walking round with an ice pack on his leg but the boss says he should be fine and if Unai Emery says it’s nothing to worry about then it isn’t. Young Boys officals and the police say our supporters all behaved themselves and would be welcome back any time. At those prices perhaps not.
A day before the Wolves non-derby there’s still plenty of seats left. perhaps one day the message will get across, or perhaps not. One hospitaliy package makes more than selling tickets to five of the riff-raff, and that’s what really matters.
Onto the match itself and another chapter in the longest ongoing story of West Midlands football, namely a club trying desperately to start a rivalry with the Villa. With the quiet dignity that comes naurally to him, Brian Little lays a wreath at the McGregor statue, there’s a front page programme cover and a press box seat commemoration. What was intended to be a minute’s silence becomes applause and it’s repeated on eight minutes. Unfortunately, some supporters miss both of them because we still haven’t found a way to get everyone into the ground on time. It won’t be the club’s fault, though. Nothing ever is.
At least if you did get in late you didn’t miss much, apart from Diego Carlos giving Wolves a goal start. In fact you could have got there at half-past four and not missed a great deal more. Then the Cannonball Kid arrived on the scene and things started to happen. Ollie Watkins proved that once he gets one he’ll get more, Ezri Konsa got what would have been a late winner but you-know-who just had to get another. After the match Unai said a naughty word on Match of the Day. Naughty, but accurate. Still, it’s three more points.
