In which we win a trophy or two.
Bank Holiday Monday and it’s not just kids for a quid, it’s for everybody at the FA Youth Cup final against Manchester City. We get a crowd off more than twenty-five thousand, some of who’ve been proceed out of the Premier League and some who couldn’t afford it in the first place, and plenty of them seem to have walked to the ground. Well done to whoever thought of doing something for us rather than for the money for a change.
Of course, being the Villa we went a goal down after two minutes but being the modern Villa we equalised two minutes later. Two-one up after half an hour and we got a third midway through the second half. That’s the fifth time we’ve won this trophy, the second time in five years. If the kids can do it there’s no excuse for the big lads.
Chris Heck might be going but he’s going with a bang. The Player of the Year awards night will cost £474 a ticket. It used to be five quid, and for that you got Nigel Kennedy and Cabaret Nite with Dave Ismay.
The pre-season tour’s been announced and for a change we’re going to the USA and for another change off to the Bescot as well, with a trip to Germany thrown in.
Another sign that old habits die hard – Youri Tielemans is out for at least a couple of weeks with a muscle injury.
The youth team are certainly on a roll – they beat Leicester to win the Academy league southern section. The play-offs against the northern section winners will be at Villa Park against Manchester City again.
Although all of this will be in vain as the ever-neutral Birmingham Live announce HS2’s plans to open a new transport link to the £2.9 billion stadium being built to hold 62,000 Proper Brummies and host every major sports event in Western Europe. Reading the story, they’re putting a tram line up to the new station by the NEC and it’ll go through Bordesley but never let reality get in the way of your dreams.
If that’s not enough Craig Gardner chips in by saying our youth players (the ones about to win the double, remember?) might have better trainers but theirs are all mates and that’s what counts. If they didn’t exist you really would have to invent them.
Down to Bournemouth and a tricky game against opposition who can be nasty bastards when they put their minds to it, which they certainly did this time. Marco Asensio hit the post early on, Tyrone Mings clattered one of theirs then Ollie Watkins finally got his record-breaking goal on the stroke of half-time.
Nothing much happened in the second half until the ref decides that Jacob Ramsey breathing on one of theirs was worth his second booking so off he goes, then in the last minute the best keeper in the world prove it again. Three points and up to sixth, with a couple of big ones to come on Sunday.
Which they do, and they’re not bad at all. Two games to go, level on points with fifth. It’s getting exciting.
