Dave Woodhall watches events at Villa Park on Saturday afternoon.
On the surface of it, there wasn’t much to get excited about on Saturday. Villa have been doomed for weeks and the only item of interest on the claret and blue agenda was whether the record of eleven straight defeats would be beaten. In the end it wasn’t – a goalless draw meant that we couldn’t even fail properly. At least Eric Black can claim he got a point during his Villa managerial career. It was pretty much the only thing worth remembering of the action on the pitch.
Off the pitch, though, was another matter. Newcastle supporters had been looking forward to this game for weeks, aiming to gain some revenge for the day we sent them down in 2009, and no, I dont know how seven years have gone so quickly either. They really needn’t have bothered. The Toon Army were about as effective as their team, although unlike the team they at least had the excuse that they were up against far superior opponents.
The only thing to be proud of this season has been our supporters and no matter how good we’ve been before, we reached the heights on Saturday afternoon. Whether it was protesting, supporting or just laughing at the opposition once again, the Villa fans were different class. I’m not always happy at talking about how good the team’s support is – that’s usually the preserve of smaller clubs on their big day out and I hope this is the last time we have to be proud of it in the absence of anything else – but no-one watching proceedings at Villa Park could have been anything but impressed. It was, in its own way, a day to look back on with the sort of pride usually reserved for trophy-winning occasions or memorable performances.
As for the match, I think Villa got a shot on target at some stage. Black’s sole tactic was clearly to avoid defeat, even to the point that the only substition came late on, with the clear aim of wasting time. If he thought he had a chance of getting the job permanently the one good thing to come out of the past month or so is that he surely has no chance of that. Not even a Randy Lerner-influenced board could make such a decision.
Less surprising than Black’s tactics was the performance of our charming visitors. Newcastle’s supporters arrived full of good cheer, doing their best to wind up their hosts and failing totally because we were laughing at us far more than they ever could. Within seconds of the kick-off they were silenced, not because their team were being outplayed but because they were equally as inept as the Villa. Maybe they thought they were safe already, maybe they thought they only had to turn up to get the points. The latter might have been understandable but as the afternoon unfolded, and in true end of season style most in the crowd found their attention wandering elsewhere well before the end of the game, neither proved to be the case.
There are two ways of looking at Newcastle’s probable relegation. On the one hand their presence in the Championship would divert some of the attention from the Villa. On the other, it would make promotion a bit harder. Whatever the outcome, I do hope all this faux outrage will stop now. I don’t really care about Newcastle, most Villa fans I know are of the same opinion and if they get excited by us then bigger fool them.
We’re off to Arsenal on Sunday, to bring the curtain down on the worst season since 1970. Their supporters will be full of outrage at finishing third in the league, our supporters won’t be celebrating finishing twentieth but I bet we enjoy ourselves a lot more than they do.