Call yourselves supporters?

[Dave Javu]

I haven't been to many away games over the past few years, but I don't think I'll be going to too many more if yesterday evening is an indication of what I should expect.

It's really quite embarrassing watching quite a sizeable proportion of fans showing their "support" by breaking seats (wow - now that must really take a lot of imagination), throwing missiles onto the pitch (a lifetime ban is a good way of saving on those pricey match tickets, I suppose), getting into rather pathetic gesticulating competitions with opposition fans (it's what my 5-year old son is currently growing out of) and 'encouraging' our own Villa team by screaming/baying "you scottish c***!" at regular intervals. Another contributor has also reported fights between Villa fans.

How can we complain about other supporters causing damage to Villa Park if our lot are just as guilty of mindless vandalism? Next time the Police do something unreasonable to innocent Villa fans, how do we have any sort of recourse to their actions if a significant proportion of our rabble behave in the fashion detailed above?

You know who you are. Grow up, stop dragging our glorious name through the mud and let's show other football fans how to support a team, rather than giving a lesson on how to drag one down.

[Risso]

Have to say I'm surprised by that.  The games I've been able to get to in the last few years have been mostly away, and I've never seen any trouble whatsoever, and the support is largely first rate, as fans of the home side are often quick to point out.  McLeish got a load of abuse away at Wigan last season, but then he deserved it.

[He wears a magic hat]

Have to say I'm inclined to agree with the OP.

I'd say I attend about 60-70% of our away fixtures and in generally our support is excellent and fair minded. Look at the support at Norwich I'm convinced it helped the team and spurred them on to victory.

Last night it was terrible from the off, maybe it was how poorly organised gaining entrance to the stadium was and I know there was alot of wound up people before we got in.

From my point of view how do you get into a stadium half an hour before kick off and miss the first 5 minutes. Took 35 mins to get up the stairs and into the ground at which point I was told to just find somewhere to sit. I ended up in block E instead of Block C with no steward able or be bothered to help.

Obviously how the game panned out didn't help but we hardly covered ourselve in glory with our support. There was certainly no sustained support as there was at Norwich just a load of abuse.

[silhillvilla]

There's always a small minority of dickheads. Always has been always will be.

[amfy]

Last night it was terrible from the off, maybe it was how poorly organised gaining entrance to the stadium was and I know there was alot of wound up people before we got in.

From my point of view how do you get into a stadium half an hour before kick off and miss the first 5 minutes. Took 35 mins to get up the stairs and into the ground at which point I was told to just find somewhere to sit. I ended up in block E instead of Block C with no steward able or be bothered to help.

Surprised there hasn't been more mention of this here. It took me ages to get in but I was at least in my seat before KO. I spent the first quarter of an hour after KO worrying about Joe as I was guessing that the crowding and pushing on the stairwell & the entrance would've got worse after KO, and I could see pure panic on the faces of police & stewards from my seat just above the entry point of the stand. I actually started videoing it on my phone because I was so anxious. I am relieved that they somehow got away with the pure incompetence without incident. For me it really showed that the possibility of 'another Hillsborough' is in no way alleviated by providing seats if crowd control is as incompetent as ever.
They had also exacerbated it by sending coaches on a massive detour so that many of us arrived much later than necessary.
However, that entry clearly impacted on our support. We went into the ground in a great mood, but finally arrived at our seats variously anxious, angry, disorientated etc. As an away following we never really got going on the way I have known at other away fixtures.
Interestingly, local radio when we got back to our coach was interviewing a safety steward who said he was waiting for a full report but felt they had gone a long way towards addressing the problems they had had at the Arsenal fixture.
I certainly don't feel in the mood for making excuses for our team today, but it would seem Valley Parade has managed to perfectly maximise home advantage in terms of support for more that one League Cup fixture this season.

But - people who smash stuff up - idiots, please stay away from me!

[Mortimer's Bear]

I haven't been to many away games over the past few years, but I don't think I'll be going to too many more if yesterday evening is an indication of what I should expect.

It's really quite embarrassing watching quite a sizeable proportion of fans showing their "support" by breaking seats (wow - now that must really take a lot of imagination), throwing missiles onto the pitch (a lifetime ban is a good way of saving on those pricey match tickets, I suppose), getting into rather pathetic gesticulating competitions with opposition fans (it's what my 5-year old son is currently growing out of) and 'encouraging' our own Villa team by screaming/baying "you scottish c***!" at regular intervals. Another contributor has also reported fights between Villa fans.

How can we complain about other supporters causing damage to Villa Park if our lot are just as guilty of mindless vandalism? Next time the Police do something unreasonable to innocent Villa fans, how do we have any sort of recourse to their actions if a significant proportion of our rabble behave in the fashion detailed above?

You know who you are. Grow up, stop dragging our glorious name through the mud and let's show other football fans how to support a team, rather than give a lesson how to drag one down.

I wasn't there last night so I can't comment too much on your opening post but if accurate then it is deplorable.

That said the players, management and board are also guilty of dragging our name through the mud.

[5ft811st2 Durham]

The malevolence from some of our supporters was woeful .

Bloke next to me was constantly shouting at Bradford fans that he was going to slice them open and slash their throats.

How can someone get themselves so worked up about Bradford?

[Mortimer's Bear]

The malevolence from some of our supporters was woeful .

Bloke next to me was constantly shouting at Bradford fans that he was going to slice them open and slash their throats.

How can someone get themselves so worked up about Bradford?

I wonder if he'll be so 'brave' at The Den.

[OCD]

I agree with Dave Javu's comments but doubt the culprits have the intelligence to read the post.

[hilts_coolerking]

The malevolence from some of our supporters was woeful .

Bloke next to me was constantly shouting at Bradford fans that he was going to slice them open and slash their throats.

How can someone get themselves so worked up about Bradford?

I genuinely don't understand the mentality of someone who thinks 'Right, I'm going to schlep up to Bradford, fork out for a ticket (and booze as well, presumably), act like I'm a violent scumbag, and then schlep back down to the Midlands.'

There are some unfathomably moronic people about.

[He wears a magic hat]

Anyone opposed to safe standung should have gone to valleyy parade last night cuz the arrangements there were far from safe from the crush on the stairway to the chaos  once inside the ground

[PaulTheVillan]

There are dickheads everywhere. Not that it makes it Ok.

I had a half season ticket in the lower holte once, row J.

We played Arsenal around Xmas time and this older dude (late 50's) spent the whole game calling every black Arsenal player a "golly wog" or a "nig nog". I called the club and they moved my ticket. Don't know if anything was done about the bloke. Generally a few of the people around him thought it was funny.

[Apyadg]

The malevolence from some of our supporters was woeful .

Bloke next to me was constantly shouting at Bradford fans that he was going to slice them open and slash their throats.

How can someone get themselves so worked up about Bradford?

I wonder if he'll be so 'brave' at The Den.

When he's in a stand surrounded by thousands of Villa fans, undoubtedly. On the streets around the stadium, perhaps not.

It's a shame to hear about a small number of thugs, but I think the fans were the only credit we got out of that game last night, Villa support was all that could be heard until their 3rd.

[rjp]

There was a *lot* of abuse directed towards our own players last night and you could see that the players could hear it.  It was disappointing.  I also saw 2 broken seats on my way out.

I had my usual cigarette and entered the stadium 5 minutes before kick off.  I got to my seat without issues except that some lads had tickets in different areas but stood together in my row.  As I approached the turnstiles nearest the station there were a fair few people but half way down the stand (I was in block C) it was pretty much clear.

I get to about 5-6 away games a season and I could be imagining it but whenever we have a large away contingent the idiots seem to appear.  Wolves away would be a good example.  When it's more modest then we seem to get the away crowd that we're all rightly proud of.  I also think that as a home crowd we're much less patient with the team when it's near capacity.  Just as it is on here you get some fans who believe you should support the team through thick and thin and others who believe they have a right to express their displeasure.  I'm not saying either is right or wrong, just different opinions.  It probably explains the in-fighting that the OP mentioned.

[Clampy]

I go to a lot of aways and the fans are normally very good and there's rarely a problem. Last night seemed to bring out the worst in some people unfortunatley, it was a bit depressing.