Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: dave.woodhall on August 16, 2025, 06:12:43 PM
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Queues, tickets, bogs, food, drink. How did today go?
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No problem getting in - used the QR code on the app not NFC- but the queue to get a drink looked a bit chaotic around 35 minutes before kick off so I didn't bother.
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Took ages to get in, I was fuming, stuck at at/in the turnstile for 2-3 mins at least. Steward finally assisted and pointed out I was scanning a ticket/QR thingy from last season’s home game v West Ham.
First game in many a year with zero alcohol involved. Was different. Not sure about queuing for 10 minutes in the fanzone for a bottle of water. Would be great if some AF beers were on the drinks menu one day.
The Greek street food stall was pretty decent, fried haloumi and salad for £9. Better than the usual shitty burger or hot dog.
Great to be back, as always. It’s Villa Park after all.
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Compared to last season’s chaos at the turnstiles it was fine.
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How was the Guinness? Mine was great.
(https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1342813923217715200/jtfeHfpz_400x400.jpg)
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No problems except queuing for water bottles.
The assistant could have served at least two more beers while he took for ever removing the tops.
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Fine, queue to enter moved quickly and no issues at turnstile. Didn’t do food today or beer just a couple of waters which the server took ages to remove the tops. All in all just the usual and the predictions of Armageddon were as usual unfounded.
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Shitstorm getting in but superbly sorted by two Villa supervisors. Well done them.
£5.75 for a lukewarm can of Somersby is piss taking profiteering .More fool me.Upper North concourse dangerously congested ,with the additional annoyance of some heating vent or something
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Upper Witton, no Guinness, side bars closed so horrendous queuing, pretty standard in honesty.
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Normal rubbish trying to get in lower Holte, but ticket worked ok, although steward made me show him my ear buds. Pint at half time was meh
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No issues. Mostly because i didn't need anything to eat or drink and i didn't need a piss . Atmosphere wasn't great again, very little singing .
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Upper Trinity was fine , but then i get in early ( 45 minutes before). Eat drink before and use facilities. I said to my son we are not moving ftom our seat for the next 2 and half hours 😃
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Upper Witton, no Guinness, side bars closed so horrendous queuing, pretty standard in honesty.
Yup, queued for a pie and a soft drink to get to front and be told no hot food or soft drinks at those counters maybe some at the other one….usual pathetic service.
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Got in early as worried about the ticketing. They have trained me not to bother with food and drink through years of piss poor service and attitude.
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Fine, no queue to get in, scanner worked straight off, no queue at the bar, Lower TR had been treated to a new floor and a lick of paint. Beer was awful but I'm used to that.
All good.
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The kettling in the Holte End car park has been scrapped which alleviated some of the congestion. We gave ourselves extra time anticipating there being issues which meant we were able to have a pint of gassy beer while we waited.
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Got in early no problems.
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Oh I forgot: my son was in Lower North with a guy in front of him in a Liverpool hoodie just continually taking shots of the Newcastle fans. Words were said
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Oh I forgot: my son was in Lower North with a guy in front of him in a Liverpool hoodie just continually taking shots of the Newcastle fans. Words were said
Was it Kevin Keegan?
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Oh I forgot: my son was in Lower North with a guy in front of him in a Liverpool hoodie just continually taking shots of the Newcastle fans. Words were said
Was it Kevin Keegan?
Yes.Yes it was.
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Oh I forgot: my son was in Lower North with a guy in front of him in a Liverpool hoodie just continually taking shots of the Newcastle fans. Words were said
Was it Kevin Keegan?
Yes.Yes it was.
I’d love it if it was, love it!
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Oh I forgot: my son was in Lower North with a guy in front of him in a Liverpool hoodie just continually taking shots of the Newcastle fans. Words were said
Was it Kevin Keegan?
Yes.Yes it was.
I’d love it if it was, love it!
Bet you'd be Head Over Heels In Love
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Last season in the Lower Holte we had the excellent "PieTanic" brand Pies. Couldn't find any yesterday at 14:45 hrs and the refreshment folks said there would not be Pies at half time either.
Always got a Pie at all of last seasons home games but this season it night be a case of no Champions League means we will be on stale bread and gruel with a side order of fried Boll Weevils.
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Why bother with the beer if it's always pish?
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Chatting to chief steward in Upper Holte, they’ve had to bring in a third party company to deliver stewarding. Hence all the random folk in coloured fleeces. He pointed out that Villa had not done any training or recruitment for many years. A shame as it’s good to know folk working around you and acknowledge the contribution they make.
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Why bother with the beer if it's always pish?
We don’t normally but we left the pub a bit earlier in case of issues and as there weren't we tried the outlet in the car park before we went in.
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Oh I forgot: my son was in Lower North with a guy in front of him in a Liverpool hoodie just continually taking shots of the Newcastle fans. Words were said
Maybe he was a paparazzo and Ant & Dec were in the away end.
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On the subject of stewarding one of them send me to the adjacent turnstile yesterday. That one did the cursory pat down and sent me back to the first one, who had watched his mate each me, then proceeded to pat me down again. I must not look trustworthy!
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On the subject of stewarding one of them send me to the adjacent turnstile yesterday. That one did the cursory pat down and sent me back to the first one, who had watched his mate each me, then proceeded to pat me down again. I must not look trustworthy!
or you just nice to grope , which turnstile was this , just in case 👀
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That thought did cross my mind but more in jest. The turnstiles were 48 and 47 on the right of the Holte upper.
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As usual I headed to the last right hand entry point of the LTR, by the fence.
Normally there are three people doing security checks. Yesterday there was only one, which slowed progress down considerably.
He patted me down, but didn’t bother looking inside the Tesco bag I was carrying.
I could have taken anything inside
(It was actually a Greggs sarnie and a Hunter S. Thompson book)
Credit to the female steward who called for any women in the queue to come forward to her for checking
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North Upper, got in fine, didn't bother with drinks or food. Waited ages to get out, and that's a worry if it needed evacuating in an emergency. Less food choice in the stadium environs I thought.
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At the queue to enter the stadium the person in front of me was denied entry which of course everyone behind was like here we fucking go, however instead of trying a few different options (i dunno... checking nfc was on, taking the phone out of his case???) he bailed out immeadiatly muttering a few expletives. There was quite a few people doing the walk of shame I hope they all managed to get in after a visit to the ticket kiosk.
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First time mobile phone ticket user, so was expecting to make a balls-up of it. Got to the ground for when the turnstiles opened. Noted the little helpers dotted about outside. Confidence was not helped by the extra 15-minute delay to get the turnstiles open. Surprisingly, went through without issue (using wallet function).
The club might want to note that I’ll wait a few games before purchasing my usual inside the ground, in order to offset the costs incurred in-order to gain access to the seat that I am now occupying for the tenth season in a row. Somewhat petty and pointless I understand, just another ‘old man shouts at clouds’ moment for me.