Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: john e on December 08, 2010, 09:57:37 AM
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first of all i dont think we will go down, in fact i not even concerned about it to be honest, well not yet anyway,
but if it did happen, and some on here reckon there's every possibility, would it be so bad ?
i briefly saw Villa in the old 3rd Div, [once away at Mansfield] but lets face it older members like regailing us with there stories of great awaydays in the lower leagues , [yes you DC5] and some say they were the of best times !!
so it might be quite exciting visiting places lots of people have never been before,
couple of trips into London for QPR and Palace,
a few friendly games at Millwall, Leeds,Cardif and Swansea where we can have a drink with the locals,
then theres old derby rivalries to renew with Coventry,Liecester and Derby.
lovely picturesque trips to Scuny and Doncaster
wouldnt be the end of the world for me to be honest,
we could come straight back up again and pretend to be billy big time and demand europe in the first season like Newcastle
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Get a grip John :)
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Yes, it would be so bad.
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My first Villa game was while we were in the old Division 2.
Relegation wont happen, think positive Mr E.
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wouldnt be the end of the world for me to be honest,
I think you're daft.
I've seen many championship games, many in the flesh at Wolves.
The football is uniformly awful and getting relegated could be the start of a slippery slide.
We'd lose our best players and be in serious financial trouble, there's no romance to it.
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its only a bit of fun chaps,
i started by saying i dont think it will happen, i'm not overly concerned about relegation as i think we will finish in the top half anyway.
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I can see where you are coming from John. It wouldn't be so bad for me. Having followed Villa for 40 years I have, like many on here, seen it all. Literally. Except an FA Cup win. The problem these days and where it is different I think to say getting relegated in the 70s or 80s is that very few teams now come back better for it and quite a smattering don't come back at all - think Forest, Derby, Leicester and Coventry. I can see though why in one sense it would be great fun. 1987 is still one of my most fondly remembered seasons for away trips in the second division...
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The 3 promoted teams are all currently above us and arguably comparably as good as we are. A promotion winning season breeds confidence and that momentum and winning mentality can carry a team through the next yr in the Prem and then they can reinforce and go again. Look at our recent games with Blues and Wolves, who haven't been in the top flight for very long. They are on a par with us, being in the top flight for soo many yrs has hardly made us any stronger, perhaps we need a jolt, one step back 2 forward and all that.
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I also dont think we will get relegated i think after Christmas we will turn our season around.
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On one side it'd be nice to play someone else on another it would be a disaster
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87-88 season was certainly more memorable and entertaining than many mediocre premiership seasons
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87-88 season was certainly more memorable and entertaining than many mediocre premiership seasons
Although getting relegated isn't meant to be fun, I had a great time that season.
A friend learning to drive and being given free use of his mom's ancient Maxi meant we could travel all over the place watching us at some right dumps.
Happy days. I suspect the reality of relegation is somewhat different these days, though.
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yeh I think you might be right, winning nearly all of our away games that season also helped, just remember the excitement of going for promotion, much more interesting than fighting for 6th place in the prem!
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There was a brief discussion in the pub the other day about all the new teams and grounds there would be to go to. That said, I wouldn't enjoy being relegated one bit.
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New grounds, new towns, massive allocations and i think we'd take more fans away than we do now with the novelty factor and the fact we'd be challenging for promotion.
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New grounds, new towns, massive allocations and i think we'd take more fans away than we do now with the novelty factor and the fact we'd be challenging for promotion.
and saturday 3 o'clock kick offs
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87-88 season was certainly more memorable and entertaining than many mediocre premiership seasons
a wonderful season. Some unbelievable away games - Shrewsburyon a week night, Bournemouth for a seaside special....erm...Leeds ....Blues...Hull...Swindon...
OK, maybe I'm looking through rose-tinted specs.
Still, a wonderful season. Almost makes me like David Platt when I think of his goal against Bradford
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It would be crap to be relegated.
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It would be crap to be relegated.
Is the correct answer.
/thread.
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I saw nearly all the third division games home and away. Yes it was fantastic at the time and Im happy to regale your all with stories about going to Notts County, and shit grounds like Rochdale and Halifax.
However, I want to remain amongst the band of those who will all now be pretty well over 50 and know whats its like to see Villa in the 3rd tier. In fact I want to live till Im a 104 and be like one of the last surviving 1st world war veterans, coming on Heroes & Villains and still trotting out the stories.
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A drink with the Millwall fans?
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I too was there in the 3rd division. The problem now is that relegation is a different animal. The huge financial differences were not there then so our massive support carried us through (and back).
Times have changed relegation could be disastrous.
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87-88 season was certainly more memorable and entertaining than many mediocre premiership seasons
Although getting relegated isn't meant to be fun, I had a great time that season.
A friend learning to drive and being given free use of his mom's ancient Maxi meant we could travel all over the place watching us at some right dumps.
Happy days. I suspect the reality of relegation is somewhat different these days, though.
One of the great things about this site is thinking you were probably stood in the same away end as someone on here all of 25 odd years ago - Barnsley, Sheffield United, Leeds etc...
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I keep chanting to myself, "we will be ok, we will be ok, etc." I am not worried yet but if we continue to stutter through January then the panic button will be pressed.
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A promotion winning season breeds confidence and that momentum and winning mentality can carry a team through the next yr in the Prem and then they can reinforce and go again.
Bet that's what the Leeds and Middlesborough fans were saying.
However, I am one of the dwindling breed who went to most of the third division and second division games in the following seasons, and they were my favourite times. But the game was different then.
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I wonder how many Sheff Weds fans thought it would be fun to have new grounds to visit for a season? Relegation could be a long term disaster for the club, not a "romantic" trip to new grounds, most of which we've been to anyway.
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Like many I remember 87 being one of my favourite years following the Villa, I wouldn't mind doing it all again if things were more equal but they're not so it would be a disaster that we might not recover from.
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Like many I remember 87 being one of my favourite years following the Villa, I wouldn't mind doing it all again if things were more equal but they're not so it would be a disaster that we might not recover from.
yeah, lets hope we can have another 10 years like the last in the cosy comfort of the prem league,
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I look upon that relegation season of the eighties as being one of the most wretched eras of my Villa-supporting life. Getting promotion back up was great and a huge relief but it took a good few years for the club to regain any semblance of credibility.
The bottom line for me is that Birmingham's major club should never be in any league other than the top league and should always be competing for every major honour available. Anything less than that would be selling ourselves criminally short, surely? This is our one hundredth year in the top flight - we're not a Middlesborough or a Coventry!!
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No thanks.
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I also dont think we will get relegated i think after Christmas we will turn our season around.
I'm still bemused that some posters on here seem to think that Christmas is our turning point.
Starting Boxing Day we have Spurs (home), Man City (home and away), Chelsea (away), Blues (away) and Man Utd (away). The only game during the spell from Boxing Day to February which appears obviously winnable would be Sunderland at home and we never get anything from that fixture.
The next two games against the Baggies and Wigan are massive. If we don't pick up at least four points from those two then I can see us adrift of safety in the bottom three by the middle of February.
So relegation is a real possibility - believe it. And it won't be pleasant if it happens!
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Let's leave the "putting a silver lining on relegation" to the experts, who we're playing at the weekend coincidentally.
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I also dont think we will get relegated i think after Christmas we will turn our season around.
I'm still bemused that some posters on here seem to think that Christmas is our turning point.
Starting Boxing Day we have Spurs (home), Man City (home and away), Chelsea (away), Blues (away) and Man Utd (away). The only game during the spell from Boxing Day to February which appears obviously winnable would be Sunderland at home and we never get anything from that fixture.
The next two games against the Baggies and Wigan are massive. If we don't pick up at least four points from those two then I can see us adrift of safety in the bottom three by the middle of February.
So relegation is a real possibility - believe it. And it won't be pleasant if it happens!
Second half of the season we play Sunderland, Fulham, Blackburn, Wolves, Wigan, Newcastle and Stoke at VP so I demand a big improvement and some wins from those games.
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Second half of the season we play Sunderland, Fulham, Blackburn, Wolves, Wigan, Newcastle and Stoke at VP so I demand a big improvement and some wins from those games.
I totally agree but my fear is that we'll be playing catch up by then...
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The game has changed beyond recognition since 1987 and so comparisons to that season are way off. There was no Sky 4, no real TV money, no Champions League and no Europe of any kind due to the ban on English clubs. They say that the biggest game in 'World' football is the Championship play off, worth a reputed 70 million pounds! Was our game at Swindon worth even one tenth of that? Going down would be dreadful with absolutely no redeeming features and as football has evolved as much as it has would be very, very difficult to fully recover from.
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87-88 season was certainly more memorable and entertaining than many mediocre premiership seasons
It was only memorable because of the end result. Our home form was mediocre, played out for the most part in front of crowds significantly less than 20,000; and whilst the away form was great and I'm glad of the experience, visiting the likes of Home Park and Oakwell is not something I want to do again outside of a Cup competition.
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I'm getting annoyed with blues fans saying we are "in trouble" if anyone is in trouble it's them. We have an excuse injuries, what do they have?
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wouldnt be the end of the world for me to be honest,
I think you're daft.
I've seen many championship games, many in the flesh at Wolves.
The football is uniformly awful and getting relegated could be the start of a slippery slide.
We'd lose our best players and be in serious financial trouble, there's no romance to it.
Does that mean you'd stop going to games if Villa go down ?
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wouldnt be the end of the world for me to be honest,
I think you're daft.
I've seen many championship games, many in the flesh at Wolves.
The football is uniformly awful and getting relegated could be the start of a slippery slide.
We'd lose our best players and be in serious financial trouble, there's no romance to it.
Does that mean you'd stop going to games if Villa go down ?
Obviously not, but it would be painful to watch.
Especially as every team would come to Villa Park and put 11 men behind the ball.
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wouldnt be the end of the world for me to be honest,
I think you're daft.
I've seen many championship games, many in the flesh at Wolves.
The football is uniformly awful and getting relegated could be the start of a slippery slide.
We'd lose our best players and be in serious financial trouble, there's no romance to it.
Does that mean you'd stop going to games if Villa go down ?
Obviously not, but it would be painful to watch.
Especially as every team would come to Villa Park and put 11 men behind the ball.
any chance you would stop posting on here if we went down ?
that would soften the blow a bit
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wouldnt be the end of the world for me to be honest,
I think you're daft.
I've seen many championship games, many in the flesh at Wolves.
The football is uniformly awful and getting relegated could be the start of a slippery slide.
We'd lose our best players and be in serious financial trouble, there's no romance to it.
Does that mean you'd stop going to games if Villa go down ?
Obviously not, but it would be painful to watch.
Especially as every team would come to Villa Park and put 11 men behind the ball.
any chance you would stop posting on here if we went down ?
that would soften the blow a bit
Is that the best you can come up with, you daft OAP.
Go and have a booze up on your winter fuel allownace and leave me in peace.
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wouldnt be the end of the world for me to be honest,
I think you're daft.
I've seen many championship games, many in the flesh at Wolves.
The football is uniformly awful and getting relegated could be the start of a slippery slide.
We'd lose our best players and be in serious financial trouble, there's no romance to it.
Does that mean you'd stop going to games if Villa go down ?
Obviously not, but it would be painful to watch.
Especially as every team would come to Villa Park and put 11 men behind the ball.
any chance you would stop posting on here if we went down ?
that would soften the blow a bit
Is that the best you can come up with, you daft OAP.
Go and have a booze up on your winter fuel allownace and leave me in peace.
i just cant help myself, it must be my age
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i just cant help myself, it must be my age
Possibly lack of employment since 'Last of the summer wine' went off the air and you've lost your job as an extra.
That or you've pissed yourself again.
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I certainly don’t look back at ’87-88 with rose tinted glasses in fact I remember being relegated very vividly indeed as it was without doubt my low point as a Villa fan. Looking at the faces of utter desolation on the Holte End that day is something I would not want to see repeated. There was no joy at all during that season, from the opening home match defeat and violence fest against The Blues to the inability to win at home (A 0-0 draw against Barnsley I recall as a particular low point). Even the joy of getting promoted again was tainted by the amount of clearly forged tickets floating about and the dangerous crush at Swindon.
We go down, we drop straight off the radar and we would really struggle to bounce back from it. For every Newcastle (who are still not safe) there’s a Leeds, Forest, Weds, Sheff United.
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i just cant help myself, it must be my age
Possibly lack of employment since 'Last of the summer wine' went off the air and you've lost your job as an extra.
That or you've pissed yourself again.
you on Facebook ? i'm thinking of asking you to be my friend
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i just cant help myself, it must be my age
Possibly lack of employment since 'Last of the summer wine' went off the air and you've lost your job as an extra.
That or you've pissed yourself again.
you on Facebook ? i'm thinking of asking you to be my friend
Facebook?
I'm amazed you can master the computer, one of those 'silver surfers' eh?
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So John, are you volunteering to be the one the Sky cameras zoom in on as they cry their hearts out after the final damning whistle is blown? It'll probably be in 3D so you better put on a good show!
:-)
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i just cant help myself, it must be my age
Possibly lack of employment since 'Last of the summer wine' went off the air and you've lost your job as an extra.
That or you've pissed yourself again.
you on Facebook ? i'm thinking of asking you to be my friend
Facebook?
I'm amazed you can master the computer, one of those 'silver surfers' eh?
no, just checked H+V facebook page,
you aint on there,
obviously got no friends, that or your just so pig ugly you daren't put up a profile shot.
got to go now, the care workers come to take me to the toilet, back later though
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no, just checked H+V facebook page,
you aint on there,
obviously got no friends, that or your just so pig ugly you daren't put up a profile shot.
got to go now, the care workers come to take me to the toilet, back later though
Pitiful.
It's like i'm having a boxing match with Stepen Hawking.
You must try harder.
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I look upon that relegation season of the eighties as being one of the most wretched eras of my Villa-supporting life. Getting promotion back up was great and a huge relief but it took a good few years for the club to regain any semblance of credibility.
The bottom line for me is that Birmingham's major club should never be in any league other than the top league and should always be competing for every major honour available. Anything less than that would be selling ourselves criminally short, surely? This is our one hundredth year in the top flight - we're not a Middlesborough or a Coventry!!
semblance of credibility? Maybe you forgot us coming runners up in the Div. 1 title shortly after ??
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Nope. Even taking that into account we weren't really taken seriously. The following season saw another relegation scrap too. Even during the Big Ron years we weren't viewed as genuine big hitters - more as likeable, unfashionable outsiders. The relegation season, in my opinion, seemed to erase from the wider football consciousness all of the sterling work and the status regained during the Championship and European Cup era.
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3 o'clock kick offs almost every weekend, & away trips to grounds we've not been to in years...It wouldn't be the end of the world.
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3 o'clock kick offs almost every weekend, & away trips to grounds we've not been to in years...It wouldn't be the end of the world.
I'm almost tempted to say "Bring it on" if it wasn't for the fear that we may not get back up again.
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prat springs to mind
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There was a time in football when being relegated allowed a team/club to be rebuilt.
Nowadays, I am afraid that if you don't come back up at the first time of asking, it will only get harder because of the money differences involved.
There are some clubs who have slipped out of the top tier who will never see life at the top again. Teams that have financial backing too.
QPR aren't exactly a poor club anymore but they are still in the championship.
Southampton and Leicester, spring to mind.
And of course there is the once mighty Leeds, who are only just beginning their climb back towards the top.
Plus, if we were to get relegated, not an impossibiity by any stretch of the imagination, it would spoil our record, of being one of a small handful of clubs to have played in the top flight, every season since the start of the premiership.
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prat springs to mind
Great argument there Olaf.
Who is exactly?