Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: villa_cads on March 20, 2015, 12:56:43 PM
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The beeb are running an article asking if sport makes you happy. Apparently, research has shown that the amount of dopamine we release is directly related to how much we're expecting an event to occur. There is a quote from Eric Simons (author of The Secret Life of Sports Fans) that resonated with me given out current situation:
"The best way to be as a fan is to have the maximum emotional investment in a team but the least expectation of success, because that's what rules the dopamine release."
This season has been pretty depressing for the most part and it's been difficult to find positivity. But the happiness from the last three games, especially the totally unexpected rout in the first half against Sunderland, has put that to the back of my mind. So does this tally for you, have you been happiest with a win when we're struggling and expectations are low, or when we're doing well and expectations are high?
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Villa make me love everyone in the street one minute and politely smash them all in the head with a brick the next.
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The theory about expectations makes sense. The recent Albion league game was a good example. I wasn't really expecting us to win beforehand. I certainly wasn't after 90 minutes. This must have contributed to the absolute euphoria afterwards (as well as the other, more obvious factors).
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Last two weeks yes
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Yes - when skies are grey
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Definitely still impacts my mood both ways despite being a much more passive fan nowadays. Even more so this season than others as it was utterly dire September through January,
However I have come away from Villa Park v Arsenal in December 2007 & 2008 and v Everton in 2009 with a real buzz even though we didn't win any of those games.
20 years ago it would make or break my weekend / midweek.
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That does hold true for me. When Villa have been dire but then somehow grab an unexpected win in a massive game - there's very little better than that. It's not just the joy of an unexpected win though; I don't know it's like for other clubs but I think there's a smouldering expectation at Villa and when things finally, somehow look like they might go for us, it seems like we might go some way to fulfilling our potential. Hope, I suppose. That's a wonderful feeling. Knowing Villa are motoring again.
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Once every three or four months or so yes.
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One thing is for certain as far as i am concerned ,i feel a hell of lot better when we win,than when we lose.For most of the last few seasons i have felt down,the last few weeks have changed all that .i am happy all of a sudden
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I'm very happy right now. I've got a Semi in fact.
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Yes they do but not often enough -
I love the banner in the Holte which reads "Balti, Stella, Villa"
Mine would probaly read :
"Funk, Soul, Villa"
Keep the faith :)
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Currently they are
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Can't use Stella as it's not Brummie...should read
Balti, Ansells Bitter, Villa
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Mine would be Balti, Banks's Bitter (or mild), Villa, though I suppose Banks's is a bit Black Country.
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"The best way to be as a fan is to have the maximum emotional investment in a team but the least expectation of success, because that's what rules the dopamine release."
And that captures the Villa experience perfectly. They give me general background happiness (I'm at my happiest when I'm moaning about something I care about) coupled with the occasional outrageous high. Best example of this -a conversation between me and my mate outside the Feynoord Ground in May '82 before kick-off accepting that, at least we'd see them in a European Cup Final but it was going to be a quiet trip home.Two hours and a couple of gallons of dopamine later and we couldn't stop smiling until Notts County in August!
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Enormously.
I've been skipping and hopping around, smiling inanely at perfect strangers for the last few weeks.
Before that I've been a miserable, grumpy sod, the sense of disappointment from yet another loss usually taking about 5 days to diminish. Until I glance at the league table, when depression sets in again.
Interesting point: I've been working on my house for the last 5 months but have got much more done in the last few weeks than at any other time.
Positive vibes man.
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"The best way to be as a fan is to have the maximum emotional investment in a team but the least expectation of success, because that's what rules the dopamine release."
I've had this view with the Villa for the past four seasons and it's made me far from happy.
The bit that's missing from that is the low expectations only work to provide happiness if the club over-achieves those expectations. For the past four years my low expectations have at best been met, and at worst been regularly underachieved!
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Right this moment, no. This hurts.
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Always does when you have some hope before it then disappears again
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The bad results ruin my evening. The good ones make my week. So yes, they do, but losing in the last five minutes like we did today is the unfortunate opposite to it.
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Under Lambert the defeats stopped hurting, to me I was more astounded by how each week we seemed to surpass all the ineptness that had preceded it. A bit of optimism from the last three games and suddenly another defeat. It hurts. Even more that we were at home again, our home record is diabolical. Off to get bladdered.
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For a club of our standing our home record is pathetic.
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For a club of our standing our home record is pathetic.
Our home record has almost always been pathetic.
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Hi FrankMossWMU.
I find it helps if you only study league tables after the lads have picked up a point or three.
Stops me getting too depressed, anyway.
'twitches'.
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For a club of our standing our home record is pathetic.
Our home record has almost always been pathetic.
Not if you were raised on a diet of Vic Crowe and Ron Saunders.
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For a club of our standing our home record is pathetic.
Our home record has almost always been pathetic.
Not if you were raised on a diet of Vic Crowe and Ron Saunders.
Fair point.
I hadn't realised until just that we're staring down the barrel of our lowest number of home league wins in a season ever at the moment. We've won just 3 home league games this season, 1 less than TSM's record.
Hopefully we'll deal with that issue at the same time we deal with the spectre of relegation.
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For a club of our standing our home record is pathetic.
Our home record has almost always been pathetic.
Not if you were raised on a diet of Vic Crowe and Ron Saunders.
Or not, if you look at the stats. We had a decent home record under them but never a Fortress Villa Park.
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For a club of our standing our home record is pathetic.
Our home record has almost always been pathetic.
Not if you were raised on a diet of Vic Crowe and Ron Saunders.
Or not, if you look at the stats. We had a decent home record under them but never a Fortress Villa Park.
To be fair, I'd argue it was in 71/72...
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One of the things I always feel sorry for Randy about is the fact that he poured all that money in (witlessly, but we'll leave that to one side for now) and MON spent it and built a team which was pathologically unable to be anything more than average at home.
Those four years, we were brilliant away from home and fucking awful at home.
2009-10 was a good example. Scored 29 goals at home (Man City a place above us scored 41, Liverpool below 43), but of those 29 goals, 10 came in 2 matches against Bolton and Burnley, meaning that in the remaining 17 home matches we managed 19 goals, a little over a goal a game, which is pathetic.
In 2008-9, it was similar, scored 27 goals at home, 8 of which were in games against Bolton and Man City, leaving 19 across the other 17 home matches.
If you consider we finished sixth both those seasons, that's a pretty unimpressive home record.
The other thing I feel sorry for Randy regarding in that time is that, rather than go out and buy a couple of £15-20m or so flair players, bums-on-seats players, Martin spunked all that cash on 5-10m functional plodders who were never going to help increase attendances.
Don't get me wrong, averaging 40k or so was impressive, but if I'd spent 200m or whatever it was on players in that sort of time period, only to see that the only real "flair" player amongst them was Ashley Young, I'd feel more than a little short changed.
Just think what we could have cobbled together with the combined fees for non-performing guff of the likes of Habib Beye, Curtis Davies, Nicky Shorey etc etc
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For a club of our standing our home record is pathetic.
Our home record has almost always been pathetic.
Not if you were raised on a diet of Vic Crowe and Ron Saunders.
Or not, if you look at the stats. We had a decent home record under them but never a Fortress Villa Park.
To be fair, I'd argue it was in 71/72...
"Like Muhammed Ali winning the boys brigade championship".
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For a club of our standing our home record is pathetic.
Our home record has almost always been pathetic.
Not if you were raised on a diet of Vic Crowe and Ron Saunders.
Or not, if you look at the stats. We had a decent home record under them but never a Fortress Villa Park.
To be fair, I'd argue it was in 71/72...
"Like Muhammed Ali winning the boys brigade championship".
I'd disagree Dave. Ad@m's point was that our home form has almost always been pathetic. Under Crowe and Saunders it was far from that.
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I was replying to the comment about 1971-72, which we should never use to boast about anything except our support.
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I was replying to the comment about 1971-72, which we should never use to boast about anything except our support.
Agreed, but sadly that was where we were at the time.
I still wince when I think of some of our 3rd division defeats, most notably a 3-0 thumping at Walsall, who we just could not beat in two seasons.
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When you have to go back 40 years and a lower division, then it kind of proves that our home has rarely been impressive.
And yes, Villa do make me happy.