In the mid-90s, my friends Steve and Jackie started taking their young lads to Villa. He's a Charlton fan and she's a Bournemouth fan but when the kids wanted to see live football, they sensibly chose Villa
When one of the kids didn't want to go to a match in 95/96 I was invited along instead, despite me being Rugby Union through and through and never having been to a professional football game.
After a few games, I was hooked and bought a Season Ticket for 96/97. We all went for a few years until the kids had better things to do. Then Steve became a Head Teacher, so he and Jackie dropped out.
However, I kept on going.
Jackie died a couple of days ago. I'll be forever grateful that they took me to my first match and especially that, despite their own allegiances being to other teams, they decided that the best place to take their kids (and me) was Villa.
