Have you ever touched the match ball..?

[dave.woodhall]

Years ago found a fiver and took my mates down match.Was watching the game and a shot from Harry Burrows hit me in the nuts .Didnt realise why everyone was ducking .Think their still swollen now

Years later i was a steward in the witton stand and used to fetch the ball when it went over the old stand .Out the exit turnstile and if i was lucky it wouldnt bounce to much .Anyhow one game they couldnt get a exit gate open ,So i had to go round to the north stand .I had my jacket on the match ball in my hand and old bill wouldnt let me in saying anyone could say that .I had to wait till that sent out a search party

Where did they think you'd vanished to?

[FrankyH]

May have been the Swansea night game before the European Cup, the ball had gone out for a Villa corner and landed at the front of the Holte trinity rd side.I grabbed the ball the same time as my brother and cousin.We had all got hold of the ball and arguing who should throw it back.Meanwhile Sid and Dennis Mortimer are standing hands on hips waiting for the ball so they can take the corner.Eventually Sid gets pissed off and shouts "COME ON " ,his anger shared by all the Villa fans around us . We all drop the ball at the same time and some bloke ends up throwing it back.

[bilsim]

Sat in the front row of the trinity once i threw the ball back to alan wright.

[TopDeck113]

Never...and for years it bothered me and now I actually like the fact that for all the 100s of matches I've attended I've managed to come close to touching the match ball.

(I was sitting close to the lads who did head tennis during out Cup defeat at Man City last year - that's probably the closest I've come in recent years)

[Slaphead]

As a youngster when we played QPR (or Man City) the season they went out the prem, the ball fell into the empty row behind me, I picked up the ball and in amazement I started squashing it, curious to how soft it was. I didn't notice there was a QPR player standing and shouting at me to throw the ball back. Some guy next to me swiped me round the head and nocked the ball out of my hand, must have had the ball for about 20 seconds.

[Big Dick Edwards]

I actually left an away game at Highfield Rd in the 80s with the match ball stuffed under my donkey jacket. It came into the away end and Coventry never saw it again.

[TheTimVilla]

Portsmouth away. Kevin Phillips scored and was later substituted as we had a player sent off. Solano? We were holding on to a one nil lead, the ball came in to our section behind the goal. I caught it, held it and then threw it behind me, away from the pitch. Childish, yet pleasurable.

[Vancouver]

It's funny how many games I've played in or watched from the sidelines and nearly every other game a ball would come over our way. But never watching the villa. I did catch a blow up doll at Wigan away a few years ago though

[TheTimVilla]

Found the match details:

http://www.11v11.com/matches/portsmouth-v-aston-villa-23-august-2005-220749/

How shit are those teams, especially theirs?!

[Chipsticks]

Just remembered a more recent story. It was about 3 years ago or so, when Chelsea came to Villa Park and we lost 1-0 courtesy of a first half Anelka goal.

Anyways pre-match I was standing in the front row of the Lower Holte watching them warm up when Ashley Young went to practice a free kick. He missed while I wasn't looking and the ball hit me right in the gut, winding me, and knocked me back a little. After a few seconds of being lost in surprise I looked up to see him holding up his hand in apology.

Most people don't like Ash because of his half-arsed final season with us, and some people don't like him because of his tendency to dive. But not me. I hate that wanker because he once accidentally hit me while warming up.

On the plus side I told all my mates I was on the receiving end of an Ashley Young cross. Every cloud and that.

[The Left Side]

Twice - once at a game at Luton in the pre-match warm up which almost broke my fingers and the second at the Madjeski Stadium in Reading.

[hartman_1982]

I don't like to talk about it but I used to be a ball boy. It was my profession!

[Charlie8182]

Once I think against Derby in the Full Members Cup in 1986, the ball was kick into the Holte End which I collected and threw back; although the crowd was only little over 5000 with huge gaps everywhere.

[Pat McMahon]

Villa v Coventry in 1999-2000 season. I was off work for a few weeks after a hernia operation and  was sat in the Trinity. I caught the ball and quickly threw it to Merson, forgetting the stitches in my stomach. He launched a quick attack from which we got a corner but I was in pain for 5 minutes.

We won 1-0 though.

[Vancouver]

Just been reminded that a couple of seasons ago at the Vancouver whitecaps, I was walking up the steps in the stand behind the goal with a couple of beers when seine took a shot. The ball hit me square in the back. Which was very fortunate as I didn't spill a drop!