Home truths

[django]

It's a bit of a vicious circle.

The atmospheres not great, we don't have a lot of songs really - But how many of our players have done enough for us to warrant the singing of a song in their honour? Gabby, Benteke - Check. Been the same for a while.

The crowd can be quite quick to moan and groan when players misplace passes etc. this maybe adds to the pressure on the players when they're at home - Who can blame a crowd who've paid a lot of money to see so many terrible performances for so long.

Ultimately, the atmosphere will only be changed by the team winning some more games. They are going to have to change things not us.

[London Villan]

Wasn't the fence in the Holte put in place to make the allocation for FA Cup semi finals more even after the North Stand was built on the old Witton End?

I do remember the green mesh fence between the Holte and the Witton and I also remember the police using truncheons to knock fans back as they were trying to climb over the fence during the Villa Blues game in '87...

[cheltenhamlion]

Forest and West Ham were half and half in the Holte if memory serves for a cup semi in 91.

[aj2k77]

Home games won by more than one goal? 6 in 60.

[Dave Clark Five]

Just to clarify, when I made my comment about putting away fans in the Trinity I meant in the corner near the north stand high up away from the pitch so that they are further away from their own players.

My comment was inspired by the knowledge that other clubs seem to stick the away fans high up in the clouds (say Newcastle for eg), and that this might help towards making the ground a less enjoyable place for other clubs to come and spank us on our own hallowed turf.

Problem with putting them in the Trinity would be that they would have to go through the car park to get back to their coaches. There is no easy way through there after a match. Cars would be damaged and it would be a bottle neck that could only lead to trouble. Very few clubs have a stand as tall as Newcastle to put away fans in. We have no such equivalent unfortunately.

[saunders_heroes]

Moving the away fans is just masking the problem. It's the home form that's the real problem. Sort that out and we wouldn't even notice the away fans. It's only the fact that we notice them that much is because they've had so much to celebrate these last couple of years. Our home form is truly abysmal.

[Dave Clark Five]

Moving the away fans is just masking the problem. It's the home form that's the real problem. Sort that out and we wouldn't even notice the away fans. It's only the fact that we notice them that much is because they've had so much to celebrate these last couple of years. Our home form is truly abysmal.

Correct. If we did have somewhere to move them to, away from the action, it would just make the ground quieter.
Action, from our players, on the pitch is what it needs. Things have never been any different than that.

[supertom]

I wonder if our pre-season has been partly a factor. In as much as we didn't really give ourselves enough testing games. We played a large quantity of games, but unlike in some previous years where we'd test ourselves against 2-3 really decent sides, among the lower league side, we only really had a test in our last game against Malaga.

Most of the other top clubs played a better standard of opposition. Granted, it's mostly about fitness, but I think our even though our defence looked utterly piss poor against very poor sides in pre-season, had we played 2-3 really decent sides from Europe, and probably been put to the sword, it may have changed some of Lambos thinking going into the final weeks of the window.

[PeterWithesShin]

I wonder if our pre-season has been partly a factor. In as much as we didn't really give ourselves enough testing games. We played a large quantity of games, but unlike in some previous years where we'd test ourselves against 2-3 really decent sides, among the lower league side, we only really had a test in our last game against Malaga.

Most of the other top clubs played a better standard of opposition. Granted, it's mostly about fitness, but I think our even though our defence looked utterly piss poor against very poor sides in pre-season, had we played 2-3 really decent sides from Europe, and probably been put to the sword, it may have changed some of Lambos thinking going into the final weeks of the window.

Doesn't matter I don't think. Manure, for example, played Singha All Star XI, A-League All Stars, Yokohama F-Marinos, Cerezo Osaka, Kitchee, AIK Fotboll and Sevilla.

[Pat McMahon]

I can remember Small Heath fans having the whole of North Stand Lower Terrace and the whole of the Witton Lane stand in a derby in the old 2nd Division in 1986 - when they score they all flooded onto the pitch up to the Holte doing the offering out signs - oh how times have changed since then.........................

They didn't have all the Witton Lane. A couple of hundred of them were in there, but the rest of the stand was as normal.

Spot on Dave. They had a similar presence in the Witton Lane as far back as the 1982-83 season where we beat them 1-0 courtesy of Gary Shaw.

In the 1986 game in the old first division they did have the North stand upper as well as the Witton End ( North stand lower). That 0-3 defeat remains probably my lowest point at Villa Park.

[dave.woodhall]

I can remember Small Heath fans having the whole of North Stand Lower Terrace and the whole of the Witton Lane stand in a derby in the old 2nd Division in 1986 - when they score they all flooded onto the pitch up to the Holte doing the offering out signs - oh how times have changed since then.........................

They didn't have all the Witton Lane. A couple of hundred of them were in there, but the rest of the stand was as normal.

Spot on Dave. They had a similar presence in the Witton Lane as far back as the 1982-83 season where we beat them 1-0 courtesy of Gary Shaw.

In the 1986 game in the old first division they did have the North stand upper as well as the Witton End ( North stand lower). That 0-3 defeat remains probably my lowest point at Villa Park.

That was the season we gave the entire North Stand to away supporters.

[LeeB]

I can remember Small Heath fans having the whole of North Stand Lower Terrace and the whole of the Witton Lane stand in a derby in the old 2nd Division in 1986 - when they score they all flooded onto the pitch up to the Holte doing the offering out signs - oh how times have changed since then.........................

They didn't have all the Witton Lane. A couple of hundred of them were in there, but the rest of the stand was as normal.

Spot on Dave. They had a similar presence in the Witton Lane as far back as the 1982-83 season where we beat them 1-0 courtesy of Gary Shaw.

In the 1986 game in the old first division they did have the North stand upper as well as the Witton End ( North stand lower). That 0-3 defeat remains probably my lowest point at Villa Park.

That was the season we gave the entire North Stand to away supporters.

Was that 85-86 Dave?

I remember sitting upstairs against Man City the following season as there was a special offer in the Mail.

It was a truly shit 0-0 draw.

[Nev]

The old division for semi's used to be:

Trinity and Block K of the Holte for one team and the North Stand, Witton Lane and Block L of the Holte for the other.

In general the team traveilling for south had the former and North the later, eg Liverpool and Palace.

It was ideal for segregation with fans gaining access on seperate sides of the ground, the "Witton" allocation was marginally larger than the "Trinity".

Moving the away fans doesn't really make any difference, Sunderland and ourselves under MON are a prime example. I'm a traditionalist and prefer fans to occupy opposite ends of the stadium, behind the goals if possible.

[steamer]

This is a no brainer, play to win and hopefully win a few, the fans get behind the team and on we go.
To think we can change our fortunes by moving the fans around is a bit daft.
We will have Barry Fry pissing on the corner flags next to remove a curse.

Adopt tactics and a mindset to win at home !!

[SoccerHQ]

We've been shit at home for far too long. When you think about great home seasons of the last 30 years, there are depressingly few.

This is the number of home wins each season, starting with last season.

5
4
8
8
7
10
7
6
8
9
11
8
8
8
10
9
11
11
6
8
13

And that covers the PL era, hopefully I didn't miss one. For a club that has regularly been top 6-8 during that time that is pretty shit.

It's things like this which make me wonder if Dave W isn't right, and that the ground, the atmosphere and the club is just too big for any team we've had recently.

Without knowing how that compares with similarly inconsistent clubs it's difficult to know how bad those figures are. A cursory glance suggests 8 is about our average, add in half a dozen draws and that's thirty points from home games.

One I always find relevant to this was in 09/10 when we were neck and neck with Spurs for most of the season and they nicked 4th, we won 8 home games that season. They won 14.

For me aswell VP is just not an intimidating venue for quite a few reasons.

We also sit back and feel our way into home games rather than going for the throats of the opposition and making them aware it's going to be a difficult afternoon. We tend to concede the first goal an awful lot in home games and playing catch up in any game is difficult.