Birmingham Mail and Villa coverage

[cdbearsfan]

Why would we want to move when we might get millions for staying?

[martin@ardenley]

Seen this?

Immeasurably ace.

Thank You
(I must get round to changing windows to boarded up ones)

[Louzie0]

Seen this?

Immeasurably ace.

Thank You
(I must get round to changing windows to boarded up ones)

Yes, it's brill.

[Tugby Villain]

They're not even bothering with facts any more. We sold out against Man Utd in December 2013, Burnley in May 2015 and Man Utd again in August 2015.  What a dreadful article.

http://www.b*r*i*g*a*m*a*l.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/aston-villa-heading-five-year-12342459

[PeterWithesShin]

I assume they mean the ground was a sellout, Burnley was less than 41K, Both Manure were probably a touch under our official capacity.

[Tugby Villain]

I assume they mean the ground was a sellout, Burnley was less than 41K, Both Manure were probably a touch under our official capacity.

I agree with you re Burnley, but the first Man Utd sell-out was 42,682 - the full capacity - and the second was 42,200, and it said on the club website the day before that the game had completely sold out.

[kippaxvilla2]

Look at this in the Meaning Evil today.  Then look at the date of the Scum article.  Also notice how they focus on the Villa lad, not the Blues one.

Aston Villa fan Danny Brown features in a collection of portraits called Great Britain's Hooligans.

The photographs by Simon Harsent are of football terrace hard men from the 70s, 80s and 90s.


Danny was the founder of Villa's C-Crew firm.

He said: "The name C-Crew is short for ‘Corner Crew’, we took the name from the part of the Holte End where we stood and watched the matches from.

"We were the first multi-racial football crew in Britain – it brought together youths from different areas of Birmingham during the Eighties.

"It’s difficult to look back now and give any simple explanation for the reason I became so involved in football related violence, as there are probably various causal factors.

"When I was younger I started going to matches because I was a Villa fan and loved football.

However, when I started to go to away games to places like Liverpool and Middlesbrough, I was frequently chased and given a good beating.

"I started to see the older Villa lads fighting on the terraces and decided to get involved myself – at worst it meant I would have some back up if I was attacked and, at best, I could give opposing supporters a taste of their own medicine."

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You can see the collection of portraits here

The portraits also feature Barrington Patterson, better known as One-Eyed Baz, from Birmingham City’s Zulus, Cass Pennant, one of the founding members of West Ham’s Inner City Firm, Riaz Khan of Leicester’s Baby Squad, Ginger Bob of Millwall F-Troup, Colin Blainey of the Man United Red Army, Boatsy of the Forest Executive Crew, Carlton Leach of the West Ham ICF and Jason Marriner of the Chelsea Headhunters.

A HOO'S WHO Amazing portraits show the men who ruled the terraces in the 70s, 80s and 90s
And you still wouldn't want to bump into any of them in a dark alley
EXCLUSIVE
BY JON LOCKETT  9th June 2016, 12:34 pm

THESE are the faces of the hooligans who brought terror to the football terraces for decades.

The sinister portraits – released ahead of Euro 2016 – are part of a series from acclaimed photographer Simon Harsent.

GBH: Great Britain's Hooligans EXCLUSIVEPIX MEDIA
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Carlton Leach was a member of West Ham’s ICF. His story was told in the film ‘Rise of the Foot Soldier’
GBH: Great Britain's Hooligans EXCLUSIVEPIX MEDIA
9
Danny Brown, of Aston Villa’s C-Crew, tackled racism on the terraces
9
Riaz Khan, of Leicester City’s Baby Squad, gained an MA in English Language and teaches at college
His new work explores football hooliganism through petrifying portraits of the football firm leaders themselves.

Entitled GBH (Great Britain’s Hooligans) the series brings people face-to-scary face with some of the country’s most notorious hooligans.

Simon said:  “It’s an examination of social discontent in Britain as the beautiful game presented an ugly face, and how the decisions of a few men 30 years ago have impacted their lives today.

“I’m not trying to glorify them or condemn them. These are portraits of people who chose one path in life and now have all turned their lives around.

“There is a written piece in the exhibition catalogue by my brother and co-collaborator on this project that talks to each of the guys about what was going on in their life at the time.

“It talks about the complexities of trying to generalise football hooligans, because there is no one single reason that young males are drawn to it.”

GBH: Great Britain's Hooligans EXCLUSIVEPIX MEDIA
9
Jason Marriner was a member of Chelsea’s notorious Headhunters firm
GBH: Great Britain's Hooligans EXCLUSIVEPIX MEDIA
9
Ginger Bob, of Millwall’s F-Troop, started fighting at matches when he was still in primary school
GBH: Great Britain's Hooligans EXCLUSIVEPIX MEDIA
9
Gary ‘Boatsy’ Clarke was one of the founder members of The Nottingham Forest Executive Crew
Although the men pictured all had different stories to tell about how they got involved in trouble, there was one common theme.

“One thing I did hear from a few of the guys was that it was like an addiction and if looked at like that I think we might perceive it in a different light,” revealed Simon.

“If you have other addictions such as drugs there are treatment programs but the so-called cure for a football hooligan is jail time.”

When I started following the Baby Squad, I felt protected and also brave because now we had lads who would defend you through thick and thin
Riaz Khan, Leciester City Fan
Riaz Khan of Leicester’s Baby Squad said: “Being part of a firm gave you that sense of belonging. I was always on the fringes when I was at school. I never belonged to any sub-culture or gang because I was Asian.

“When I was at school, racism was rife and gangs of boneheads would chase us just because of the colour of our skin.

“When I started following the Baby Squad, I felt protected and also brave because now we had lads who would defend you through thick and thin.

“!I felt invincible. I wasn’t a troublemaker – only at the football.”

[wittonwarrior]

None of them a patch on the Greek   Imagine the write up on him ! 

[villabear]

Quality reporting here.

A dog bites an eleven year old girl (which is an awful thing to happen I grant you) but then factor in the dog being called AV (can you see where this is going?) add in a picture of a dog that isn't the dog in question and an ambulance in case you've forgotten what an ambulance looks like and hey presto negative Un Villa related story.

Or am I being a bit too cynical?

http://tinyurl.com/j6x6zsa

[Tuscans]

Regurgitating a story today that the Express & Star published back in August....

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/aston-villa-tony-xia-worth-12502551

Express & Star August 2016...

http://www.expressandstar.com/sport/2016/08/06/wolves-v-albion-v-villa-how-do-the-new-chinese-owners-compare/?

Lame.

[Villafirst]

The B'ham Mail gave Elphick 6 out 10 for last Saturday.....and the same for Lansbury! Crazy....Lansbury was our best player by a mile.

[Villan For Life]

Yesterday the Mail and Birmingham Post were both reporting that the New Street club shop had closed. Must have been a slow news day because we were discussing the closure on here more than two weeks ago.

They are both a pale imitation of their former incarnations as bastions of local news.

[kippaxvilla2]

Today they have a special feature reminding everyone of how the Valentines Day massacre at home to Liverpool unfolded a year ago.  Presumably they will do the same on the anniversary of Blues' home defeats to Altrincham or Kidderminster?  Or maybe their own 0-7 to Liverpool.

[PeterWithesShin]

May as well stick it here as well

Our local paper, accurate as ever an hour ago. You'd expect better of Kendrick.

They have sold out their full allocation for today's Championship encounter at the DW Stadium, taking around 1,000 supporters.

[Tony Erdington]

May as well stick it here as well

Our local paper, accurate as ever an hour ago. You'd expect better of Kendrick.

They have sold out their full allocation for today's Championship encounter at the DW Stadium, taking around 1,000 supporters.

you couldn't write this stuff, brilliant.