200k fine....

[glasses]

Although, I agree that the fine is probably a bit disproportionate, and that there should have been some kind of retribution for the seat-throwing too, I do quite like the fact that we came out and apologised immediately. It's a sign on class and integrity and is what separates us from them.

I get that. A bit like a 'nothing to see here, we'll just sweep this under the carpet and move on. We're better than that.'

[Holte132]

Apparently Albion won't be fined for the seat throwing as we were the host club. So away fans are innocent, then?

[RussellC]

Although, I agree that the fine is probably a bit disproportionate, and that there should have been some kind of retribution for the seat-throwing too, I do quite like the fact that we came out and apologised immediately. It's a sign on class and integrity and is what separates us from them.

I get that. A bit like a 'nothing to see here, we'll just sweep this under the carpet and move on. We're better than that.'

Exactly. It reminds me off the General's quote about getting down in the mud and wrestling with pigs.

[amfy]

I was watching the Preston game where a player was attacked during their pitch invasion, and have watched the footage of the attack in some detail too - the footage is far better than any of our alleged assaults on players, and individuals can clearly be identified. I am sure they will be dealt with INDIVIDUALLY.

The interesting part is that there were repeated announcements during the later stages of the Preston game, whilst fans gathered towards the front of the stands, that fans should not go onto the pitch.

Then, as they started to come over the barriers and stand in the edge of the pitch, an announcement reminded fans that the referee was within rights to stop or abandon the game if they did not go back. This particular announcement creates a master stroke line of defence - putting the onus on the referee rather than the club. The referee played on with fans standing virtually on the touch line, having been reminded of HIS responsibility to crowd order by the club.

This is where Villa failed - not one tannoy asking fans to stay off the pitch, or behind the barriers at any point, with minor incursions from early in the game. That's where we cocked up.

Also - in both pitch invasions it is really clear, that when a pitch invasion at the final whistle is clearly becoming unavoidable,  stewards should be deployed to escort opposition players off the pitch as quickly as possible, not vaguely flap at invading fans to try and look like they are doing something.

Still ridiculous though!

[joe_c]

I hope we register a protest through the medium of winning their damn trophy at the end of the month then lording it up in the following days and weeks. That will learn them.

[danno]

I think the FA knows its our year, so are looking to claw back some of their prize money.

[peter w]

I can't help thinking that the whole thing was precipitated by the hysterical over egging from three chinned drama queen Jonathan Pearce and his pathetic, ignorant and utter fucking twat of a co-commentator.

Without a doubt. That and the Stripeys being better at the media than we are.

I agree but only up to a point. The Albion have used the media, but so have we, and to different ends. they have been successful in presenting themselves as the happy go lucky cheeky chappy club. They have employed (not in terms of paid employment) their celebrities to promote that image of them - whether its a gurning Chiles next to an inane grinning Frank Skinner or just the media jumping and down over the now devoid boing boing. But that's just it. They are presenting themselves as a Barnsley, or a Burnley and that they're going to enjoy themselves whilst they're in the big league. Its no more than that.

Now turning to us and our raison d'etre is completely different. We use the media to put across what we need. We can do better, yes, but how often have we commented on the odd dispatch from the press office being a touch of 'class'. We don't need to get into a war of words with smaller clubs. We're presenting ourselves as the big club and as the big club we have a responsibility. Would the managers of Man U, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea etc etc worry about stewarding if they had lost against us in a highly-charged game? No. because they're used to it. Pulis made his club sound even more small time by making them sound scared by events. like they can only deal with being in a crowd of 20 000. We just apologised after the event and left it at that. As much as because its what big clubs do - 'We apologise for any problems our excited fans caused you'. And have left it at that.

The fine is excessive. Without a shadow of a doubt. But seeing how often the club has been carpetted because of a failure to control players (not FA I know but if a club is repeatedly hauled up in front of disciplinary panels of whatever persuasion it gets you noticed), that the first pitch encroachment took place before the final whistle and instead of getting straight back off more and more came on, and because of the response from the media and Albion milking it, it seemed we were going to be taken to the cleaners. Its interesting to see (I haven't seen the news since 9 this morning so not sure if this has changed) that the club have yet to make a response to this yet. let it sink in and consider your options before your reply. The club must have asked for the fine to be explained fully but again we don't seem to air our dirty linen in public so we will see.

There are precedents for pitch encroachments so the FA need to be able to justify £200 000. But will we want to do it now? Go public? At this point in the season? Do we want that distraction? I think we've played it well to date but we need to make sure we cannot allow the FA to walk over us.

[dave.woodhall]

Now turning to us and our raison d'etre is completely different. We use the media to put across what we need. We can do better, yes, but how often have we commented on the odd dispatch from the press office being a touch of 'class'. We don't need to get into a war of words with smaller clubs. We're presenting ourselves as the big club and as the big club we have a responsibility. Would the managers of Man U, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea etc etc worry about stewarding if they had lost against us in a highly-charged game? No. because they're used to it. Pulis made his club sound even more small time by making them sound scared by events. like they can only deal with being in a crowd of 20 000. We just apologised after the event and left it at that. As much as because its what big clubs do - 'We apologise for any problems our excited fans caused you'. And have left it at that.

And in doing so made our supporters out to be the bad guys and our stewarding of matches incompetent. Our media relations are abysmal and always have been; we let the local media walk all over us and the national ignore us.

[DeKuip]

And in doing so made our supporters out to be the bad guys and our stewarding of matches incompetent. Our media relations are abysmal and always have been; we let the local media walk all over us and the national ignore us.

Well said. Do we even have a head of media now? Some of the stuff written for the club website suggests we have a media studies student on day release from college doing it.

[peter w]

The local media ignore us because they could never get interviews with randy Lerner. That, I agree, needs to be put right. But the national media aren't ignoring us now. our performances and becoming a middle of the road team and a club seemingly in a malaise led to us being ignored. But if a club hell bent and just surviving does nothing of note the media ignore them to a degree. We weren't ignore under O'Neill, when the General put out soundbites, when we looked like we could have a team at the end of Lamert's first season and first couple fo games into the 2nd season, and now under Sherwood.

as for the supporters and stewarding thing I seriously doubt one of the top clubs would have done anything different and I think that's where we're pitching ourselves. We've just accepted responsibility for the encroachment and made no mention of anything else. We don't know what has or hasn't happened behind the scenes or what has or hasn't happened between the club and the Albion with regards to the damage. We've kept our counsel and are doing so for a reason.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

Pay up and say nothing.
When we win The Cup in just over two weeks, collect the trophy and walk off. We can do the lap of honour, the pitch celebration and all the photo opportunities back at the proper home of football in front of 40,000 claret and blue the next day. The losing Arsenal fans will be glad not to see it, the 40,000 neutrals at the game couldn't care less and the rich twats in the Club Wembley seats will probably be at Stevie Gs leaving do anyway.
Stuff The FA and stuff the new Wembley, we are Aston Villa and we virtually invented the game !

[dave.woodhall]

The local media don't ignore us - WM and the Mail make that clear. The national media aren't taking much notice of us now and never have, even under O'Neill, although this is an improvement on the open season piss-ripping we endured earlier this year. 

Have Manchester United ever even mentioned their supporter invasions? Do Liverpool? We haven't done this because we want to appear in some way above it - we've been shafted by a combination of FA hypocrisy and media agenda and in the latter aspect we only have ourselves to blame.

[peter w]

I think we mentioned it only because we wanted to take responsibility and to soften the blow of any FA inquest. that clearly didn't happen.

[dave.woodhall]

I think we mentioned it only because we wanted to take responsibility and to soften the blow of any FA inquest. that clearly didn't happen.

Exactly. We got stitched up; we said sorry for our supporters and the other lot ignored theirs.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

I think we mentioned it only because we wanted to take responsibility and to soften the blow of any FA inquest. that clearly didn't happen.

Plea bargaining ? How very American !