No away fans

[AV82EC]

Judging by what I’ve read here and from a few other sources the phrase “hoist by your own petard” seems most appropriate. Got everything they deserved the moronic pricks.

[Chris Smith]

Getting off the train at Aston around 6 about 30 coppers came charging up the stairs, one dropped her handcuffs, to surround a small group of away fans, no idea if they’d caused any bother but it looked heavy handed. From the Aston Tavern we walked up through the church yard to the ground and there were dozens if not hundreds  of Legia fans milling about about on the road but  it wasn’t confrontational. So my experience tonight was of seemingly heavy handed policing but have no real idea of what might have occurred elsewhere.

[Axl Rose]

Can’t remember which poster whose lad didn’t like fireworks but hope that if they went they weren’t put off going to the villa.

yammers.

He was ok thanks for asking! I (like others) was aware of what was going on but he was oblivious. He did keep asking why no away fans though!

Bless him!

I hope he (and you 😊 )enjoyed the match, mate.

[Bent Neilsens Screamer]

Similarly to someone earlier I too did wonder what the police did with them once they let them out once the match had started, if that’s what they did. I should imagine they’d be quite frustrated once let loose!

There was a Polish bloke causing a bit of a nuisance by me as we were queuing up to get in the lower trinity pre kick off.

[Ads]

Thames Valley 'osses on the Holte car park.

I think the OP is really wide of the mark. It's nothing like Madrid.

Let's contextualise it. We were kept in at Warsaw for ages after the game because their black Ultras (the sad ****** who bring gum shields to football games) were looking to ambush us, with weapons, not too far from the ground. It took a small army of Warsaw Police to get that under control.

They had jet sprays of pepper spray for us and despite Warsaw having being cleared, their police decided to funnel us through a choke point and push us about with riot shields. The area around the ground was very moody in fairness on the bus back.

The whole time we're drinking in Old Town, their firm is milling about in the park, hoping to bump into Villa.

Fast forward to Alkmaar. They're banned from Alkmaar and have to collect tickets from Hague. Only 200 turn up to do this, which gives you an indication of how many "normals" follow them. Instead, for an allocation of 950, 1200+batter through police lines and knock seven shades out of the Dutch Police.

I was speaking to a Dutch version of Bladen in Alkmaar, together with Bladen. It was the worst this Dutch copper had seen and the Dutch have their own issues. There was Villa risk, but they had all stayed in Amsterdam. That pointless turnstile was installed just for us, before the real turnstiles.

They were banned from Mostar.

Bladen's summing up of the Polish police, is not polite so I won't repeat it. The club have issued a statement showing a complete lack of engagement from Legia Warsaw. This is of no surprise.

The Police rightly, based on 9 officers being injured at Leicester, with 1 retiring, all recent history, did not want Legia fabs en masse. They made the decision. It was a correct one.

Legia self evidently believed they could turn up at Villa Park and jib or rush the gates as in Alkmaar. They figured wrong.

Villa did not behave like Warsaw, despite being settled at their ground. We were held for a while at Alkmaar and behaved there too.

WMP were clearly in no mood to fuck around with these twats and their behaviour absolutely justifies the measures taken.

Tonight Legia embarrassed themselves again. From twats throwing stuff into the Hotle, to those trying to kick in the doors, they're pathetic and ought to be booted out the competition.

[adrenachrome]

From Twitter/X.

Richard H
@Lichrich
·
1h
3000 travelled with only 1000 having tickets. Villa tried to help out by putting a big screen on what's normally the coach carpark so the 2000 ticketless could watch it there but they started rioting outside that the moment they arrived.

[Small Rodent]

One thing I haven't seen is where did they all go? From about half time they seemed to vanish as I haven't seen any updates about them and is doesn't seem like many were about at full time.

They all be back on the building sites at 730am tomorrow if they're from the UK. If they've come over from Poland god knows probably down Broad Street now in Popworld and Reflex

You really are a ridiculous little Soccer Bantz child aren’t you?

I learned it all off you bru

Stop being a ******. Stereotyping nationalities is cuntish behaviour.

Actually the cuntish behaviour was from them this evening in case you missed it . Hopefully they'll be banned now .

Behave.

Apologies to the moderators. They don’t need extra work from me!

[HolteL4]

And yes, I do blame WMP. Same as I blame the Spanish police for what we endured in Madrid back in the day. I also have said many times that Legia have an element that are absolute twats.

However i'm really not sure that the best course of policing to try and diffuse any potential issues is kettle them for hours in a car park on a freezing cold night and then not let them go to the ground, and then ban them completely from entering the ground.

Was it WMPs fault for the trouble they caused when they played Leicester? Was it WMPs fault for the trouble they caused when they played AK which then caused then to have their fans banned from going to Mostar? Is it also WMPs fault that they have been issued a play behind closed doors punishment suspended?

I'm not a big fan of the WMP but I work with a Legia fan and he confirms the behaviour we saw is how they behave everywhere they go.

[FrankyH]

We walked up from Brookvale Road , got to Witton Square and couldn't turn left into Manor road or Witton Lane due to  a massive Police presence (supported by  loads of Meat Wagons). This meant all the Villa fans carrying straight on over the Island to turn left at the access road onto the North Stand car park or Nelson Road a bit further up. Surreal moment as there were dozens  of Warsaw fans the other side of the island waiting out of Police view. Villa fans walked past them and neither side engaged in any verbals or shenanigans.

[tomd2103]

I feel for their genuine, non-moronic fans who have spent money coming over and not got into the ground.  The morons that kicked off and came without tickets can get stuffed quite frankly.

There's a lot of people saying they were refusing to go in themselves, so even the fans who got tickets stood out in the car park by choice. When that didn't get them what they wanted it kicked off and then the choice was taken from them. So its hard to feel too sorry for any of them. (Unless they were afraid to go against the rest of them and just go in, but it seems it was an organised "protest")

If that was the case, then those who did that can be filed into the 'can get stuffed' category as well and have only got themselves to blame.

I do think that it was a pretty unique situation given that it was a Polish team and there is a large Polish contingent living in this country.  Probably meant more were able to travel to Birmingham quite easily, though there seems to have been similar issues at AZ as well. 

[dave.woodhall]

The ones who wanted to go in didn't have much choice. The ultras say you're staying outside, outside you stay.

[Rory]

I must say, the BBC story isn't doing enough to clarify who the troublemakers were for my liking. For anybody browsing, it reads like it was general trouble around VP, which could easily be misconstrued as involving our fans.

[tomd2103]

The ones who wanted to go in didn't have much choice. The ultras say you're staying outside, outside you stay.

Ah right.  What a warped bunch. 

[artvandelay]

Anyone got any idea what their fans did after they didn't get in? Did they just get the train back to town? I assume WMP had some kind of plan to disperse them

[VillaTim]

Be interesting to know what criteria they had for purchasing tickets . You'd think most of their fans who travel home and away would have known what was going down tonight so not many were caught unaware of the strategy of the Ultras ?