Championship Memories

[Demitri_C]

Our best signing in championship for me was uncle Albert

Kodja was also good until he got injured then wasnt the samw when he came back.

Loan signing it was tammy hands down

[N'ZMAV]

Snodgrass did us a good turn. Also JT (soz)

[Gareth]

Whilst I never want to go back and the 10 game winning run & play off win somewhat adds rose tinted glasses I did kind of enjoy the Championship…playing against teams and players we wouldn’t normally with players like Jack / McGinn / JT / Chester / Snodgrass / Tammy / Mings was fun at times….not always tho lol

[Villan For Life]

Incredible to think that SJM and Tyrone Mings were championship players for us.

[Demitri_C]

Damn forgot we signed mcginn in championship- actually he was best signing in championship.  What a absolute bargain. For his faults bruce did get a couple gems in like him and hourihane

[Godfrey Brian]

First season three games in v Huddersfield .1-0 up and in the final ten minutes. I thought we were at the start of a winning streak which would take us back up.Then Gollini's clearance hits a Huddersfield player on the back and bounces in from outside the area. I realised then it was going to be a long haul back.

[itmustbe_it is!]

5-5 v Forest

[ADVILLAFAN]

Playoff Final we had Mings, McGinn, Hourihane, Grealish, El Ghazi and Abraham playing.

Not a bad Prem squad!

[RamboandBruno]

Good idea this, so many memories good and bad, and enough time gone and progress made now to reflect.
Started taking my kids when they were very young in the last couple of premier league years before relegation. They both are still season ticket holders but my son is more everything Villa obsessed. Thankfully he was too young to remember 14/15 and 15/16 but still has a big soft spot for Benteke, so something must linger. So the championship years are his defining years as a supporter. He still talks about the 5-5 with Forest as being his favourite game, his first away day with me was the Friday night at Bristol City, shit performance but drew 1-1 with Bjarnsson equalising, the fans mocking Bruce with the song ‘we’ll be there or thereabouts’, he was gone not long after.

Before all of that I remember the really bad times, I was at Pride Park one pre xmas when they beat us 2-0, we didn’t lay a glove on them, awful. The Fulham play off final, was the lowest Ive ever been after a football match, the most miserable drive back to Brum and took me days to get over the actual defeat and then the realisation that Shit Shoes might of totally fucked us. I also remember the start of the 18/19 season being down in Devon for a mates wedding, watched us beat Hull away in the pub, with Grealish seemingly waving goodbye, only for our new owners tontell Spurs to do one a few days later.

When Dean Smith took over, i remember when he walked out against Swansea and I felt quite emotional, he was one of us and the first decent managerial appointment we’d made since 2006 when O’Neil came in.

The 10 game will always live with me, the first really good times being a Villa fan for over a decade. Sheffield Wednesday away and Tammy & Albert getting two last minute goals, Hourihanes belter against Albion in the play offs, the tension of the penalties. And then the emotion of going up.

So many poor players, but also some un sung heroes for the Villa, Chesterand Hourihane being the main one’s, but Hutton, Snodgrass, Terry (despite it all), Steer, even Whealen, Adomah, Kodja, El Ghazi and of course Tammy. And some actual all time Villa legends came to the fore in McGinn and Mings.

[N'ZMAV]

we had a strong mentality in the last 2 seasons in that league

[Clark W Griswold]

The worst bit was when we heard about the financial problems created by that loon Xia. Thankfully the fears went away pretty quickly when we were bought by the real deal.

As others have said, McGinn and Mings were bought in, it was great to have a Villa fan as the manager for a time, and I’ll always be fond of the likes of Chester, Terry, Adomah, Kodjia, Snodgrass, Abraham, El Ghazi, Hourahane, and my favourite ever ‘limited’ player, Hutton.
We also saw Grealish finally get his act together on a consistent level during that second season, and he became a joy to watch.

It is what it is, it came after a dismal 5 years in the Prem and in hindsight I think we had to endure it to get to where we are now.

[Lastfootstamper]

5-5 v Forest

We turned up a bit late for this. Heard a huge roar as we approached the ground, then as we made our way across to our seats* in the bottom corner of the Holte, Abraham scored what was apparently his second. It was only at that point that I saw the scoreboard to discover it wasn't 2-0, it was actually 2-2.

*shit memory: getting kicked out of my top-dollar perch in the UT. Spat my dummy out, bought the cheapest seats instead, but using the relocation allowance and my Villa Cash towards the season ticket meant for that first year in the second division it cost me £7 a game.

[Charlie8182]

We had Lewis Grabban on loan and unless my memory's playing tricks I'm sure he didn't do too bad for us, but we lost to Fulham and he wasn't staying, and came back to haunt us in the 5-5 with Forest.

[Ads]

Sheffield Wednesday away and Rotherham away on that run was absolutely class.

[AV82EC]

The Di Matteo experience was awful, 90+ minute equalisers and defeats leading to us winning 2 games in eleven and enduring that awful 90 minutes at Preston where we lost 2-0 and it could have been more.
Bruce - what can you say, at times really meat and potatoes football relying on a bit of magic from someone, at times some eye bleedingly awful stuff and then he’s put together a half dozen game of fairly decent stuff. The best thing I can say is he stabilised it in that first season but not being competitive with the top 2 in his second season for automatic promotion was scandalous and he should have been sacked immediately after the Play Off defeat. However when it came he fully deserved it.
Smith - will be fondly remembered taking us up, got us playing decent football and made what I think was our most important signing of that era in Tyrone Mings. He galvanised us under the new owners and deserves a huge amount of credit.

It had to be endured and sometimes suffered but for younger supporters like my son maybe it’s been their early 70s experience and hopefully they get some long overdue trophy celebrations to wallow in over the next few years.

One of the best nights was that 1-0 away at Sheff Utd and the last minute Snodgrass curler. Special mentions to the Sheff Weds/Rotherhsm away South Yorks double header for victories 6 and 7 in the 10 game run, absolutely mental.

Fulham in the final was low but the Wigan 3-0 under Deano was my lowest point and I just remember sitting in the pub afterwards thinking we’re never getting out of this fucking league.

When we were struggling on Thursday night I just kept thinking back to those times and I actually smiled to think how far we’ve come.