Bruges v Aston Villa PMT.

[Neil Hawkes]

Good to meet you in Bruges Mr Purpletrousers. Hope your journey home was ok. I was in block 426 along with around another fifty Villa fans (and plenty of empty seats). No problems whatsoever. The Bruges fans I chatted to kept asking why we play so slowly!

Only on this site do you get polite discourse between people named purpletrousers & 144 hard boiled eggs.

[Chico Hamilton III]

It was a few pissed up Villa fans scrapping each other, not exactly Anderlecht ‘82. And we didn’t actually see any trouble.

[Luffbralion]

Got back last night. Bruges is a delightful city and I found the Belgians very welcoming. Disappointing to hear a few fans both in town and at the game let us down. I had a few drinks in the Markt area in the afternoon on both Tuesday and Wednesday and every fan I encountered just wanted to enjoy the occasion, the venue, the hospitality and the chance to chat about the Villa. We've waited long enough!
As for the game, very disappointing,,,we weren't able to get down the flanks (surprising, given we had Maatsen and Bailey out there) nor play through the middle (both Youri and Morgan below par). I was in the home end and their fans were gracious and respectful at the end of the game.
The airbnb we stayed in even offered free loan of a bike so even though I'm in my seventies I cycled up to the stadium (being overtaken by guys ten years older!).  Let's just say the use of the cycle racks in Bruges is much more commonplace than we had at VP, even before they were removed (surprised Chris Heck hasn't offered a rickshaw service from the Bull Ring as part of a hospitality package).
Finally, yesterday morning I bumped into a fan from Budapest in a quiet cafe and was reminded some of our fans from far away have followed us even in the leanest years. UTV,

[purpletrousers]

Good to meet you in Bruges Mr Purpletrousers. Hope your journey home was ok. I was in block 426 along with around another fifty Villa fans (and plenty of empty seats). No problems whatsoever. The Bruges fans I chatted to kept asking why we play so slowly!

Haha. I was briefly post match in a pub by the stadium with Seb’s lovely Dad and father in law (who wouldn’t let me pay) poor Seb and his 10yo were locked into the away area quite a while as they were not leaving on the official buses.

I then had a great chat with incredibly happy Bru-ha fans on the bus to the station, I genuinely felt pleased for them (though confused by the harmless drunken old villa fan who felt he’d made a lovely Brugge mate and wanted to seal this by rubbing noses 🤣).

I don't suppose we'll ever know for sure but a fella I know had been chatting to the Belgian coppers, they said there were more than 6000 in Brugge based on the travel info. it certainly felt like you couldn't walk for more than a few minutes before bumping into someone you knew from Villa for a chat. 1400 had tickets and pretty much everyone you spoke to who was in their end said they were plenty of Villa around them in all the sections, there only appeared to be 4 places that were showing the game on the TV, there were about 40 people in the restaurant I was in, the other 3 pubs were packed but there wasn't 4000 people in them, there couldn't be. So Im wondering if guestimates of 1500+ in the home ends is that outlandish?

To be honest I didn't see any aggro or anything approaching it, or hear of it. There were plenty of really pissed annoying people and some of them were pretty belligerent. I blame the Trump win.

All in all, the Belgian Police were relaxed and treated people well and so didnt have anything to do. All good.

Yep those numbers makes sense, I wonder eg how many Dortmund travelled without tix/went in home ends.

It certainly didn’t feels as novel to hear CL music amongst the Bruges fans, but this was their 100th CL game as I embarrassed one of the guys on the bus who didn’t know it.
They of course mentioned being losing finalists 77/78 in the 2nd of the 6yrs of English dominance.
Had to get out Rotterdam photos to prove I was there as didn’t look old enough to be at the crescendo! 

[exigo]

We had nothing but a great welcome the whole time we were there. The locals were great before and after the game, summed up by an older woman who ran one of the many chocolate shops. 'Aston Villa are not like other English fans. You are kind, show respect. And you're much better than the Italians and Turkish fans.'

There were a lot of our fans absolutely hammered at 4.30am when the Eurostar check-in opened. There were many more who'd been overwhelmed by the 8% local beer by kick-off. It was moodier than normal at half-time, and certainly after the game on the bus back. We took the opportunity to spirit ourselves away from the hordes and were soon back in a friendly bar away from the main square.

[VillaTim]

6000 sounds like a massive exaggeration in fairness .

[Sexual Ealing]

We had nothing but a great welcome the whole time we were there. The locals were great before and after the game, summed up by an older woman who ran one of the many chocolate shops. 'Aston Villa are not like other English fans. You are kind, show respect. And you're much better than the Italians and Turkish fans.'

I hope you asked her to write an open letter to the Evening Mail.

[exigo]

We had nothing but a great welcome the whole time we were there. The locals were great before and after the game, summed up by an older woman who ran one of the many chocolate shops. 'Aston Villa are not like other English fans. You are kind, show respect. And you're much better than the Italians and Turkish fans.'

I hope you asked her to write an open letter to the Evening Mail.

She threw in some free chocolate as a consolation for our loss. I'd hate to think how the Meaning Evil would twist that.

[eamonn]

6000 sounds like a massive exaggeration in fairness .

That includes the Bluenoses still lost there on the way to Sherlock Street.

[Bent Neilsens Screamer]

One of our mates was in the seating below the Atherstone/ Grendon flag, he reckons a few older Villa fans who turned up late got a bit forceful with a young lad who was sitting in his seat. I heard another English voice shout that he’s only a kid and you’re out of order, the stewards eventually escorted the bloke out.

There were a couple of Swedish Villa fans next to me in the home end in that corner and plenty of others around us as well. The Brugge fans were great which made me think of the Legia fans that were getting chucked out of VP last season.

I didn’t see any aggro or trouble in the centre and we all had a great few days. Ian Taylor was enjoying himself, saw Rambo outside his hotel and Elmo, Monchi and Vidagany on a morning stroll in the quiet backstreets.

[Chico Hamilton III]

When they scored the bloke next to me went mad, jumping up and down with his mates - understandably - and when he’d calmed down he tapped me on the shoulder and apologised for being so excited. At the time I took at as him taking the piss and I wasn’t very gracious but we made up by the end of the game and shook hands before parting company.

[Walmley_Villa]

We had nothing but a great welcome the whole time we were there. The locals were great before and after the game, summed up by an older woman who ran one of the many chocolate shops. 'Aston Villa are not like other English fans. You are kind, show respect. And you're much better than the Italians and Turkish fans.'

I hope you asked her to write an open letter to the Evening Mail.

She threw in some free chocolate as a consolation for our loss. I'd hate to think how the Meaning Evil would twist that.

Was it the place that her husband and son make the chocolate? If so me and my lad were in there on the morning of the game and will happily take the credit. She was great!

[Pat McMahon]

We had nothing but a great welcome the whole time we were there. The locals were great before and after the game, summed up by an older woman who ran one of the many chocolate shops. 'Aston Villa are not like other English fans. You are kind, show respect. And you're much better than the Italians and Turkish fans.'

There were a lot of our fans absolutely hammered at 4.30am when the Eurostar check-in opened. There were many more who'd been overwhelmed by the 8% local beer by kick-off. It was moodier than normal at half-time, and certainly after the game on the bus back. We took the opportunity to spirit ourselves away from the hordes and were soon back in a friendly bar away from the main square.

Good to see you after the game Andy. We had nothing but positive interaction with the fans, townies and even the bilingual police of Bruges. It was a really good trip.

I was another in the home seats and bumped into some mares as well as a bloke I knew in the London lions in the mid 80s. I stayed under cover but the Bruges fans around me were fine, though they smoke almost as much as Mostar fans.

The stadium is pretty poor and has the slippiest concourses I’ve ever encountered, plus seats with no numbers. But pretty easy to get served in the ground 30 minutes before the game with a constant going and froing of people fetching beers.

[nodge]

Good to briefly meet you Pat (and Chico and his son?), although Nev didn’t tell me who you were until we’d left you and we were half way round the square.

[Chico Hamilton III]

I had no idea that was you, Nodge. Blame Nev for not making formal introductions. On a tangent, I only recently realised that Exigo on here is the fella I often travel to away trips with.