(Picture courtesy of the Daily Mirror)
I’m currently working in rural Eire.
It’s a lovely place, but the weather is incredibly changeable and it’s prone to power cuts.
Which is exactly what happened today. We were without electricity for about three hours
The phone network went down too and it meant I was only able to watch the first half of the game, unfortunately.
Hence I didn’t get to hear the result until about two hours after the final whistle. Time was then spent rapidly trying to find out what had happened.
The big talking point was obviously the disgraceful and cowardly punch by a Blues fan on Jack Grealish from behind, which if it had connected cleanly, could easily have resulted in a broken jaw.
I’m sure we all love the banter and rivalry. It’s a massive part of the game.
But for that to happen, well I’m sure there will be many a nose hanging their heads in shame today. Apart from the idiots who actually applauded the coward, that is.
As the official Villa statement says, this has crossed a red line and while I don’t see how you can blame the club, you’d have to expect that given this has set a precedent, that the club will receive a very severe punishment.
Just as they’re already in quite serious trouble too, as regards FFP.
Ultimately, the players and officials have to know they can walk on the pitch in the knowledge that they’re safe, it’s as simple as that.
What gets me, is this idiot is probably a massive Blues fan and has instantly been banned for life by the club, hence he’s punished himself as much as any custodial sentence he’s bound to receive.
I’d guess alcohol played a part here, which makes a mockery of the Sunday dinner kick off times.
Anyway, onto the game and what I saw wasn’t very good.
But I expected that sort of game and we did have a couple of chances and El Ghazi’s in particular, should have slotted home after Grealish’s nice snappy through ball.
And then everything went off about a minute before the half time whistle.
Which is where I’ve had to rely on the news.
Dean Smith lined the team up exactly as I thought he would from the off and it seems him bringing McGinn and Green on changed the game which led to us attacking more.
Hourihane hit the bar and Blues apparently had a decent penalty shout waved away, but the main thing is it was Grealish who shot from inside the box to give us the points. And it was somewhat fitting after the earlier incident.
Indeed, Jack has described today as the best day of his life, having appeared in his first Derby and scoring the winner as Captain.
That’s every Villa fan’s boyhood dream, isn’t it?
On a wider note, we move above Blues in the league and now stand ninth in the table, four points behind sixth place.
This was a decent away win and it’s another clean sheet.
While I’m still not convinced we can sneak our way into the play-offs, you just never know and there’s still hope if we can keep stringing wins together.
Grealish has shown us how dependent we are on him and fair play to the lad, it truly is his day today.
Well done Jack!
Happy days!
Indeed Badger.
Shame you didn’t get to see the second half but your summation is pretty much bang on. Mings was outstanding at the back and took the armband when Grealish was subbed (cramp) on about 80 minutes. It would be brilliant if we could make his move permanent – him and Chester playing together would be immense.
Hope you’re enjoying the Guinness.
It’s that remote here, the pubs don’t even bother opening at this time of year!
Hence I’ve not even sniffed a hint of the black stuff.
I could get it from a shop I guess, but it’s not the same is it?
Sounds truly awful Badger.
It’s not so bad.
We take a few cans back to the digs and it saves us money
its a result stage of season not performances. i thought this was a real statement again. not as fluid as home game to derby. but it was never going to be pure football at st andrews against a team who have lost only 10 games in 36 games.
i thought we were the better team overall, made decent chances to win further and almost paid a heavy price at the end if gardner had finish either of his late chances. i thought mings and hause coped really good in their first game together blues battering ram forward was a real handful,
finally onto the idiot who calls himself a blues fan. what the hell was he thinking, first to attack the smallest player on the pitch and from behind, what a way to make your family proud. hope he gets a comfy cell and a villa fan for his cell mate. i do hold the club responsible, arent they suppose to ensure the safety of the players. not like this hasn’t happened before. we all remember the supporter who ran up to enckelman and that was also st andrews. once is one too many. twice and the club should pay the price, not being in control of their fans. fine or dock them points or make um play rest of their home games with just away fans allowed lmao demote them to the conference
Badger, it’s more than ‘a decent away win.’ Volatile Derbys like this one are not for the faint-hearted, especially away, when ‘fruit loops’ are coming onto the pitch attacking players. That incident could’ve shaken a lesser team. We were concerned about the team’s ‘balls’ after the past couple of months, but after coming through that with a win, it’s a tremendous result that cannot be underestimated.
Yep, I can’t disagree with any of that.
It shows great reslience.
Fair play to the lads.
As for ‘the incident’, what if ‘the fruit’ had used a knife instead of his fist? Fanciful? Just look at the news these past 10 days. We could have been in Monica Seles levels of scandal, or worse, God forbid.
The authorities have to throw the book at the club; it might not be their fault, but it’s their responsibility. Maximum possible punishments is essential, both financially, and through any other means…
Have to agree BFR although part of me feels for the true football fan no matter who they support. Ultimately that idiot will have punished every other nose with his crass stupidity.
There are also reports of a steward having to be restrained from attacking Grealish when he was celebrating having scored and what about those bell ends actually applauding Grealish’ attacker – perhaps they should be banned as well.
The FA has no option but to act decisively on this and make an example of the club. My only concern is that mindless idiots like him aren’t intelligent enough to be deterred.
I just hope that we don’t start hearing conversations about fences.
On the post match comments, our Manager was less than impressed with the 15000 or so Scum fans that cheered in support as that prat waved as he was dragged off the pitch. Dressed in a Peaky Blinders cap too. What a complete tool.
Hats off to Mr G for his response and the winner! You never know Badger, we might make the play offs after all if we can string a few 3 pointers together. Keep the faith!!! UTV.
Talk of points deductions and games behind closed doors already. The authorities look harshly on that sort of crap…
Yes, good points, but I agree with Hitch here, in that I feel sorry for the proper fans who would in no way condone this sort of thing.
But then I forgot that this sort of thing has happened before with Enckleman.
I think the EFL and FA have to come down really hard on this one, but feel the game generally is on a slippy slope, where the next incident could indeed involve a weapon.
We’ve seen a player shot in south America, after all.
It’s a reall shame for proper fans though.
And god, the thought of fences is truly awful 🙁
https://www.facebook.com/AstonVillaTheInformer/videos/613203082479546/UzpfSTEwMDAwMDA2NjA3ODA5MzoyNTU2OTc3NTUzMTAzOTQ/
I was away too for the match and only just about managed to get the second half on BBC text.
I’m not surprised that the footballing element of the game was more or less missing, most derbies with the noses have ended up as a scrap (but not literally of course).
As for the lunatic who tried to put one on Jack I think he’ll be seeing the inside of a prison cell for a time. As for all the loony noses who applauded I wonder if they realise that they could have just cost their club a packet. I’d figure that if the fans had booed the dickhead off and showed the right attitude there’s a chance that might have helped mitigate any fines etc. As it is if I was on the panel deciding what their punishment should be the obvious backing that the crowd showed for such a violent attack would have swayed me towards giving the maximum penalty rather than the minimum.
It was poetic justice when Jack scored the winner. Three points at St. Andrews is always sweet but, after the loony pitch invader and the loonytunes in the stands applauding, it’s even sweeter.
I’ve been reading what one true blue fan had to say on Facebook. He whole heartedly and sincerely stated how ashame he was . He also apologized to all Villa fans for the the mindless idiot actions. He also said he hope’s that a custodial sentence is a long one. I do feel for all clubs that one individual can spoil the name of football and taint our city for what they do.
Bill, you’ve been pretty quiet on the debate over the incident at St Andrews. If I recall, from your previous posts, you were involved at a senior level with stewarding at Villa Park.
Be interested in your take on how that incident might have been prevented and the problems of stewarding effectively. Watching it again, it seemed to me that stewarding had been concentrated around the Villa section of the crowd rather than the home fans – as my wife pointed out only one steward came onto the pitch when the incident occurred.
Hitch, I could write a book on what takes place in games, believe or not I was the first steward to introduce away stewarding ,and that was at The city ground. I’ve always maintained that having your policing for your part of the ground helps the club,the fans, and most of all the police. If it had been our stewards that incident of the home steward would not have happen, as for the home stewarding it looks as if their attention was on away fans and not their own fans. I keep meaning to put on this site letters we got from away clubs that I took to help. The thing was Hitch, Steve Stride was not a fan of me doing that , but seeing the police letters coming back to our club praising our efforts turn a blind eye.
Thanks Bill. Good point about clubs providing away stewarding – you should write to the FA on that one so it becomes policy.
So it seems you have drawn the same conclusion – insufficient stewarding of the home fans in the area where trouble is most likely to originate. On that basis (and if true) then some form of punishment for the club is merited. However, now the emotion has died down it needs to be proportionate whilst attempting to provide a sufficient deterrent.
I have some sympathy for clubs trying to ‘police’ crowds and deal with problems that are symptomatic of wider issues in society – it’s probably an impossible task – but we cannot return to fences.
He got 14 week’s jail, should have been longer in my mind.
He also got a 10 year all football grounds plus a life ban from Birmingham city it self. Still not good enough as far as I’m concerned.
14 weeks prison sentence for Jack’s attacker.
Well if Mr. Mitchell isn’t crying about his prison sentence let’s hope he’ll be crying when he hears what his beloved football team will get from the FA.
I hope that Alan Shearer’s on the panel who decides –
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/47519794
(You’ll need to scroll down a bit)
Paul Mitchell and Alfie Perkins banned for life… Well done BCFC
These two are banned, the alfie Perkins is the ashore who put a picture of Grealish brother who die saying evil things about it.
Bet they are not laughing now.
I heard the steward who was pushing and kicking when Villa players celebrated in Villa end has been sacked. Someone I work with told me he knows a steward who works at blues and they were all given a rollicking at the end of the game. If true it is harsh on those nowhere near that part of the ground. Let’s hope a jail sentence for the muppet who ran on the pitch is a big enough deterrent for any future idiots thinking of doing the same. Banning them from grounds probably isn’t enough.
What a joke sentence!
As one gets older things always look rosier through tinted glasses, but in this case my view is valid.
The Guardian reported:
The Birmingham City fan who ran on to the pitch and taunted Aston Villa goalkeeper Peter Enckelman during September’s midlands derby has been jailed for four months.
Role forward 17 years and for assaulting a player the Blues supporter only gets 3.5 months in prison. No wonder murder levels are on the rise and the law is seen as lacking teeth. There is something very wrong in our society. The law should be feared.
The criminal who attacked Grealish should not have been blowing kisses when he was sentenced. He should have been weeping knowing he would not be coming out of prison until FIFA 22 was launched.
Further, how can a jobless thug afford a ticket for this match. I work and a ticket for the Villa is a luxury not a basic right.
If BCFC failed to adopt a safe ‘policing’ policy for the game then they are culpable and should be held to account. To assume that trouble will only come from the away supporters is either naive or plain negligent – the latter seems more relevant.
It seems there is a broad consensus that the football authorities have to make a strong statement in an attempt to deter this from happening in the future; to do otherwise will show them to be weak and ineffective. On its own though that is not enough. The FA, Prem and EFL have to start working with football clubs and the police to develop an effective stewarding policy (strategy) which HAS to be adopted by all clubs, failure to do so bringing serious penalties.
All city stewards had after the game a rollicking, the steward seen kicking and shoving got the sack. It still doesn’t hide the fact in my opinion it was badly organised from the start. massive police present and stewards all down the away fans section. It seems they anticipated trouble from Villa in the ground.
“The Birmingham City fan who ran on to the pitch and taunted Aston Villa goalkeeper Peter Enckelman during September’s midlands derby has been jailed for four months.
Role forward 17 years and for assaulting a player the Blues supporter only gets 3.5 months in prison.”
This is the problem, imo.
It’s not the first time it’s happened , so the shock is lessened to an extent.
That said, this was a deliberately aimed punch, that could easily have broken Grealish’s jaw.
Which puts it at another level.
The sentence is a joke.
As for the stewarding, doesn’t any club usually concentrate on the away fans?
My experience is they do, because they’re the ones that are more likely to have made a day of it and will be tanked up, hence more likely to be looking for trouble.
You shouldn’t really be expecting home fans to perform like that, but sadly there are clubs that have serious form for it.
Milwalll spring to mind and the Brummie rivalry/banter aside, so do Blues.
I now believe the club has to be seriously punished if the courts don’t have the guts to do it.
This sort of thing just has to be killed off NOW and supporters of any club need to realise that this sort of behaviour will go against them.
So much so, that that idiot would have been booed off by his own.