MISSING YOU ALREADY

20-12-2006

Baggies and Blues fans have got an unlikely ally in their promotion fight this season - Villa fan Pete Millington. No, really...

Does anyone remember the Trevor Francis years at St Andrews?

No I don't mean the era of the long-haired 16 year old banging in hat tricks in his penguin shirt.

I'm referring to those marvellous halcyon evenings when us gloating Villa fans roared with laughter as we listened to the radio commentary to hear the Blue Noses going out of the play-offs on yet another dismal penalty shoot-out.

I can't recall such mirth and hilarity since the Council big wigs all got tummy bug from the French prawns

Poor old Trev, threatening to take his boys off to the dressing room, I'd swap them a League Cup and couple of second places in the League for a repeat of that one

But then, along came Stevie Bruce and surprise, surprise, miracles do happen and pigs will fly, not only did Small Heath get promotion but so did their Championship pals two stops up the M5

I remember discussing the prospect with a mate at Villa Park once and he was more worried about the behaviour of the fans as opposed to the performance of the two teams

As the first local derbies arrived, deep down we were expecting to cruise it…

But then something terrible and traumatic happened, not just once but again and again and again…

The humble Blue Noses wiped the arrogant grins off our faces…the mighty Lions were almost in danger of loosing our Midlands crown

How can we ever forget the traumas? Enkelman's failure to pick up a ball from a throw in! Mild mannered Mr Dublin delivering his nut on that nice man with the pony tail who moved to Blackburn to be closer to Wales…

There was even a rumour that a Blue Nose builder had removed a brick from the Spion Kop and dropped it into the foundations of the new Holte End, thus transferring the gypsy curse and achieving a feat that Barry Fry had only ever sprinkled in the breeze in an attempt to attain

Thankfully our old foe of the late 19th century, the lads in the moleskins with the Black Country accents, weren't able to batter our egos in quite the same way as their counterparts from Small Heath, but even so there were some nerve wracking moments

I will never forget that moment when Albion equalised in the dieing minutes at Villa Park, a defining moment in their Great Escape

Suddenly about five thousand Baggies fans started boinging off all around us in the home fans section of the North Stand…obviously all incognito for the entire game but spontaneously erupting from the shadows as the ball hit the back of the net and the Great Escape was well and truly on…

Most of them I'd witnessed cheering Villa's goal about half an hour earlier….hmmmmmm…….but as they say, football's a funny old game, never more so than on the day we thrashed the Alliance at Villa Park last season (my word, was that really this year?)

thus helping to send them back to the Championship with their Black Country muckers

and then…

well then there were a few changes down at Villa Park, nothing major, the odd American millionaire, arrival of the best manager in the country, a run of unbeaten games taking us temporarily up to the top end of the Premiership…

but you know what…?

It just ain't the same. The season is somehow lacking something. It's the anticipation, the week long build up to the big day, the pre-game banter in the office, the match day excitement, the nervous gazes in the direction of the opposition fans…. Wondering how many of them you know…. How many of them you'll see on Monday morning in the office or the shop floor or perhaps next week at a family gathering…

The teasing, the jokes, the bragging rights, the silly emails, the unsolicited links to videos of Peter Enkelman on YouTube…

You know what, though I have no doubt whatsoever that I will live to regret saying this in public…

We do kind of miss you guys… un yam lot an all!

It's Christmas time, let us step out from the trenches for a Woodbine and a kick-around, because next season, let us hope and prey that the war resumes.