WOULD Avram Grant really have been treated any differently......?

Alan Shearer was the latest to peddle the popular misconception that the Villa Park faithful's hostility towards Alex McLeish is mostly motivated by his Birmingham City connections.

Speaking on Match of the Day on Sunday evening, Shearer suggested McLeish got the same stick at Villa as Steve Bruce did at Sunderland because of his previous allegiances.

True, McLeish's St Andrew's associations hardly endeared him to the claret and blue side of the Second City when he first made the controversial 3.2 mile journey across the divide last June.

And there's no doubt that a section of Villa fans wouldn't have given the Bluenose so-and-so a chance even if he had won the Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup treble on a wave of free-flowing football in the three years of his contract.

But the majority, who themselves were extremely concerned about the wisdom of recruiting a manager with two quickfire Premier League demotions on his CV, only truly turned against him because of the inept performances and ropey results.

Had say, Avram Grant, someone with a similar relegation record, but without the Blues baggage, overseen such a sorry season, instead of McLeish, would the mood on the Holte End be one of patience, tolerance and understanding instead?

Would it Eck!

ALEX McLeish resents comparisons between Blues' perilous Premier League plight last season and Villa's precarious position this season.

Nevertheless, their results records are almost identical (after 36 games last season, Blues had scored 36 goals and were three points off the bottom three, after 36 games this season, Villa have scored 36 goals and are three points off the bottom three) and their respective injury woes have been spookily similar.

But at least McLeish can console himself with the fact his Villa players aren't stupid enough to emulate their Second City rivals by getting into trouble on a night out, hours after their awards dinner and just days before a crucial relegation match against Tottenham...

Oh, Eck!

Having had to contend with Blues players staying out boozing to the early hours a year ago, McLeish will be less than impressed by Chris Herd, James Collins and Fabian Delph becoming embroiled in a brawl outside Gatecrasher nightclub in Birmingham's Broad Street at 2.45am on Tuesday.

Especially with Sunday's crunch survival clash against Spurs looming.

Not sure what deja vu is in Glaswegian, but McLeish must be alarmed at the familiar feeling he is experiencing, albeit on the opposite side of the city - with his attempts to stop relegation history repeating itself being undermined by the very people he is depending on.

Not nearly as alarmed as the disbelieving Villa Park faithful who are furious that their beloved football club seems to be lurching from one crisis to the next during this sorry, sorry season.

HARRY Redknapp's return to Villa Park this weekend reminds me of an amusing anecdote which I'm not particularly proud of.

During recent seasons the England reject has been about as popular with the claret and blue faithful as ... erm ... Alex McLeish.

Since his time at Portsmouth, Redknapp has become the target of verbal abuse from home fans whenever he has visited Villa.

But the hostility lurched out of control during the 0-0 draw against Pompey on October 18 2008 when linesman Phil Sharp was injured.

A moronic fan sitting behind the dugouts in the Trinity Road stand tried to throw a coin at Redknapp, missed and instead struck the assistant referee near the eye.

Fortunately, the idiot responsible, John Billington, was heavily fined and banned from football for five years by local magistrates.

And hopefully, such gross stupidity and dangerous behaviour will never stain the name of Aston Villa Football Club ever again.

But, during a dark incident for Villa and for football, a moment of confusion during Redknapp's post match press conference at least provided a little moment of light relief.

With journalists trying to confirm the name of the poor official who had been cut by the missile, 'Arry was asked: "Was it Phil Sharp?"

"Of course it would feel sharp - it was a 50p piece!" snapped Redknapp, mishearing the enquiry.

Cue, much immature and inappropriate sniggering from an unnamed reporter on the front row, thoroughly ashamed of himself.

ASTON Villa need to send out an SOS tonight - Shoot on Sight.

Villa face the prospect of going into this evening's survival clash against Bolton with their available top Premier League scorers on just TWO goals each.

If five-goal Gabby Agbonlahor loses his fitness race, then Villa's next fit leading league marksmen are Charles N'Zogbia. Andi Weimann and Marc Albrighton who have each only found the net twice in the top flight this season.

In fact, if Agbonlahor misses out (and even if he plays, the Brummie striker himself has not scored in his last 18 league matches since November 5) then the claret and blues really will be struggling for scorers.

Without Agbonlahor, the 18-man squad available for tonight's showdown have just TWELVE league goals between them.

WITH it being the 19th today, a special event is being held in honour of Stiliyan Petrov this evening back in his native Bulgaria.

Fans gathered at 19.19 at the national stadium in Sofia to show their support for the Villa captain as he bravely battles acute leukemia.

Here, the Birmingham Mail's man at Villa Mat Kendrick pays his own tribute to Petrov with 19 reasons why he makes us smile.

Get well soon, Stan.

1) The pride of Pride Park - That goal in that 6-0 victory at Derby on April 12 2008

2) Flipping marvelous - Not only does Stan relish his responsibilities, he also used to be responsible for relish. It's an old story, but one that's worth re-telling that while he was struggling to settle at Celtic he started working on a friend's burger van in Glasgow to help him learn the language.

Stan later recalled: "He had a burger van and encouraged me to work behind the bar because it meant I had to communicate with people ordering food. Some of the customers used to stare, thinking, 'That looks like Stiliyan Petrov, but it can't be'. But soon I started to understand things better. It meant I could get involved in the dressing-room banter. That's important because a team is like a family. You can't be a part of it if you're on the outside when people are talking."

3) Top of the table - While many of today's footballers will complete their interview obligations with the press as quickly as possible before making a hasty retreat, Stan even has time for us horrible hacks.

On occasion he has even been known to challenge journalists to a game of ping pong on the table which used to be located in the players' room.

Unfortunately, I must report that he kept hitting the net more spectacularly then he did at Derby!

4) Adopted Brummie - The first time I interviewed Stan, he proudly told me about how his young son Stiliyan junior was settling into his surroundings in Sutton Coldfield. "He's started to pick up a Brummie accent a little bit!"

5) Native tongue - Stan senior still retains that strong Eastern European twang, however. When he once mentioned 'slip' and 'RADA', I thought it was a reference to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and Ashley Young's theatrical tendency to fall over! In actual fact he meant 'Villa hoped to slip under the radar into the top four...

6) Prints charming - This is a photograph which looms large in the Villa Park pressroom. It was taken ahead of the Carling Cup final and not only captures his aggression and playfulness, but is also a reminder that Stan was the first captain to lead Villa out at Wembley for nearly a decade in 2010.

7) National hero - Stan's health problems have touched the claret and blue family, but this link shows just the affect his illness has had on his own adoring public back home in Bulgaria too. Many thanks to My Old Man Said website for providing this link

8) Just the ticket - I won't mention the fans involved, but Stan has become a close friend of two Villa supporters who have been moved by the skipper's generosity. Having got chatting to the midfielder a few years ago, they are amazed that he not only remembers them but makes a point of looking after them with 'comps' for his international matches in Bulgaria and they have followed him across Europe. One of the fans, a teenage Villa fanatic, was a picture of delight when Stan came over and chatted to him at the team hotel before the friendly with Portugal last summer.

9) Gent - Stan rarely speaks to journalists in his homeland following a long-running dispute. But it was a measure of the man how he treated myself and another local reporter after Bulgaria's match with England at Wembley last year. Walking through the Wembley press mixed zone after the match he spotted us, walked over and explained that it would be unfair to be interviewed by us if he was not talking to the Bulgarian journalists. But he arranged to chat to us a couple of days later back at Bodymoor Heath.

10) Never beaten - Villa have never lost in a game when Stan has scored, winning on seven and drawing on five of the 12 occasions when he has found the net. His eight goals for Bulgaria too have come in matches when his national team have avoided defeat.

11) Chelsea dagger - His most recent goal was a crucial moment in Villa's best result of the season, the New Year's Eve triumph at Stamford Bridge and added to his efforts against Everton, Sunderland and Bolton clickhere

12) Leading by example - Not only will Stan almost always make himself available for interview after matches - win, lose or draw - but he can be relied upon to be as candid as possible. I recall at the start of the season when Villa's press officer was squirming as we asked Petrov to discuss some critical comments made about him by the club's European Cup winning captain Dennis Mortimer. But Stan tackled the subject head on and insisted he used criticism as a motivating force to prove people wrong.

13) True Villan - It was heartening to hear that just a day before he learned about his condition, Stan was meeting with Neil Rioch from the Aston Villa Former Players' Association to discuss the possibility of current members of the Villa squad donating a percentage of their wages to help the club's old stars.

14) Model professional - Stan was strutting his stuff down the catwalk the summer before last when he was chosen to model the new FX-Pro away kit. But true to form the smiling skipper had time for a mini moan when he left the stage outside the International Convention Centre, remarking on the black strip. "I look like I am the referee - hopefully this means we will get more decisions this season!"

15) Stan-ta Claus - Bit random this one, but I couldn't help smiling as Stan talks about Crimbo film Arthur Christmas and the importance of kids behaving themselves. And reveals that the Villa players took a trip to the cinema to watch.......Bridesmaids!

16) Generous general - Villa programme editor Rob Bishop revealed in Monday's matchday magazine that Stan promptly donated £200 to boost the coffers of Villa's Acorns appeal when 'Bish' and members of the club's media department completed 1874 laps of the Villa Park pitch to support their charity partner.

17) Pin up poster boy - Stan commands total love and respect from all of his team-mates, so much so that during a moving tribute this week one Villa player revealed he had posters of Petrov on his bedroom wall when he was growing up - mentioning no names, Baz.

18) Captain courageous - And on the subject of Bannan - what a positive update from the Scottish midfielder about the skipper's recent visit to the Bodymoor Heath training ground. "It was brilliant to see him. He was laughing, bantering and telling jokes - just in really good spirits. That's Stan for you."

19) Stan the family man - This photo sums up Stan's love for wife Paulina, sons Stiliyan junior and Christian and the claret and blue family.

I'VE got no objection to Kenny Dalglish's former Liverpool team-mates being asked to give their expert Saturday night television punditry on the afternoon's action at Anfield.

But rather than the usual Reds-tinted tedium from Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson, it might have been better inviting Kevin MacDonald onto the Match of the Day sofa for a change.

That way instead of endless waffle about Liverpool's demise there might have been time for more than host Gary Lineker's token request for a 'quick word on Villa'.

And instead of a full SEVEN seconds of thorough Lawrenson analysis on the claret and blues, the sterling work of the Bodymoor Heath academy might have got some deserved national exposure.

I CAN still picture it now......a cheeky grin wider than the River Danube.

Andi Weimann is sitting behind a desk in the bowels of the Gerhard Hanappi Stadium, the home of Rapid Vienna, at around 6.30pm on August 18, 2010.

As if the pride at returning to his hometown, boyhood club in the claret and blue of Aston Villa isn't reason enough to smile then the comical scene unfolding in front of him certainly is.

Weimann, a former Rapid youth star, has been chosen for the press duties ahead of a young Villa line-up's Europa League qualifier against Vienna.

But instead of being the star of the show, the then 19-year-old is amusingly upstaged by someone who is probably best described as the Austrian Frank Spencer.

THEY grow up so quickly nowadays.

That's not just me being overly sentimental about my 'baby' boy's impending fourth birthday, it's also my protective paternal instincts kicking in over Aston Villa's youth team lads.

(Not that I'm anywhere near old enough to have fathered any of the Villa lot!)

However, I was astonished to see teenage midfield hopeful Samir Carruthers coming in for stick from a Twitter follower last weekend in response to one of his Tweets.

So what heinous message did he post? Was it racist, sexist, insensitive, offensive or all of the above?

It was none of the above.

He was simply pointing out that he had a rare Saturday off from playing and was going to have a lie in.

@SamirCarruthers So happy to have the weekend off don't remember last time I've had one buzzing #layinbedallday

That was it - EIGHTEEN YEAR OLD BOY IN HAVING-A-LIE-IN SHOCKER.

TOUGH-tackling Fabian Delph must now hurl himself into the biggest challenge of his career...

Today's bombshell that he will be out for the remainder of this season gives Delph plenty of time to think about where he goes from here.

THIS story from Villa fan Danny Drewry is worthy of re-telling, following the sad, sad news of Eamonn Deacy's death today, as it captures the humility of a hero.

Danny, who runs Midlands Memorabila, embarked on a labour of love last summer to track down all of the club's 1981 First Division title winning favourites to sign souvenirs.

And when it came to a certain greengrocer in Galway, Danny found a modest and reluctant legend whose pride at playing for the Villa burned brighter than ever.

It was Danny who contacted me to check I had heard the news of Deacy's death this morning with a text message simply containing the word 'gutted'.

Yet his story confirms that the claret and blue family are not only mourning the loss of a fine footballer, but also a true gentleman.

Pictured below: Eamonn Deacy signs the 1981 memorabilia shirt