Villa fans getting greedy?
MARTIN O'Neill's Villa are seven points clear of where they were at this stage last season.
Remarkably they are 19 points clear of where they were two seasons ago in the Irishman's first season.
And yet O'Neill finds himself answering questions about an altercation with one supporter behind the dugout after Saturday's goalless draw with Wigan when only four incredible close shaves prevented another three points.
Had he been bussed in from St Andrew's for the day?
Perhaps even more ridiculously were the boos from a minority of fans at the final whistle.
Villa are five points ahead of John Gregory's fast-fading side of 1998/99, who had boasted a record start and infamously posed for celebratory team pictures at The Dell.
O'Neill's men are six points clear of Brian Little's fourth-placed side of 1995/98 and four ahead of Ron Atkinson's runners-up.
Believe it or not they are still a point clear of where they were after 24 games of the title-winning season of 1980/81.
This is as good as it has been in 19 years.
February 1990 and Graham Taylor's Villa were trading punches blow for blow with the super heavyweights of the First Division, namely Liverpool.
February 2009 and Martin O'Neill's Villa - despite that weekend wobble - are doing likewise against Manchester United, Liverpool , Chelsea and Arsenal.
Back to Taylor's first era and after 24 games Villa were seven points clear of third-placed Arsenal and 21 points ahead of a Manchester United team struggling in 16th place.
Their manager Sir Alex Ferguson was seemingly one bad result away from the sack.
Taylor's side had taken 49 points from their opening 24 matches - winning 15 of them - to pip this present lot by a single point.
Boosted by Paul McGrath's arrival from Manchester United five months earlier Villa sat just a point behind Liverpool but with two games in hand after 24 matches.
Taylor's side promptly went top of Division One with a 2-0 win at Tottenham next game but they would wilt badly, winning only five more matches but still finishing second behind Kenny Dalglish's champions.
Villa will not keep pace with the record of Ron Saunders' side who had beaten Stoke City in their 24th game and after a draw with Nottingham Forest just steamrollered the rest of the division.
Only Spurs and Ipswich got the better of them before the title was clinched with Ipswich's defeat at Middlesbrough on the final day when Villa were being beaten at Arsenal.
O'Neill's Villa are nowhere near as good. They are the first to admit it.
Their season has been one of major advancement. Just study Gael Clichy's comments on the Arsenal web-site today to see how much Villa are worrying them - despite his assertions to the contrary.
Supporters have every right to boo.
But last Saturday at Villa Park almost beggered belief.
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Mat Kendrick - is the Birmingham Mail's man at Villa.
If you'd been at the game and had half an once of intelligence you would have realised that the booing was directed at Rob Styles not the players. The players got a great reception in the centre circle, once the clown Styles had trapesed away.... Stop trying to create a story where there isn't one.
bill howell= pwned! ha ha ha
BREAKING NEWS
Bill Howell is an idoit
nik thats not breaking news its a well known fact!
Bill...Why do you have a photo of Duncan Norvell as your avatar..? Do you actually know anything at all about football or is it just your greed and lazy journalism that you write such utter rubbish. Do you write Joe Kinnears press releases by an chance..!
http://avfccommunity.yuku.com/
..........lol AA still think he looks like tim vine from that not going out!
and no bill thats still not a compliment!
im not nor have ever trained to be a jurno and i can suss things out better than you!
While I dont always agree with a lot of local villa fans about your reporting to suggest that the boos were aimed at the players at the end of the Wigan game is ridiculous - Everyone around me who booed were aiming it at the ref and was followed by applause for the players.. Were you at the same game??!!
I knew I'd seen this Bill Howell guy before....
http://thetimetube.com/wp-content/uploads/Ugliest%20People/lyle_beaker.gif
How are the players going to make the distinction between booing the referee and booing them?
Clearly, if the fans boo, regardless of whether they are booing the referee (which for me is a poor excuse) or not, the players will think it is directed at them. And so will everyone else. In fact, there is an article from the Irish Times where Barry talks about how it felt to be booed after such a cracking performance.
Clearly some have an agenda, and in this instance the mindless hatred towards Bill is embarrassing. Get over it. If you want to encourage correspondance, show him a bit of respect.
i think dean above must be bills wife. why would you show respect to a bloke who shouldnt be writing about our beloved team, hes an idiot.
Now I've been a critic of Bill's blogs elsewhere and made my thoughts clear but I think personal attacks on his looks or who he reminds you of is uncalled for. We don't have to post pictures when we make comments and I bet we wouldn't be too impressed if people started taking the mick if we did.
Having said that, I do find it funny though that Bill cannot decide on which part of Aston Villa he should criticise. Previously, when the team was winning games through by the odd counter attack, Bill said it wasn't good enough and shouldn't be accepted and it could lead to their downfall.
Now he criticises the fans for apparently not accepting a home draw (I wasn't at the game but there seems to be strong opposition to Bill's claims anyway...).
Bill, I think you'll find that the fans are delighted with things and believe in the wonderful manager and his team.
Now I've been a critic of Bill's blogs elsewhere and made my thoughts clear but I think personal attacks on his looks or who he reminds you of is uncalled for. We don't have to post pictures when we make comments and I bet we wouldn't be too impressed if people started taking the mick if we did.
Having said that, I do find it funny though that Bill cannot decide on which part of Aston Villa he should criticise. Previously, when the team was winning games through by the odd counter attack, Bill said it wasn't good enough and shouldn't be accepted and it could lead to their downfall.
Now he criticises the fans for apparently not accepting a home draw (I wasn't at the game but there seems to be strong opposition to Bill's claims anyway...).
Bill, I think you'll find that the fans are delighted with things and believe in the wonderful manager and his team.
Calm down, calm down!!!!!
The point is this: Martin O'Neill found himself answering questions directly after the game about his team being booed (not about Rob Styles). My point is that is was a pity he was not being asked about a fine performance. No one said to the manager: "Why was Rob Styles being booed?" The manager was asked: "Was it fair of the fans to boo your team at the end?". To be honest, you will not actually find a reference to any booing in my match report in the paper. That report centred on the best season for 19 years. Just in the same way recent reports from away grounds have focused on a club record six successive wins where I have detailed comparisons with other great eras in Villa's history. If some of you were actually booing Styles and not the team, then I apologise. But O'Neill admitted himself after the match that he and John Robertson were getting stick during the game from behind the dugout, and it is to that minority of supporters where my criticism is levelled. And by the way, I don't think I am ever critical of the support Villa get. Each week I am asked to mark the support in the Birmingham Mail out of 10. This is the entry for Saturday's match (in case you missed it): "CROWD WATCH 9/10, A bumper attendance of 41,766 would have been much, much more had Wigan brought more than a couple of van loads of fans." And whilst I'm here... I don't give a stuff who you think I look like in the picture. It's very dated.
first off i had a decent message gone due to text error as i submitted entry. not happy with that!
bill howell i hope you realise that me and AA were jesting with you.
quote from bill....
"My point is that is was a pity he was not being asked about a fine performance. No one said to the manager: "Why was Rob Styles being booed?" The manager was asked: "Was it fair of the fans to boo your team at the end?".
would it not have been easier for you then to step in and ask two simple questions......
1. mr o'neill why do you think the fans were booing at the end of the game?
2. do you think it was aimed at the players or aimed at anyone else in specific?
those two questions open up all sorts of answers for mr o'neill to respond to in stead of jurno's trying to lay the blame on people, fans managers refs etc....
second point..
in stead or reacting to the fans the way you do try joining in with the banter bridge the gap with the meia and fans you may get a better reaction from them and more of an understanding we all love footie at the end of the day theres no reason why fans and the media have to be sepereate after all your informing us of what happend with the clubs we support we could just as easily inform you of anything we pick up on that the media might of missed.
i invite you to take part in the fans forum i have set up its only got a small amout of members and im sure they like me would love you to become a regular contributor to the site.
http://avfccommunity.yuku.com/topic/59/master/1/
over to you mr howell.
with thanks steve