Obviously Villans everywhere will be hoping for a much improved showing against The Toffees, and while we shouldn’t dismiss the Upton Park defeat as nothing to really dwell upon, after all it was only one game we readily remind ourselves, the very first game at that, and with thirty seven still to come, the opportunity is clearly there for many twists and turns, ups and downs, before the campaign comes to an end next May. Many observers were sad to see that despite some encouraging signs, many of last season’s concerns and failings still remain. Hardly surprising though really, is it? After all, the new man at the helm has only been in the hot seat for a little over five minutes.
The Everton encounter is clearly the opportunity to quickly get ourselves back on track, and more importantly perhaps show the claret and blue faithful that the Villa Park struggles of the last two seasons are now well and truly behind us, as Paul Lambert introduces his new look ‘go for it’ Aston Villa to the claret and blue masses.
It’s a sad, surprising, and worrying fact that many Villa Park regular’s haven’t witnessed a home victory since way back to November 5th last year, when ironically Paul Lambert’s Norwich City provided the opposition, and it must be said, battled gamely before succumbing to a 3-2 defeat.
‘Wait’, I hear you cry. ‘We beat Fulham 1-0 (and what a very important victory that turned out to be) in early March, ‘the guy has lost his marbles’. Indeed we did, but indeed I haven’t.
At the time that Andreas Weimann was crawling forward on his knees to prod home the late, late winner, most in attendance had long left the stadium, heading for home, and Villa Park was close to deserted. Probably only 15,000 or so lucky souls actually got to witness the goal that defeated The Cottagers.
Yes, its been a long, long time for some, and beating Everton on Saturday is going to be no easy task. I hope that Villa Park is close to capacity, I hope that we, the home support, create a vibrant and intimidating (in the right way of course) atmosphere, and that we fully play our part in cheering the lads on to our first three points of the new campaign.
Enjoy the game fellow Villans, and here’s hoping that we leave the stadium on Saturday afternoon, excited by what we have witnessed, and looking forward in eager anticipation to the rest of the campaign. It was good to be at Upton Park last weekend, good to welcome football back into our world, good to have that buzz again, but it will be even better to enter Villa Park again this coming weekend. Bring it on.