The Story of Aston Villa Supporter Protest against Alex McLeish’s Appointment – Part Two

 

Alex McLeish Villa Park Protest

The below was previously posted on Vital Villa by Mr S, founder of the ‘Aston Villa Supporters – We Don’t Want Alex McLeish’ Facebook page, in response to Part One. That article detailed the behind-the-scenes of the Facebook page and the Villa supporter protest at Villa Park.

Unfortunately, the miscommunication on the day meant we didn’t get to go to the next stage in the plan to try and prevent the appointment of Alex McLeish as Villa boss (which turned out pretty much as expected, with him only lasting a season).

Mr S’s Reply

From Vital Villa comments sections below my article:

Ok, so yes, I am Mr S.

First thing I will say is I apolgise for deleting the other guy as an admin after the hard work he put in, I was out of order, I’ll admit that. It was a spare [sic] of the moment decision and I should have thought about it more thoroughly.

BUT I did say on two occasions to lay off with the status updates as people were complaining about their news feeds being blocked up. I obviously went to the protest and on my way home I was contacted by four different people telling me that people are complaining about the live status updates,

I wouldn’t have have minded so much, but the other admin wasn’t at Villa Park, I understand he was in London, but to be putting up status’ telling people to get to Villa Park when the protest was already over was madness. I over reacted in deleting him as an admin.

I made the page just for “fun”, as I’d put it, I never once expected to get the amount of likes which it did. During that week, I was in the process of completing a 60-page biology assignment, the page literally took over my life and in a way, I regret ever setting up. I’m not a public figure or somebody who will have an influence on things, I’m just an ordinary guy who made a page and it got way bigger than I ever imagined. I hope that clears a few things up and once again I apologise for removing you as an admin.

spence_villa

Response by My Old Man Said on Vital Villa

Thanks for coming forward. Apology accepted.

Due to the fact this all happened so quickly, I realised the main mistake we made here was we didn’t exchange email addresses or phone numbers.

It seems foolish in hindsight, but we were juggling so many things – contact with the club, police, all the group members, and not forgetting our daily lives – that it was easily overlooked in the short space of time.

As soon as you left for the protest (I was working in London), it was the first thing that came to mind, as it would have been very useful to have relayed information back and forth – and we wouldn’t have had any problems.

Obviously, I would have expected you to talk to me first for explanation, instead of just rashly deleting/blocking me, especially after the man hours of work I had put in on (putting paid work on hold). As you can imagine, I wasn’t too happy about that!

I wanted to give you a day or two, to get back to me before I took any action, as you seemed a decent chap and the situation with the page had got out of hand. That’s mainly the reason I didn’t give up your name and personal profile, as I knew you wanted to stay anonymous in all of this from the start, and wasn’t in it to make a name for yourself.

Anyway, let’s not let any of this take the gloss of our efforts. We stepped up to the challenge as Villa supporters, because we want the best for our club.

By Eck.

UTV

My Old Man Said

PS – Mr S and I are back in contact, with no hard feelings. Just to be clear, I do not admin that site.

UTV

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