Villa on Tour
The lads from the Youtube channel Villa on Tour are back on the road after Villa’s back-to-back home games, below is both their review and video of Friday’s 1-1 draw at Ashton Gate. In their video, you’ll get to see the madness from the concourse and a sample of the ‘There or Thereabouts’ chants.
As always, it’s recommended viewing.
Max Stokes review of the away day follows after the video. You can read all the other away day reviews and watch the corresponding videos here
If you’re on Youtube, make sure you subscribe to their channel, so you’ll know when the next away day video drops.
Villa Away Day at Bristol City Video
Bristol City Away Day
Date: 28th September 2018
Score: Bristol City 1 Aston Villa 1 (Bjarnason)
Ground: Aston Gate
Attendance: 24,224
Away Review of Bristol City
By Max Stokes (Villa on Tour)
Away atmosphere – 7/10
Friday night away games in front of a packed out Villa away end are always something to look forward to and I would say Bristol City away was no different. The atmosphere was very good before the game, as everyone seemed up for it. The first half sparked the standard frustration in the away end due to the performance. However, due to the equaliser just before half time, the atmosphere in the away end was fairly buoyant for the majority of the second half. As the game drew to a close though, some Villa fans took the mick out of Steve Bruce by singing the phrase ‘there or thereabouts’ to as many tunes as possible, which was quite amusing.
Away End facilities – 7/10
Overall, Ashton Gate is a very decent stadium. The brand new main stand is very modern and quite impressive. Although, to be honest, the away end was the polar opposite. It looked like terraced housing from the outside. In terms of the concourse, it was a tight squeeze for all away fans and the fact there were almost 3,500 of us didn’t help!
Not the most traditional concourse, with doors splitting sections of the away end, which was a bit odd. It all seemed a bit small inside the concourse, but, in conclusion, a very nice stadium with above average facilities.
(If you went to Ashton Gate fill in the FSF survey about your own experience)
Home Fans Atmosphere – 6/10
The fact the mighty Villa were in town attracted the biggest crowd of the season to Ashton Gate, but that didn’t help Bristol’s atmosphere too much. There was a small section of around 400 fans in the far corner of the stadium, who seemed to be the ‘ultras’. They had flags and sang a few times, but on the whole, the home support was fairly average.
Empty Seats My Lord? – Yes
Not really. On the whole, a good turn out by the Bristol City fans although thousands seemed to leave early for both half time and full time, and so they missed Bjarnason’s bullet header just before the break. There were a small number of empty seats at the top of the main stand, which made it difficult for Villa fans to sing the traditional ‘Empty Seats my Lord’ song.
Best thing about the ground?
I’d have to say the stadium itself from the inside. It’s hard to narrow it down to a single thing, but I liked the feel of Ashton Gate as I felt it was a combination of both a traditional stadium and a modern stadium. The fact it was mostly sold out, made it look much better and any ground looks better under the lights on a Friday night with the Villa in town.
Classic moment of the away day?
I’d have to say the multiple renditions of ‘there or thereabouts’ to about four different tunes. It clearly got to the point where some fans just found things funny and that involved taking the mick out of Brucie.
‘There or thereabouts.’#AVFC fans at Bristol City : pic.twitter.com/MEQv9P5zls
— Villa Underground (@avfc_vilr) September 29, 2018
Anything funny happen?
As always, the concourse was a good laugh, but once the game started there wasn’t much to smile about to be honest.
Any other business?
As it was a Friday night, we didn’t have much time to explore the area, which was a shame. Anyway, another fairly disappointing away day in terms of us falling further away from the top of the table, which resulted in the standard ‘we want Brucey out’ chants from a few. Starting to become less and less enjoyable these away days…
UTV
Follow Max on Twitter here – @mjestokes
Follow Owen on Twitter here – otvillayouth
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As a very long standing Villa fan I never thought I would say this but I’m rapidly loosing interest it’s same old same old boring inept tactics from Bruce and the sooner our new owners do something about it the better.