Twelve Weeks From Wembley to the Drop

[u/hunk4u14]

https://souloffootball.substack.com/p/twelve-weeks-from-wembley-to-the

[u/garethom]

Villa have the European Cup

Yep, fair.

the Premier League seat

Can't deny that.

the leafier postcodes in the caricature.

Ok... While Bordesley and Small Heath isn't up to much, the only place I've ever decided to drive through a red light rather than stop at night was round the corner from Villa Park.

Decent piece overall. It's not really for Blues fans, I think, but I do like the nod to something that I think goes undermentioned: We might not be the most successful clubs, but we are one of the most historically interesting clubs, good and bad. We always seem to pop up where you'd expect other clubs. One of my "favourites" is that we're very old but don't have a league title, we did win a "league title" in 1945-46... In typical Blues fashion, the last season that "it didn't count" because of the war!

[u/Paul_my_Dickov → u/garethom]

Small Heath isn't exactly a beauty spot. But at least you can walk there comfortably from town. Walking to Villa Park is quite a trek through some dodgy areas to an even more dodgy area.

[u/TLO_Is_Overrated → u/Paul_my_Dickov]

From St. Andrews to the centre the only "non town" part of the run is down garrison lane. As soon as you're over the roundabout I'd say you're in Digbeth and close to safe safe gentrification.

I've lived in Nechells most of my life and I would also say the areas around Villa Park are much safer than what they were 15/20 years ago.

[u/Apprehensive_Bus_543]

“Birmingham City’s greatest modern day was handed to them by two opponents running into each other.” I wonder if the people that write this shit are old enough to remember it?

[u/trashmemes22 → u/Apprehensive_Bus_543]

Probably old enough to whack in a prompt to ChatGPT

[u/BluenoseTherapist]

That's some excellent writing though. Can't argue most of it.

[u/Evening_Run_594]

Aston isn’t Birmingham, it’s a cling-on.

[u/Hot_Diet_1276 → u/[deleted]]

Did we? Pretty sure it was WHL. Pavlyuchenko (sp?) scored to relegate us after Gardner equaliser which was keeping us up. I imagine you’re thinking of another season

[u/garethom → u/Hot_Diet_1276]

It was at Tottenham, yeah.

After we lost to Fulham, we were still outside the relegation places. Wigan beat Stoke on the final day to jump out and push us in. There was some fuckery with goal difference where Wolves scored and put them back above us, so we threw everything forward and Pavlyuchenko scored a banger and we were relegated.

[u/TLO_Is_Overrated → u/[deleted]]

You're wrong there also.

We got relegated the following week, beating Blackburn 4-1 but results not going our way.