Championship Play-Off Semi-Final
Saturday 11th May 2019
Without doubt, this was the play-off semi-final that everyone in the West Midlands (well, perhaps not Bluenoses or Wolves fans) had dreamed about in the weeks beforehand.
As soon as it became apparent that Villa would make the top six owing to their magnificent form towards the end of the regular season and that WBA would be consigned to the play-offs too, there was an appetite for this fixture to happen.
Even with Leeds United, the greatest team the world has ever seen according to their ever-loud fans who'd been boisterous all season, in the mix, nobody wanted a trip to West Yorkshire!
Therefore, it was fate that results in the final few weeks of the campaign left West Brom in fourth and Villa in fifth and that the ‘dream’ of a complete powder-keg semi-final clash would become an absolute, enthralling reality.
I was fortunate to witness some brilliant games and experience some fantastic atmospheres during the season, but this one topped the lot. It was red hot weather, red hot noise and passion from the 40,000+ inside Villa Park and pure, unadulterated noise.
Villa are, and always will be, one of the biggest clubs in my eyes and if anyone doubts it then they need to experience an occasion such as this one.
The scramble for tickets was every bit as frantic as you might expect and the few hundred which did make it to general sale for this first leg tie sold out within minutes of becoming available. Sometimes in life there are winners and losers and on this occasion, I was a winner - even though it did require joining the online queue to get onto Villa’s ticket system some 45 minutes before the last few bits of gold dust were released to the masses.
With a ticket sorted (and being budget savvy), I consciously made the effort to get to Villa Park for as cheaply as possible - taking full advantage of the Megabus service which runs from Meadowhall to the Second City. There are plenty of services per day and it’s about a fifth of the price of the extortionate train fares charged by CrossCountry - arguably the biggest of the ‘cowboy’ privatised rail firms in operation in the United Kingdom. I’ll save the rest of my thoughts on privately run, money-grabbing, greedy rail companies that offer crap customer service for another day!
Anyway, having got to Villa Park just under a couple of hours before kick-off, there was already a great sense of occasion and anticipation in the air. Depending on who you saw, there eyes were filled with tension and nerves, excitement, dread, fear, passion, belief or optimism. These are the games which any sane football fans craves for!
As for the ground, which I've been to several times, it's one of my favourites in the UK and it would be a privilege to watch football here every week. Obviously not every occasion will be as 'knife-edge, edge of your seat' drama or tension like a play-off semi-final where an entire seasons hopes and dreams can be dashed in the space of 90 minutes, but it's a superb stadium. The Holte End is brilliant, as are the people who grace it and back their team to the hilt. It's a stadium worthy of Champions League football - let alone second-tier action!
Another part of my reasoning for going to this game was to see the ‘firework’ display beforehand as the teams emerged from the tunnel - and, believe me, them flame-throwing firework things (as can be seen in one of the photos) are f**king hot! In 2018, stupidly, at the semi-final tie with Middlesbrough I’d nearly managed to miss it because I slept in at my hostel in the city centre and had to make a last-gasp dash to Villa Park, where I ended up missing the first few minutes. So, with AVFC in the play-offs again, I knew they'd be making a return - which only added to the sense of occasion.
Not every time does the game live up to the pre-match hype and expectation, but this did and it was filled with raw emotion from the outset. It was a belter!
Although West Brom struck early on through Dwight Gayle after Villa failed to take heed of the early warning signs and threatened to implode, they came roaring back with a magnificent second half performance. The stadium was roaring and a turnaround was secured thanks to a perfect, emphatically smashed in equaliser from Conor Hourihane before a spot-kick just a few moments later; won by the impressive Jack Grealish and tucked away by Tammy Abraham.
West Brom were still reeling by the time Gayle was sent-off in the closing stages - a red card that always seemed possible as a few of their players were 'living on the edge' a few times. He missed the subsequent second leg where his presence might have made a telling difference, and WBA were reeling even more when Mason Holgate saw a penalty appeal turned down in the dying minutes.
In the end, Villa went up to reclaim their rightful position in the top tier and, lets be honest, they’re a big club and should never have been relegated in the first place. West Brom missed out but it probably won't be too much longer until the Baggies go 'Boing, Boing' and get back in the Premier League as well.
But as for the time being, Yipeeeee Ayeeeeee Ayyyyyyyy, Yipeeee Ayeeeeeee Ohhhhhhhh!
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