brummie

Not just those two clubs, there are a number of clubs who are persistent standers, you, us, the Mancs, Liverpool, Spurs. As per the other thread, this is all going to come to a head soon - reduced allocations and so on. Stewards in our match at Boro the other week were chucking people out at random for standing. We'll see more of that.

Can you tell me how much Man Utd supporters travels at the away games and which teams have the most support when they are at the away games I know that our fans are pretty much about 2000-3000 at every away game What about the Liverpool fans? How are they at Anfield? From what i've seen on TV they are pretty noisy and the atmosphere is great with all the flags and scarfs To be honest, most clubs other than the really small fry (Wigan, Charlton, Fulham) bring decent quantities to Villa Park, but I'm aware that's probably different at SJP for geographical reasons. Incidentally, for those of you that usually travel to VP to see Newcastle play us, you'll be glad to hear that next year you won't be behind the goal in the most cramped seats in the Premiership, that is being given to home fans, you'll be in the Witton Lane lower and upper, basically the overspill section away fans get already plus the bit above. Man United bring the full allocation, of course. This year teams that have done this have been your lot, Man U, Arsenal, Watford, Liverpool, Chelsea (only just about, mind), Spurs, West Ham, Reading (first game of the season, memory stretched, but I may be wrong). The worst turnouts were Blackburn, Fulham, Wigan, Charlton and Bolton. In terms of lowest numbers, I actually counted the Blackburn fans and there were around 150.

We've been warned of the same thing with regard to Blackburn next year. I can't remember the last time I sat at an away match. I suspect we're going to see a lot more of this next season.

Everyone thinks they are the noisiest away fans, but going on my experience at our home matches this season, the noisiest away fans were Man United, followed very closely by Spurs. Man U win it though for range of songs, although they're the most obnoxious c***s we see all season. West Ham were odd, brought plenty but were very quiet, this was a couple of months ago when the realisation that they were doomed was setting in, and you could sense an air of massive apprehension about them. Liverpool were very, very quiet, but the match in question was one of the worst I've seen in 30 years, so I'm not really surprised. Incidentally, I'm also deducting appreciation points for Watford, Everton and Arsenal, all of whom brought a decent following, but all of whom ruined it by sitting all the way through. Oh, and nobody has pointed it out, but there must be pretty much no ground in the premiership these days where people don't say "its like a morgue these days" and where the away fans don't make more noise. Bring back (safe) standing.

My old CRT 32 inch Panasonic w/s has been going strong for 6 years or so now, can't see any need to replace it in the near future.

i quite like the new movie channel naming system though. Easier to cut through the dross and find the stuff I want to watch.

The confusion was, you used to have to pay 10 quid extra for Sky+, I didn't know that wasn't the case any more. Do they charge extra for HD? Yes, the Setanta thing is the worst, as we're now going to have yet another supplier to pony up the cash to. Not good.

I'm not making any statement other than yours and the mackem's records are quite similar, I'm not putting emphasis on one over the other or saying that one is more successful than the other. I'm just pointing out that the most successful 20 clubs would make a decent premiership, with no debate over who is where in that 20.

It doesn't matter which calculation is used, the point is that the 20 most successful clubs would make a pretty decent premiership. I can't see any glaring omissions anyway. In drawing up my table, I took a regional view as well, ie ensure the regions are relatively well represented (where possible, which explains the lack of SW clubs), which you obviously don't get if you base it on pure success. I always thought yours and the Mackem's records were quite closely matched, with the exception you'd won more Cups.

Sky Plus only costs £10 if you don't have at least two premium channels (Sky Sports 1/2, or two movies channels ect). Surely you must have at least two premium channels to be paying that kind of money. Ah, I stand corrected. Yes, we do have all the premium chanels.

Aston Villa Man United Man City Liverpool Arsenal Chelsea Tottenham Hotspur Everton Sunderland Newcastle Leeds United West Bromwich Albion Wolves Derby County Sheffield Wednesday West Ham Ipswich Sheffield United Blackburn Nottingham Forest Interestingly, if you just took the most successful 20 clubs over history and plonked them in, it wouldn't look too shabby: Liverpool Manchester United Arsenal Aston Villa Everton Sunderland Tottenham Hotspur Manchester City Newcastle United Sheffield Wednesday Nottingham Forest Wolverhampton W. Chelsea West Bromwich Albion Blackburn Rovers Leeds United Bolton Wanderers Derby County Sheffield United Preston North End

I pay much more than 40 quid for Sky. I've got Sky+ and Multiroom, both of which are an extra 10 quid a month. It really is a fucking rip off. My uncle has one of the above mentioned dodgy dish setups and watches pretty much all our games on some Arabian or Chinese channel, which is probably more cost effective than Sky, and more convenient than waiting for some shitty P2P stream to stop buffering.

I hope Liverpool win, mainly because I fancy them to beat Man United if they meet in the final. I also don't want any English clubs which have never won it before to be winning it, which also rules Chelsea out.

Looks fantastic. At last, a new stadium that doesn't look exactly like every other identikit bland-o-drome.

That's terrible. As someone said, 61 is no age to go. RIP

Here's a fact - it's a shithole. Was waiting at a bus-stop near Moseley and the guy who got on in front of me was drinking a cold tin of soup, from the tin, and had no money to pay for his journey. He simply got on, stood there, then got off again. Not atypical, this. There's a complete lack of respect from most people. No bugger can drive properly to save their life. I honestly hope never to visit the place again, f****** awful. Miserable people if you ask me. The stereotypes aren't always wrong. Geordies - fat c***s, who are good lads and like a drink Scots - very fat c***s, some of whom are good lads and like a drink Mancs - arrogant c***s but funny Brummies - BORING BASTARDS Even when they're funny it's hard to laugh because they sound so boring. You really are like a walking, talking (I assume you manage those) version of the Daily Star crossed with the OH MY GOD!!! rage of Richard Littlejohn. Except you make even less sense. Do the Daily Star say brummies are boring c***s too? I don't read the Daily Star, Stevie, because one thing I do know is that it is full of shite.

Here's a fact - it's a shithole. Was waiting at a bus-stop near Moseley and the guy who got on in front of me was drinking a cold tin of soup, from the tin, and had no money to pay for his journey. He simply got on, stood there, then got off again. Not atypical, this. There's a complete lack of respect from most people. No bugger can drive properly to save their life. I honestly hope never to visit the place again, f****** awful. Miserable people if you ask me. The stereotypes aren't always wrong. Geordies - fat c***s, who are good lads and like a drink Scots - very fat c***s, some of whom are good lads and like a drink Mancs - arrogant c***s but funny Brummies - BORING BASTARDS Even when they're funny it's hard to laugh because they sound so boring. You really are like a walking, talking (I assume you manage those) version of the Daily Star crossed with the OH MY GOD!!! rage of Richard Littlejohn. Except you make even less sense.

Here's a fact - it's a shithole. Was waiting at a bus-stop near Moseley and the guy who got on in front of me was drinking a cold tin of soup, from the tin, and had no money to pay for his journey. He simply got on, stood there, then got off again. Not atypical, this. There's a complete lack of respect from most people. No bugger can drive properly to save their life. I honestly hope never to visit the place again, f****** awful. I came to a Newcastle - Villa match in the 80s and watched some brave, local moron put a brick in a girl's face at point blank range. Hey, maybe I should form an opinion of the whole region based on that one incident?

Aye but they also lost at home....Crespo if I remember correctly. How many of Manure's injured players would have returned. Did Man U have a few injury problems? I don't think Tyldesley mentioned that. Oh yes, he did. Towards the start, about 4000 times, just in case it didn't go their way.

Fucking hell, a whole 3 minute segment of 1999 references there.

I'm supporting Milan. For the reasons why, see this excellent piece from The Times: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/european_football/article1696102.ece

John Harkes Bryan Roy

Old Firm derbies are in an absolute league of their own, and you can't strip out the religious and political aspects of it, as those are fundamental elements to the existence of the two clubs.

Albion - Wolves is bad too, but is localised to the black country, and Albion have other rivalries. Interestingly, the Villa-Blues rivalry is a relatively new (ie 50 years) thing, Albion were always Villa's historical rivals, mainly because their support is drawn from the northern side of Brum as well as the black country, but also because they'd been around longer than Blues had. Villa - Blues became initially a north side (us) vs south side (them) rivalry, but has become seen as them being inner city and working class, and us as being suburban and out-of-towners. I don't think that is entirely true, but there is an element of truth there. With the exception of Rangers - Celtic for obvious reasons, the most hate-filled, vicious derbies are always going to be the more localised ones, like yours and ours. And Ipswich - Norwich, too, which someone mentioned.

It hasn't been competitive until recent years, but it certainly is vicious, which you'd realise if you found yourself at one of them. It is pure hatred. Manchester derby = massively one-sided and diluted by United drawing support from well away from the area, supporters who don't understand the day to day rivalry London derbies = too many of them, there is one practically every week. Liverpool derbies = traditionally friendly. They even sit together, ffs. And as someone else said, their real rivalry is with Man United, which is not really local. Birmingham derbies are like Newcastle-Sunderland derbies in that they don't happen with any massive regularity, interest is concentrated locally, and they are unpredictable. The only difference I would point out is that newcastle and sunderland are, what, 15 miles apart, and we have to share the city with the bluenose knuckledraggers. Oh, and Stevie, as to your comment about nobody going to Birmingham for any reason other than football is somewhat off the mark, given the fact it is the third most visited city in Britain after London and Edinburgh, attracts far more overseas convention and conference visitors than anywhere with the exception of London, and is even located slap bang in the middle of the country's rail and road networks. Don't let facts get in the way, though.