The grand finale, final game at West Ham.
So a long and in many ways rather successful season comes down to this, a win on Sunday will guarantee us Europe via InterToto, coupled with an unlikely Everton defeat at home to Newcastle and we go straight in. A loss against West Ham and we could finish a measly 8th which in my opinion would be a poor showing after such a strong surge in the last quarter of the season. To make things more painful not beating West Ham could leave us as one of only 2 teams (along with West Ham) in the top 11 not getting into Europe after it has been announced that Man City will get the Fair Play place, Spurs already in, Portsmouth perhaps taking the FA Cup slot and Blackburn the Inter Toto.
Such a course of events would be a horrible shame but we are not there yet and have everything to play for. Our game is going to be televised here at 3:30, unfortunately being the last day of the season with so many possibilities I doubt many of you will be willing to skip watching the live games kicking off at 10am in order to miss the Villa score. For those not aware of the final day madness, all games kick off at exactly the same time and generally keep you updated of what is happening around the league. It's thrilling stuff with nearly all the games impacting each other. On Sunday we will find out who is to be crowned champions, who is to be relegated and who gets into Europe, so much is at stake.
For those planning to avoid the score I will warn you that it is pretty certain that you will find out the instant you enter the pub, since the place will still be packed with drunken fans from the morning games and any other games that are still been showing will be discussing the scores at length. If you have another alternative to watch it I suggest you do. I will know the score and if the game sounds like it is worth watching I'll turn up to watch it, I'm not going to give anything away but if you are there then if you don't know the score I'm sure some non-Villa fan will blurt it out before half-time.
In other news we will be having an end of season party, I'm thinking a trip to a beer garden next weekend for a lunchtime feed and drinking session. If anyone has any thoughts or other ideas please let me know.
There will be goings on over the summer, if the gods smile down then come Monday morning we will be preparing for a summer tour by Villa. Other than that expect an organised trip or two to see the Red Bulls this summer, along with the NYVillans boys entering the odd football tourney (New players welcome), a possible group trip to Villa park for a game early next season perhaps late August early September and plenty of European Championships Action where we will be cheering on old and current Villa players such as Freddy Bouma for the Netherlands, Olaf for Sweden and Der Hammer for Germany. Well... That's really just an excuse to drink beer and watch football all summer long.
Up the Villa.