NY Villans Update - Premiership Week 30 Liverpool.

These updates are becoming increasingly harder to write as each week we appear to watch Villa get poorer and poorer. The Tottenham game was a particular frustration to me and marks the first time in the 23 years I have supported the team that I have walked out in the middle of a game in disgust. I lasted all of 70 minutes at which point I grabbed my jacket and went for a stroll. It's funny all those years and all those games through Graham Taylor MKI, Dr No, Big Ron, Little Brian, JG, Graham Taylor MkII minus his marbles and the roller coaster of excuses that was O'Leary through all that I pick probably our best season since Big Ron to walk out. And that's it, that is why every goal conceded and every loss hurts so bloody much these days because finally our ambitions have changed and we now believe that Villa to have a chance to reclaim their football throne and somehow we are pissing it away. By we, I have to place the blame purely on the shoulders of our manager, much in the same way I blame our recent successes on him. It baffles me that after being forced to call on him as a substitute in the past few Games, O'Neill would have had the common sense that maybe Carew needs to start or that in the worst form of his career maybe the best thing to do is not force Gabby to play every game. It is with terrible disappointment that when the call finally came for Gabby to be substituted I heard that the poor lad was boo'ed off the pitch. Now the manager comes out the next day to vent his disappointment and anger at such an occurrence. While personally I think it's disgusting to boo a player on your own team surely the fault is O'Neills for putting him in that position to begin with.

Rant over, onto the next game. the last time we played at Anfield was a heart breaker. After an own goal and a spectacular Marlon Harewood overhead kick put us 2-1 in front Peter Crouch scored a last gasp goal to steal a point for the scousers. it was made all the more painful by the numerous chances Villa missed leading up to the finale. This year Liverpool are a far more potent threat and to be fair we are a rather different team ourselves but it's hard to look at anything more than the same result from last year as our best hope this time around. And if we were to go there and snatch a point I for one would be celebrating it like I would a win.

This big one is Sunday at noon ET on FSC, we are having a special viewing trip to Hoboken New Jersey for this one. Mulligan's pub is the venue and should be fun having a change of surroundings for the day, we have a bunch of New Jersey people making the trip as well as many regulars from Nevada's. For those of you coming from the city we are going to meet on the South East corner of 14th street and 6th Ave to head over at 11am leaving at the latest by 11:10 everyone else we will see you at the bar: 159 First St. Hoboken between Bloomfield and Garden Streets. Anyone gets lost give me a call at 9175830851.

In other news Villa today announced our entry into The Peace Cup in Spain this July. The twelve club competition also features Juve, Real Madrid, Ajax, Lyon, Seville and Porto. While the competition should feature some exciting match ups and is for a good cause I can't help but feel this dashes our chances of having Villa back in the US for a preseason tour as we had hoped. The cup will be played between July 24th and August 2nd the same time period Villa came over to visit us two summers ago. Games will be played in Huelva, Seville, Jerez, Malaga and Madrid. 2 one legged league games, top team for the 4 groups playoff in a semi followed by a final.

Last up it's the oval ball game again, if anyone is interested in watching the Ireland vs Wales grand Slam decider on Saturday give me a shout. I'm hosting a few people in my flat and the more the merrier.

Up the Villa.

Donal.

NY Villans Update - Premiership Week 29 plus 2 events, St pats day and Hoboken.

We are in fourth place, have 10 games to play, a three point lead, it's dark and we're wearing sunglasses. Hit it!

The Claret and Blues Brothers

Back to business after a nice little holiday in Dubai we are looking for the boys in Claret and blue to turn around the form that has evaded them in the last five games. The first half against Man City stands as one of the poorest performances I have seen by a Villa team ever. It was truly shocking and how we didn't go into half time 4 or 5 goals down was nothing short of a miracle. It was horrible to watch our four man midfield get completely overrun by City's five when the likes of Gardner and Reo Coker warmed the bench but thankfully we put up a bit more fight in the second half, saving me from a similar bout of depression caused by the Stoke collapse.

And hello? Here's an old friend returning to villa Park, the much loved Harry "Candleface" Redknapp and the North London Social Club. Our last encounter with Spurs was a 2-1 win in September that honestly I remember nothing about but they return to Villa park a different team than the shambles Juande Ramos put up against us that day. Back is our old scourge the player we should have signed back in the day Robbie Keane after one of the oddest transfer sagas in memory. In fact one of my first memories of drinking in Nevada's with a few lads who were later to become the NY Villans was watching a match against Spurs and seeing Keane coming off the bench. John Wittard the Nostradamus of our time says "He going to score" and sure enough he did. I didn't see Keane interviewed after the game but I imagine it went something like this:

Presenter: "Robbie your goal rescued the match, talk us through it?"
Robbie Keane: "Well eh, y'know, I wuz sitting on the bench and eh, y'know fair play to the manager he eh brought me on, and eh fair play to the eh lads y'know they did be playing there and eh fair play to the er fans y'know, err fair play"

If anyone wants an impression will be happy to do one Sunday unless he goes and scores again.

The game is live on FSC at 12 noon thanks to the 4 hour time difference due to DST being all over the place. No word on the squad yet but there's a chance my personal hero, the one and only man eating machine Freddy 'BallAndAll' Bouma might be in the squad. A lot more doubtful for a quick return is Laursen who has had yet another setback on his road to recovery, here's praying he doesn't join Mark Delaney in the glue factory. One would expect our stubborn manager will stick with the same rubbish lineup that started against Man City, fingers crossed he doesn't. Davies needs to be dropped, Cuellar needs to not play at right back, Heskey needs to get a clue, Ashley needs to learn a new trick and Gabby needs a sharp kick up the arse. Ten games to make the last 45 count for something and it starts on Sunday. Comon Villa!!

Something to share: Now we have all scratched our heads at one time or another as to what on Earth our manager is thinking. Well a new film will open later this month from the writer of Frost/Nixon on O'Neills late great mentor Brian Clough, there's a trailer here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/4967697/Brian-Clough-remembering-Cloughie.html but even better are the story's below remembering the madness that was the great manager. Give them a read and in doing so you might understand a little of what Martin O'Neill learned from him. Thanks to Terri for sending the link.

Coming up: Tuesday is Saint Patrick's Day and like many an Irishman I tend to make a big deal out of it. This year I'm taking over a bar with a couple of mates to celebrate the day. After years of being ripped off and drinking Guinness out of plastic cups at so called "Irish Bars" we decided to find a place that isn't Irish and does no business on St Patricks day then turn it into our own little shindig. So we have arranged to take over a bar/restaurant in the FlatIron area called Portfolio which after a heavy redecorating, alcohol restocking and revised jukebox will become Port O'Folio for the night. Party starts at 5:30pm and ends when common sense prevails, come along and bring whomever you want, there will be free munchies to soak up the river of booze. Tuesday March 17th, Portfolio Bar, 19th Street on the south side close to the corner of Fifth Ave, scaffolding overhead (unless they have removed it in the last week).

Coming up: We've talked and talked about it and now we are finally going to do it. Sunday March 22nd we are having our official excursion to New Jersey for the Liverpool match. For those of you scared to step into the wilderness it actually going to be in Hoboken essentially an extension of the city and only a stop away on the Path train. So come and join us as we wind up some scousers at Mulligan's http://mulligansonfirst.com/ 159 First St., Hoboken. About a 3 minute walk from the Path station. We would love to see those of you that are bound to their automobile and never get into the city as a result, that will not be a valid excuse for this game.

And sorry to those of you around the US for the local stuff that isn't relevant but if you are arranging anything in you area, have a view or opinion, anything at all you would like to share with the Villa fans across the US let us know and we will include it in the next update.

Up the Villa!