NY Villans Update Premiership Finale

On Sunday we have the chance to send Newcastle United packing from the Premiership and perhaps due to their financial state into potential administration. This would be by far the biggest relegation since Leeds United slipped into obscurity but to be fair it has been coming for quite some time. Newcastle were never a big club by any stretch of the imagination despite a rather good start to their history with 4 league titles prior to 1910 and one further success in 1927, from that point onwards Newcastle suffered a period of supreme mediocrity with the exception of some FA Cup success in the 1950's. By the time the Premiership was formed Newcastle had just barely avoided relegation from the old second division. The next season was to see a dramatic turnaround in their fortunes. Under Kevin Keagan Newcastle returned to the top flight of English football where they have remained to this point. 

Now before I proceed any further I must admit I do have some good friends who are Newcastle fans and I have always found in general that they are a group of supporters who have a great passion for the sport and deep knowledge of the game but with those positives comes Newcastle's great failing they are delusional when it comes to their own club.

In the early 80's Newcastle United had hit the small time, their average attendance was a measly 16,000 but in the new Keagan led Premiership era, interest in the team soared and their stadium went through a series of massive expansions to cope with the new interest. However, with the new interest came new expectations, expectations that were just too much for a small club who had not won a trophy in 50 years to cope with. Suddenly the circus began. Newcastle 12 points ahead of Man United in the 95-96 season suddenly began to believe their own media fueled hype and imploded. It played out dramatically in front of the cameras as Newcastle's manager (stroke messiah) Keven Keagan suffered what could only be described as a mental breakdown of legendary proportions. What followed was a chaotic merry-go-round of managers and expensive players fueled by massive supporter expectations and a desire for entertaining football above effective football.

Newcastle's supporters who had forgotten the long barren era where most of them hadn't bothered with the team suddenly became the most self obsessed and self important supporter group in football. The self proclaimed "Best supporters in the world" managed to annoy every other fan in English football which soon led to their once admired team of attacking footballers becoming the despised laughing stock of the Premiership.

So this Sunday the eyes of the footballing world will be firmly fixed on Villa Park and other than the Geordies everyone wants us to send them down. For Newcastle United the grim reality of the Championship might just be exactly what the club needs and it fans need. For so many years they have gripped onto that one crazy season in the 90's where they probably should have won the title and started considering themselves special, rather than enjoying the fact that their club was once again in the top flight, a luxury so many similar teams don't get to enjoy.

Villa versus Newcastle is live this Sunday from 11am Eastern on Setanta Sports, get to the pub and soak up the atmosphere, this will be a day of ups and downs.


The last home game of the season is always a bit special but Sundays game will come with a touch of sadness after the recent announcement that Martin Laursen has chosen to retire from football. Our Danish captain has suffered many years of injury and just when he thought he was finally over his terrible knee problems he damaged the other one. There can be no harder choice than for an athlete to hang up their boots. So many have made the wrong decision to continue playing and have paid a terrible price in later life as their legs suffered the consequences. Martin will be remembered as a great defender and a fearless competitor. There was no better aerial attacker from a dead ball situation and we were rewarded by many great headed goals. In his brief term as club captain he wore the armband with pride. We wish Martin many happy healthy years with his family and hope he stays involved with the club. There is a planned sendoff for him at Sunday's game and we can be sure that the Villa faithful will give him a farewell fit for a captain of this great club.

Also happening this Sunday will be the unveiling of Villa's new away kit. next seasons shirt will be a celebration of the 67 Villa players who have represented England the most from any club. Villa and Nike have put up a mini site to build the hype, you can visit it at: http://www.whenthenationcalls.com/

We would like to send our best wishes to General Krulak who is currently in hospital undergoing tests for a bacterial infection, hope you feel better soon General and there's no doubt all three points on Sunday will be the perfect cure!

Another piece of silverware came in the door yesterday as our reserves beat Sunderland 3-1 in front of an impressive crowd at Villa park to claim the FA Premier Reserve League title. Congrats to the young lions and Kevin MacDonald on the great success, many of these exciting young lads are on the verge of breaking into our first team and it's amusing to think of all the hype that surrounded Arsenals young reserve side this season that in the end finished nowhere, still no silverware at the Emerates. 

Finally I will be in Nevada's for the game on Sunday but if anyone fancies watching Leinster vs Leicester in rugby's European Cup final this Saturday come join us at the Red Lion on Bleeker and Thompson the game kicks off at noon.

There will be less frequent but equally informative updates throughout the summer hopefully they wont be to announce the signing of Titus Bramble

Up the Villa and have a great memorial Day Weekend!

NY Villans Update - Premiership Week 37

So another season comes to an end. Last year we were left waiting until the last day hoping we could stay above Blackburn and clinch the Intertoto Cup spot, this season having already qualified for Europe we have considerably less to play for over the last few games and it shows. The second half performance against Fulham last week was nothing short of lethargic (that may be the first time I've ever used that term) our players were physically at Craven Cottage for the game but unfortunately for us their minds were already in Tel Aviv, Zante, Saint Tropez, Basingstoke or whatever fancy location professional footballers spend their summer months. 

There's no guarantee that this weekends fixture against Middlesbrough will be any different. Boro who lost to Newcastle on Monday night are now on the brink of relegation a loss against us and a result for the Geordies at home to Fulham will send Gareth Southgates side into the gloomy depths of the Championship. Their only real hope for survival is to nick something off us then hope we do them a favour in our final fixture against Newcastle. Selfishly I hope that's exactly how it pans out. 

I have no real affection or dislike for either side but beating Boro on Saturday will effectively end the premiership season a week early, especially if Hull fail to overcome Bolton. In that case there's a chance that the only item to be decided on the final day of the season will be the burning question of who will finish 7th. Bollocks to that I want the season to finish on an exciting end and what better way to do that than have Villa host Newcastle in a game that decides if the Geordies stay up or fall into the Abyss. That is why my preferred result for Saturday is a draw. 

Villa vs Boro is live on Setanta Sports Xtra at 10am EST. For those of you going to the pub the Newcastle vs Fulham game will be shown alongside ours on plain old regular Setanta Sports, should be exciting but alas I'll be in Newport Rhode island for the weekend, if anyone knows a spot I can catch the action up there, then please let me know.

In other news...

As expected Stiliyan Petrov was the recipient of both the Supporters and Players Player of the year awards at the clubs annual awards dinner on Tuesday night. Other awards we handed out to John Carew for goal of the season and Nathan Delfouneso for young player of the season. Personally I would like to see the whole event spiced up with the introduction of awards for failure where players are publicly humiliated for their mistakes. Suggestions:
The Savo Milosevic award for miss of the season.
The David James award for utter incompetence.
The Bosko Balaban shit signing award.
For those supporters lucky enough to attend the highlight of the night was John Carew's acceptance speech in which he said that without the fans support the players would probably be working at McDonald's except for Heskey who's haircut suggests he'd be working in a kebab shop.

Another year, another movie to promote, another opportunity for fellow US Villa supporter Tom Hanks to publicly profess his love for the team. Last year he was dancing down the red carpet with a scarf, this year he's talking to Johnathan Ross:
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/2500685/ about a minute into the video.
Very amusing interview, Tom playing up the American soccer "fan" stereotype. Almost like a accurate portrayal of you typical Nevada's Arsenal fan. Have no doubts he knows a lot more than he's admitting to but he's paid to act and entertain not provide football punditry.

Speaking of Pundits, FSC's very own Steven Cohen landed himself in deep water with local Liverpool fans after it emerged he made some controversial comments about the Hillsborough disaster on his radio show. I'm not a fan of Cohen, he's always talked a load of rubbish and this is no exception especially considering the timing as Liverpool fans were commemorating the 20th anniversary of the disaster. In all fairness as a radio host you fully expect ignorant and controversial opinions to be spouted, that's what drives your ratings and Liverpool fans were fully entitled to feel upset. Unfortunately doing themselves no favours it appears that a number of Liverpool fans decided it was a smart idea rather than join the majority in boycotting Cohen's show to instead send him Death threats, threaten his family, send ani-semetic remarks and threats to burn down his house. Rather embarrassing on both sides and counter productive to the continued growth and promotion of the game over here.

Once again we are faced with a slew of worthless transfer rumours, this weeks batch are heavily focused on players going out and are probably not worth the bother of me typing them out. First up apparently AC Milan and Man UTD are interested in Garreth Barry, well that is according to some Villa players mingling with fans at the awards dinner. Barry himself did not attend due to illness (he's was suffering from an acute aversion to questions from fans over his future). Next up Craig Gardner to Birmingham City for 2.5 million, complete rubbish in my opinion, I like Gardner hard worker naturally gifted and able to play in a number of positions, we would be mad to let him go. Finally the usual Ashley Young link, this time it's Chelsea with suggestions that he will be supposed new coach Carlo Ancelotti’s main target. Thanks for the interest Roman we will take 20 Million plus Joe Cole and Malouda.

Finally Martin O'Neill has been warned by the FA over his future conduct for lashing out at rubbish ref Mike Riley following Villa's 3-2 defeat to Man United. it is understood that Martin accused Riley of exchanging frilly knickers and being erotically spanked by Alex Ferguson during half time which under article 13 sub category 4 of the revised FA regulations by A.Ferguson is perfectly acceptable behavior provided one of the participants is Alex Ferguson.

Up the Villa!

Donal.