Birmingham Mail

Villa managed to find an extra 500 fans this morning, simply by me checking my emails at home. There it was, from the club, a message...and trust me messages from the club are rare indeed: "There was an error in Sunday's attendance", it began... and then rattled on that instead of there being thirty eight thousand two hundred and something at the ground against Everton there were in fact thirty eight thousand, seven hundred and forty seven. Just like at Wembley, I thought, ten to 20 minutes after half-time, where 10,000 'dinner' guests suddenly reappear. Not quite sure why Villa wanted to boost their numbers. Didn't clubs used to knock off a few thousand in case the tax man was watching?! Am off to the match in an hour or so... just hope that Villa manage to get somewhere near 30,000 or the supposed 6,000 Leicester fans will drown them out. I'm having a swift half in the Holte Pub before the match..... no, I didn't have to win a ballot to get my seat. Unfair I know. But my Carling will be waiting for me before a long night's work...tapping out the match report, the stats, the manager's quotes, and maybe a goalscorer or two. Caught up with Martin O'Neill yesterday for three quarters of an hour, and he was in fine form. As honest as the day is long, there are no secrets to his charm in my book. He gives everyone the time of day. And he works damn hard. There are some managers I can think of in my eight years on the Mail who don't stand up to quite so much scrutiny, no names of course. The conversation drifted from team news, Curtis Davies, Isiah Osbourne, Stephen O'Halloran etc to some of his memories of the old Filbert Street and the League Cup semi-final of 2000 when Leicester "didn't even cross the half-way line" (according to John Gregory) and yet managed to put out a well-fancied Villa. "My team-talk was done for me", smiled O'Neill. I once had a Birmingham Mail match report pinned onto the dressing room of the Leicester team at the Walkers Stadium. I'd labelled Leicester the "worst team ever to play in the Premier League" after a three goal defeat at Villa Park. Mercifully, and somewhat comically, Villa went and promptly put five past them. Peter Crouch was dropped next game. Ouch!
It won't be five tonight. Gary Megson will fire up those Foxes.
I'm confident Villa can go far this season. Even with half a dozen fringe players involved tonight.
Anyway, must dash.... that half is going flat.