Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Villa Rise from the Dead

Villa took bragging rights in the Second City derby on Saturday with a 3-1 win over the Blues, plunging them deep into relegation trouble. Ignore the claims of foul and offside for the first two Villa goals - Birmingham have been playing rubbish all season.

The real scandal is (as a good Catholic) the match was played at 12pm on Easter Sunday meaning I had to miss it as I went to Mass. I know that there was trouble in the 2-0 victory three years ago on a Monday night, when supporters got tanked-up after work and fights broke out all over town, but are we condemned to Second City derbies at 12pm on Sundays for evermore? We have 24 hour licensing now, and it may be the case that it is still harder to find a pub open on Sunday than Saturday, but can we not have it on Saturday even once? Churches together in Aston were afraid that their Easter services would be affected by the timing, as older people feared to venture out with the footie fans, to which West Midlands Police replied they have asked the FA not to schedule the Brum derby on the Easter weekend again. The problem is not that it is on the Easter weekend - it is that you keep switching it to Sunday at 12pm, which always clashes with Church services.

Let us stop this discrimination against Brummie Christian footie fans.

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