FIFA World Cup Qualifier Group K
England v Andorra
Villa Park
Birmingham, England
After the disappointing 1:0 victory in Barcelona against today's visitors to Villa Park, the average England fan was anticipating a big score against the minnows from Andorra. Amazingly this did not happen as Andorra miraculously kept the score line to 2:0, heaping more pressure onto Tuchal.
Thankfully, I managed to bag a cheap £25 home end ticket in the Lower Holte End. This is more difficult than it may first appear because cap status does not count! The FA continue to grow the ESTC membership which is currently 31,905, so it's 'fastest finger first' when the sale window opens.
Pano taken of Villa Park from the Holte End. It has been 20 years since Villa park last hosted an England game when England played Holland in a friendly on 9 Feb 2005. In total it has hosted 10 England internationals
The full record of England internationals at villa park:
The industrial walk to the Aston Tavern
The £5 entrance was well worth it as it we had the choice of 3 different menus. I had Chicken Balti😋
The Beer garden is massive with loads of capacity
From the other end you can see Aston Parish Church
My Aunty Pam was married in this church back in 1978. It was a 3 PM wedding on April Fool's day and Aston Villa were at home against Liverpool. They lost 0:3.
Lads collecting for 'Justice for the 21' an ongoing campaign by families of the victims of the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings which killed 21 people. The original 'Birmingham 6' were acquitted after 16 years of imprisonment due to the unreliability of the forensics used for the conviction.
Street art celebrating Aston Villa's Ollie Watkins, Rachel Daley and Emiliano Martinez
The famous Holte End
A great paint job on the steps
Sue about to descend to the top
View out to Aston Parish church
As far as concourses go this is about as good as it get
Lining up for the anthems
Short clip of the National Anthem
To my left is the famous Trinity Road Stand, albeit the new one constructed in 2001. The old stand was considered a master piece and unparalleled example of an Archibald Leitch stand
Behind the opposite goal is the North Stand which was rebuilt in 1976 from what was formerly known as the Witton End. The stand is due for a major upheaval in 2027 when another 12,000 seats are due to be added just in time for Villa Park to takes its place as a host venue for the Euro 28 Finals
Coming up to the hour mark and England are yet to capitalise on Christian Garcia'a own OG on 25 mins
During the 2nd Half I heard some lads behind me saying that they recognised me. I turned around, and low and behold, a colleague from work and Gav's Dad (Ipswich Town)
England made it 2:0 on 67 minutes and that's how it stayed
Always a pleasure visiting this iconic stadium. Now it's back on the motorway to Heathrow T4 for our flight to Belgrade
Aston Parish Church is a Victorian building but has treasures dating back to the 13th century and a history going back to the doomsday book. I once attended a wedding here in 1978 that coincided with the Division One fixture, Aston Villa v Liverpool as both events had a 3pm KO
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