The seemingly incessant rollercoaster that is being a Villa supporter rumbles on as the rainy international period draws to a close. With Fulham up next, there is a lot of discussion about just how significant the imminent stretch of games shall be in the context of the campaign as a whole. There can be little doubt that we need to start picking up points, and we need to start turning decent first half performances into results that will justify comments about the team going in the right direction. Much to discuss, undoubtedly.

In spite of this wealth of speculation that I could heap onto the ever-growing pile of questions that are being posed by fans, writers, players, and apparently the Rangers chairman, I don’t really want to talk about the present, or even the future. I want to delve into the past and look back at the moments that ingrained the club into our hearts for the years of fluctuating form that continue to reign.

As a new writer to Aston Villa Life, I’m not sure whether this sort of piece has been done before. Even so, I feel that I’d like to escape, just temporarily, from the current predicament in which the team finds itself. This piece is something of a cross between a personal account and an analysis of what makes being a football fan so important; indeed what makes it so necessary.

This is a piece about my first ever Villa game, and in turn I hope to hear about the spread of first games we have from the range of claret and blues that make up this fine community.

My First Game

It was a crisp December 13th 1998 when I first travelled to Villa Park, which would become the temple to my religious following of the team and the sport in general. At six years old, only the most outstanding events stick in your memory with any true vividness. Interestingly, the way I felt before the game that night remains with me to this day, largely because those core emotions are rekindled before matches I go to even now. Perhaps that’s the beauty of football: no matter how old you get, the nerves, the excitement, the tribal ambiance, all of it is as real as the first match you went to.

With my Dad and my older brother leading the way, both having been to see the Villans since before I was able to kick a ball, I sat in the Doug Ellis stand. This was not the most desirable of seating selections perhaps, but it took nothing away from the exhilaration I felt and I couldn’t care less anyhow. There are a lot of things that you do and you can’t ever replace the first time, but for me, walking out onto the terraces and seeing the pitch is not one of them. Every game I go to, it takes my breath away.

For this first match of my career as a football fanatic, every aspect of the experience hit me. Perhaps the most striking element was the noise that was being generated around the stadium. It took me a while to appreciate that the players would be playing with all of this going on around them. The bubble of belief and bravado that fizzed around was nothing short of mesmerising.

Born in the Midlands, it was natural for me to support Villa and I didn’t have a choice anyway, given the passion my brother already showed for the club. As my Dad began talking to a chap next to him about how it was my first game, I remember the realisation that everyone in the stadium was in unison, all willing Villa to win. I’d watched games on TV with other people before, but to actually be at a game and feel the support was something different altogether. I absorbed the anticipation. The chants began.

Aston Villa v Arsenal

I don’t remember the game starting, and I don’t remember large periods of it, but I can visualise every goal, from the low-positioned seats we were sat in. There was a mist hovering over the first couple of inches of the pitch, and it seemed impossible that the players, these heroes of mine, were just metres away.

The game was quick-paced, a strong Villa side facing an arguably stronger Arsenal one. One of my favourite players of all time, Dennis Bergkamp, scored the first and the second goals I have ever seen live, subsequently dashing my hopes and introducing me to the cruel reality of being a football fan, and not least a Villa fan.

The Dutchman’s first was well taken, coming just fourteen minutes into the game. He was sharp with his movement and clinical with the volleyed finish.

Though I didn’t know it at the time because I had nothing to compare it with, the night-time atmosphere of a football match is unique. Perhaps it was the proximity to Christmas and therefore a festive air was blowing, but there is something special about a night game—something spectacular. The match would turn out to be quite a spectacle, though it was difficult to imagine as we went into half-time 0-2 down, Bergkamp having scored again just before the whistle.

At half-time, pre-match entertainment arrived in the form of parachutists dressed as Villa players landing on the pitch and heading down the tunnel. It’s become something of a pre-requisite to have a show at the interlude during top-flight football matches, and I was delighted to see this sort of thing. Suddenly, though, the mood dropped dramatically as the final jumper hit the roof of the stadium and fell heavily to the edge of the pitch. A hush among the crowd, it added a 15-minute delay to the break, and this poor man, who was dressed as Father Christmas for supporters just like me, was stretchered away. We would later learn that he had broken both of his legs and had one of them amputated, such was the severity. A sobering event to break up what would become probably the most exciting Villa game I’ve ever seen.

The second-half back underway, it started slowly for us with Dion Dublin and Julian Joachim snatching at their infrequent chances. I didn’t know at the time, but John Gregory’s tactical decision to bring on Stan Collymore was the reason for our triumph that day. We went to three up front, teenager Gareth Barry coming off. I was just hoping to see a goal for Villa at my first match.

Joachim grabbed the first with a nice outside of the boot shot and then provided a delivery that eventually saw Dublin turn in the equaliser with twenty minutes to go. The stadium erupted but just as if I were a player, I seemed to have become a part of the commotion, feeding off the surge in hope and jubilation.

My first taste of being a real football fan would turn out to be a sweet one, as the pressure built towards the end of the game. A corner from Alan Thompson saw Dion Dublin take charge and thump the ball into the roof of the net to round off the perfect comeback.

The next day, the Guardian would read that Aston Villa had shown title-winning credentials. Then again, I didn’t read the newspaper back then and in reality, whether we won the title that season or not didn’t really matter to me that night. What mattered was the injection I had been given, and one that would make me an undying Villa fan for the rest of my days. What a game, what a night, what a sport.

The first game of the rest of the season

It all sounds very dramatic—perhaps a little too much so. I don’t agree. My first match was that dramatic, and that impressive, and within me it instilled an optimism that I have always carried whenever Villa are in question.

So even though that was 14 years ago and the sport has changed, the team has been altered, and maybe even the base of supporters is a little different, remaining positive is the fundamental route to success for any club.

This great history upon which Aston Villa is founded is worth remembering every now and then, because there is no room for the negativity of a Scottish chairman or the mumblings of discontent from players about whether they should be playing or not.

Sentimental though this piece may be, I think it’s worthwhile showing this sort of appreciation for the club.

I didn’t know what to expect from my first game, and I certainly didn’t expect us to come back from 0-2 down against the Gunners. Football is full of ups and downs, proved in just one game, one of many first games.

The match on Saturday at Craven Cottage will most probably be someone else’s first Villa game. So let’s get behind Paul Lambert, get behind the team, and believe in the club. It’s the first game of the rest of the season, at the very least.

As I said before, I’d love to hear your stories about your first games so please leave them in the comments section.

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