Almost too wintry for my Australian relatives. Quite why Australians choose to come to Arctic Birmingham in the middle of their summer is a puzzler. It turns out that the teenage lad is a decent soccer player and is over here for trials with a few clubs. Sadly, his asthma – only mild and not much of an encumbrance in his native Oz – is flaring up quite badly in the much more polluted and dirty English air. His dreams look like being scuppered.
However they are keen to take in a top flight match while they are here and apparently it's my duty to take them. The midweek match against Spurs suits their timetable so I organise them tickets. It's all season tickets around my seat in the Holte End so I sort them seats in the Witton Lane. This is probably a good idea as I'm unlikely to be on my best “relatives visiting” behaviour while in the emotional throes of a Villa match. I also take the canny step of ensuring that the Aussies are doing the driving.
It's not been that long since Brian Little has taken over the helm at Villa Park and Gerry Francis hasn't had his feet under the table at The Lane for that long either. Gerry's only defeat in the job so far has come against the Villa in a 4-3 thriller, made all the more remarkable by the fact that Villa were between managers at the time.
Personally, I'm still miffed at Big Ron's sacking but Deadly Doug has been canny in getting Villa folk hero Little in to replace him, so I suppose I'm placated. Little's appointment has not been without controversy though it's only been a couple of months since we were welcomed by the regulars of Filbert Street with a mixture of fists and CS gas, pretty much as a consequence of Our Brian's defection from the Foxes.
We arrive at the Aston Social for pre-match drinks and my Aussie uncle makes the novice error of parking at the back of the car park. This will add a good half hour to the journey home, but hey sitting in a freezing cold car listening to the football phone in on the radio is all part of the English match experience.
The Aussies are somewhat taken aback by the Aston Social-on-a-matchday experience, likening it to the Cantina scene in Star Wars. I'm mildly insulted. With a forty thousand crowd expected, the place is packed to the rafters and it takes about three pints before they relax and feel a bit more at home. Then it's time to walk to the ground and they wrap themselves up like Nanook of the North. To be fair to them, it is a bit on the nippy side. They decline the offer of a dirty burger from "Sam and Ella's", which is hardly getting into the spirit of things.
We ponder whether Super Tommy Johnson has been availing himself of the street food on offer outside as he promptly throws up just prior to kick off.
The match gets underway and to be honest it's not a classic, hardly the advert for Premiership football that you want when you've brought along visitors from a foreign land.
All the action considered newsworthy happens within a few first half minutes:
Spurs have the clearest early chance. Barmby's short pass leaves Klinsmann with a clear run on Bozzie but the German uncharacteristically hesitates with his shot and the Australian keeper's legs come to Villa's rescue.
Steve Staunton is revelling in the midfield role handed to him by Little and it is his sweet left footed pass that puts Dean Saunders through, Saunders cuts inside, runs across an oddly tentative Austin, and powers his shot diagonally across the despairing Ian Walker. Saunders is in a rich vein of form, this is his fourth goal in six games.
Villa fans are still celebrating the goal when the match's key talking point occurs
Jurgen Klinsmann, chasing a long ball from Popescu, is clattered outside the penalty area by Bosnich. Properly clattered. It really does look horrendous and now the German is lying motionless on the turf. Jurgen is well known for making the most of situations where he may or not have been fouled, but this is usually accompanied by bouts of histrionics. He's still not moving. |
| Mark Bosnich surveys his handiwork |
"I was going to head the ball until Paul McGrath got in the way. Otherwise it would have been mine.
"I'm very sorry. and I told Jurgen so when I saw him at half time.”
It looks hideous at the time and concerns for the striker's welfare aren't eased as he has to be stretchered off and will take no further part in the game. We later learn, from the people with transistor radios, that he is suffering from a swollen nose, leading to a string of unsympathetic remarks about how big his hooter was in the first place.
Remarkably, and much to the chagrin of both Gerry Francis and the travelling Spurs contingent, Bozzie doesn't even get booked. He's booed throughout the rest of the match.
In the German's absence, Spurs push the lively Nick Barmby forward and they have a real go at us but it's our Ian Taylor who goes closest to troubling the scoresheet, heading just wide as Holte Enders begin trailing down for a half time pint.
It's a bit to and fro in the second half but we probably deserve our victory on the balance of play.
Paul McGrath forces Ian Walker into a spectacular save at one end while Popescu heads point blank straight at Bosnich at the other.
Somewhat ironically, Bozzie is booked for time wasting towards the end, and it's fairly obvious from the Spurs fans reaction that are in no mood to forgive.
A one-nil Villa victory then but all the talk is of the Bosnich/Klinsmann incident.
We meet back up with Aussies who ask if the atmosphere is always that acrimonious. It would be ungracious of me to point out to them that it was, in fact, an Australian that caused all the bother.
I point it out anyway.
Aston Villa 1 Tottenham Hotspur 0
Goal: Dean Saunders 18 mins
Referee: Robbie Hart
Competition: Premier League
Venue: Villa Park
Attendance: 40,017
Aston Villa: Bosnich; Barrett, McGrath, Ehiogu, Teale, Yorke (Charles, 89min), Taylor, Townsend, Staunton, Saunders, Johnson (Houghton,78).
Tottenham Hotspur: Walker; Austin, Calderwood, Mabbutt, Edinburgh, Popescu, Barmby, Campbell, Anderton, Klinsmann (Caskey, 26), Sheringham.
Postscript:
We fully expect the media to crucify Bozzie for the challenge on Klinsmann but something remarkable is happening at Selhurst Park which take the media spotlight off our keeper.Eric Cantona, reacting to taunts from a pillock in the crowd, has launched himself two-footed at the miscreant and all hell has broken loose. The unpredictable Frenchman will fill the front and as well as the back pages, which will spare the young Australian for the full glare of the venomous press.
Gerry Francis is no mood to let the matter drop and bleeds all over the papers for the next few days.The incident will, however, come back to haunt Bosnich in October 1996 in a match at White Hart Lane. The keeper reacts to Spurs chants of “Klinsmann, Klinsmann” with what he will claim is a Basil Fawlty homage, but what sadly looks far more like a Nazi Salute.
White Hart Lane is not the place to be doing that...
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