Where's Ya Trolley?

Just got back from pre season friendly no2 (if you think this going a bit far, my mother is going all the way to Utrecht in Holland for no3 on Saturday...), this time against Walsall who play two divisions below the Villa.

It started off a lovely warm evening, still light until 8.30 or so. I like going to games at this time of year, when you can just wear your Villa shirt without fourteen layers of fleece over the top, five pairs of socks, and a balaclava. (Of course, it began to tip down with rain with thirty minutes to go, but what do you expect? This is England.)

Anyway, Walsall is a cute but tiny ground: the Away section is right behind the goal, so close to the pitch you could actually smell the Ralgex on the players as they warmed up. Attendance was about 8,000, about half of whom were Villa fans. Very long queue for pre-game pies and Bovril.Game was OK - it would have been very embarrassing if Villa had been beaten by Walsall again, as they were this time last year, but fortunately Villa were 2-0 up at half time so fans could indulge in some reasonably optimistic singing: "Gavin McCann, he's better than Zidane..."

But the highlight of the evening was when an old man in a red t-shirt came sprinting along the narrow walkway between the front row of the stand and the pitch... pushing a shopping trolley full of orange juice. He was probably the fastest mover on the pitch all night, so of course the whole stand told David O'Leary to "Sign him up" (And when later spotted, sans trolley, the whole stand roared in unison, "Where's Ya Trolley?"....)