Another morning of torrential rain down in Wiltshire today. Thom and I set off for Birmingham at 9.45 a.m. by way of Swindon, Gloucester and the M5 arriving in Aston at about 1 p.m. The weather brightened up and we left the rain behind north of Swindon. It was significantly colder in the Midlands and we needed to wrap up well as we walked the mile from where we parked the car to Villa Park to watch Southampton take on Aston Villa. We found a chippie at the back of Aston Manor Road Transport Museum/Witton Tram Depot (former clients of mine who have been forced to close the museum due to Birmingham City Council's insistence that they seek a commercial rent for the property - the old tram depot is still empty!) and got talking to a Saints fan. We arrived inside the ground an hour before kick-off and watched the QPR v Spurs game on a the tV (it ended in a 0-0 draw which is good for Saints). Villa Park is an impressive stadium and there were 32,500 in attendance today (with 3,000 Southampton fans). Saints played well in the first half and were 0-1 up at half time thanks to a dubious penalty which awarded and converted by Rickie Lambert. The controversy that Rodriguez had dived in the box took up much post-match discussion on radio and TV. Saints played less well in the second half but maanged to keep a clean sheet and so Southampton returned from Birmingham with 3 points and are now 15th in the table - with Newcastle, Wigan, Aston Villa, Reading and QPR all below them. If we finish in this place at the end of the season we will be happy. We arrived back in Winterslow at a little before 9 p.m. A long but enjoyable day.
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