Barrow v Aston Villa

[MisterPleasant]

Spot on from Villa, hopefully invested in the infrastructure of the club!
Put some of it towards a proper food hut at the away end and call it The Food Villa...

Very good

[Broughton Fan]

Great gesture by Villa,unlike some premiership clubs they understand the importance of the football pyramid,I wish you well Villa for the rest of the season and you have a good set of youngsters,we would be happy to take a couple on loan to give them valued match time and experience

[Jeeby]

What a great gesture, spot on club with a great bunch of fans. Let's hope we manage to wrangle a pre season friendly out if them, love to see them back up here.

[Methuselah]

A great gesture from Villa.Hopefully,we can now sort the training facilities for Mark Cooper and the team and also carry on improving the ground with which fantastic improvements have been completed in such a short time period,but for that people need to keep turning up through the good and bad,because eventually I think Mark Cooper will drive this club forward.He is a guy who wears his heart on his sleeve and is passionate about wanting our side to improve as you could see his frustration
in his interview.He is an impatient guy who wants our players to move to the next level and with the right facilities in place I am sure they will.

[Wintergreen]

Despite the comprehensive drubbing it has been a wonderful experience and maybe there is some soul in the Premier League after all.

[Pemblue1]

The defeat hurt but that’s such a generous gesture... big up the Villa? Now to get the training pitch sorted and respond with a big result against Bristol Rovers

[Grant Holte End]

Visiting Villa fan here folks, I'd be surprised if we were arrogant enough to think we could just pitch up with a youth team and think we can ease our way through. In the past, we've fielded a mix of youth and fringe squad players in the earlier cup rounds as do many clubs. This year will most likely be a bit different in so far as we have quite a few players returning from foreign tournaments, injury, the Olympics etc who will quite likely be ready for match minutes around the time of this tie. We will easily sell out any allocation we're given irrespective of distance etc, Holker St is a ground I'd love to visit but with 30k season ticket holders in front of me, no chance I'll get a ticket ! I'd like to see us forego our 45% ticket money share (as I believe we've done in the past). I'm sure you'll sell out no problem and hopefully its a TV game so more of us get to see it and you get a nice few quid.....good luck for the season, apart from this game !

I had a feeling we'd let you keep our share of the gate money, so I'm glad we did ! I think a fair few of us emailed the club to that effect so nice to think they may have listened, but in fairness our owners and CEO are usually pretty straight in their dealings with clubs further down the pyramid. All the best for the rest of the season !

[GazzaT]

Visiting Villa fan here folks, I'd be surprised if we were arrogant enough to think we could just pitch up with a youth team and think we can ease our way through. In the past, we've fielded a mix of youth and fringe squad players in the earlier cup rounds as do many clubs. This year will most likely be a bit different in so far as we have quite a few players returning from foreign tournaments, injury, the Olympics etc who will quite likely be ready for match minutes around the time of this tie. We will easily sell out any allocation we're given irrespective of distance etc, Holker St is a ground I'd love to visit but with 30k season ticket holders in front of me, no chance I'll get a ticket ! I'd like to see us forego our 45% ticket money share (as I believe we've done in the past). I'm sure you'll sell out no problem and hopefully its a TV game so more of us get to see it and you get a nice few quid.....good luck for the season, apart from this game !

I had a feeling we'd let you keep our share of the gate money, so I'm glad we did ! I think a fair few of us emailed the club to that effect so nice to think they may have listened, but in fairness our owners and CEO are usually pretty straight in their dealings with clubs further down the pyramid. All the best for the rest of the season !

Fantastic gesture by Villa but if you think your fans may have some influence is there any chance a few of you could e mail and suggest you send us a midfield playmaker and a 20 goal a season striker on a season long loan? TIA

[wittonwarrior]

Have heard we are to help you out with funds towards a new training complex. Think we all enjoyed ourselves once we got to Barrow - that A590 is something else and the M6 roadworks.

I think Tuesday shows the gulf that's been created between divisions. We beat Crewe a couple of seasons ago 2-0 with a slightly stronger team but would say our youngsters were outstanding on Tuesday and glad we didn't let off the gas. Big shout out to the sports bar and the pies in the ground and the relaxed stewarding/policing - quite a few of us were [SwearFilter].

[VillaFan]

Visiting Villa fan here folks, I'd be surprised if we were arrogant enough to think we could just pitch up with a youth team and think we can ease our way through. In the past, we've fielded a mix of youth and fringe squad players in the earlier cup rounds as do many clubs. This year will most likely be a bit different in so far as we have quite a few players returning from foreign tournaments, injury, the Olympics etc who will quite likely be ready for match minutes around the time of this tie. We will easily sell out any allocation we're given irrespective of distance etc, Holker St is a ground I'd love to visit but with 30k season ticket holders in front of me, no chance I'll get a ticket ! I'd like to see us forego our 45% ticket money share (as I believe we've done in the past). I'm sure you'll sell out no problem and hopefully its a TV game so more of us get to see it and you get a nice few quid.....good luck for the season, apart from this game !

I had a feeling we'd let you keep our share of the gate money, so I'm glad we did ! I think a fair few of us emailed the club to that effect so nice to think they may have listened, but in fairness our owners and CEO are usually pretty straight in their dealings with clubs further down the pyramid. All the best for the rest of the season !

Yes, I was one of the Villa fans that emailed our club and suggested we forego the 45%. I am a happy and a proud Villa fan that the club did so. Its great to see some heart in football.

[Dexter]

Great gesture by Villa and shows what a fabulous club they are! Thank you.

[Jim]

Yes, great gesture. Villa has always been a friendly club. I was at Aston Uni in the mid 60s and used to go to Villa Park or the Hawthorns, West Brom, on a Saturday, whoever was at home. It was the Tony Hateley era at Villa and Jeff Astle at West Brom. Always used to stand behind the goals on a very high, Kop style terrace.

[PRR]

Had an irrational dislike of Villa back when I was a kid. Along with Ipswich. No idea why.

Great gesture that and their fans were spot on too. Don't follow Premier League but will look out for their results, in penance for my younger self.

[pjdaly]

That's magnificent by Aston Villa and goes a little way to restoring faith that there is still some room for generosity in the money-saturated world of Premier League football. Massive thanks to anyone from Villa, fan or whoever, who happens to read this. It really is a breath of fresh air and huge credit goes to your club.

Jim (above) mentions the "Tony Hateley era" at Villa. I think it might have been mentioned earlier in this thread that Tony Hateley had a brief spell with Barrow in the mid-1970's under the management of Ron Yeats. I particularly recall travelling to the Giant Axe ground in Lancaster and coming away with a 1-3 win. As I remember, our scorers that sunny August evening were Hateley with a brace and Ian Gill (who I believe still lives in Barrow) with the other. Just off the top of my head, it might have been 1975? But as far as Villa is concerned I remember the 60's as being the "John Sleeuwenhoek era". My apologies if I have spelt that incorrectly and it is highly likely that I will have spelt it incorrectly! Naturally, the reason I remember this player is because as a young kid I was totally bamboozled by the unusual name. It was a thing of great curiosity! I do believe that he was a great servant to Villa and died at a tragically young age, only in his 40's I seem to think.

[blue nige]

I thanked Villa on twitter and the response i received from Villa fans was incredible !, we as a club need to try and build up links between ourselves and Villa !