Holte Enders in the Sky

A bit of a different post to my usual ones to start off 2009's pictures, but one very close to my heart. For Xmas, Ellie's mum and dad gave me tickets for a tour of Villa Park, home of the mighty Aston Villa Football Club, which was excellent. Unfortunately for Ellie, they gave me two tickets so she got dragged along as well. The tour was fascinating (for me), and I'm really pleased with some of shots, because they show plenty of behind the scenes stuff - the kind of thing that normal fans like myself don't often get to see. For instance, we went into the press room, and saw where the managers do their post-match press conferences with the written press, as well as the best chairs and carpet I've ever seen!

We also got to walk through the players' lounge - not as posh as you may expect, but comfy all the same.

Next, we were shown around the hospitality parts of the Trinity Road stand - all wonderful facilities that would be great to go to once, but I think I'd still rather be out in a normal seat most of the time! I particularly liked the Villa-themed windows that were dotted around.

Of course we also got to see the pitch and the stands. This next shot is of the Holte End - the biggest and best behind the goal stand in the country. This stand holds 13,500 Villa fans, and is awesome on match day.

Then we got to the bits that really started to wake up the over-excited football fan in me by heading to the tunnel and dressing room areas.

Then, even better, a look inside the Villa dressing room. I even managed to get Ellie to be in a shot, sitting by the shirt of her favourite Villan, so she can't deny that she was on the tour now! I sat by Freddie's shirt, becasue unfortunately the number 17 of Salifou had not been hung up.(Apologies about the quality of the panoramic - it was shot hand held and in a rush etc etc, hence the very noticeable join.)

Then it was out of the tunnel, to pitch side and some more shots of the stadium itself.

There you have it. The tour is excellent, well worth going on. You find out all the info right here. It's almost worth it just so you can pretend to be on Match of the Day!