Kerry Lenihan is a long suffering Aston Villa fan, having been a season ticket holder for the majority of her life. Currently residing in the Lower Holte, Kerry attends pretty much every game home and away, she even spent a good few years 'glory hunting' the Claret and Blue from the Big Smoke, if that's not madness/devotion, then I don't know what is, she insists she hasn't lost her mind just yet. Her soul however is in tatters. She's not much of a beer drinker, but won't say no to a Jager or two (is what Kerry said, I'd say more like three or four ha)

Well it’s been a long time since I penned one of these, but here we go ‘Leicester – The Away Day Experience’. Bit of a strange one to begin, being as I was completely sober on Sunday, shocking I know. I even got a later train than normal in an attempt to avoid the breakfast bombs, madness. However normal service resumed when we arrived at The Barley Mow, the police had tried to veer us towards The Hind, but *insert something about Aston Villa doing what they want*.
By Midday the pub was rammed, and the Villa faithful in full voice. The jukebox provided a decent backing track to the sporadic Villa chants. I’m not sure about you but I always relate Ska, and Britpop to football. There was this random old guy in there, not kidding at least 70 years old, Villa of course, but none of us knew where he’d come from. He cleared an area at the back, ran and skidded on his bucket hat across the floor, before taking his top off and starting a round of ‘Tops off if you love Villa’, bizarre, but we rolled with it. Turns out he was a bit of a catalyst for another level of madness, as it got a bit crazy after that. Chants rang out, some old (Carew, Savo, Yorke), some new (you must have seen the Rudy one by now), some unrepeatable (I’m a lady, y’know). I did feel a bit sorry for the kid who vommed before we’d even left the pub, great aim, straight down Bubble’s leg… ooops.
Personally I think the pre-match session is usually the best part of the day. Obviously if we win – which is quite rare away – fever pitch, but well you know the ending…
Managed to bag ourselves a police escort part way to the ground – ker-ching. Think they got a bit of headache though, I blame Vic, as they toddled off the other way eventually.
Standing (no-one sits at Away games) next to Cat does have some benefits… he’s pretty good at starting off the chants. Some catch on quite easily ‘Joleon Lescott, he’s one our own’ – the irony that this time last year he’d been hit by a bus. Some not so well ‘Jack Grealish, you knowwww, he’s better than Ronaldo’, one guy a couple of rows back really didn’t like this one, shouting and swearing at us, so when Jack pinged in a beauty about 60 seconds later, well you’ve got to laugh, haven’t you? When I say laugh, I mean let out a high pitched scream, throw yourself down a few rows of chairs, and draw blood from the guy next to you. Scenes.
Half time. The usual rush to try get served a below par beer while wanting to join in the concourse shenanigans. Except there was no beer for me. High spirits, high hopes, full voices… the crowd was bouncing.
Second half. 15 mins later, absolute pearler from Gil. The stand erupted, not that I could see, I was bottom of a 15 or so person pile on (and I wonder why I’m so bruised the day after). ‘Carles, Carles Gil, Carles Gil, Carles, Carles Gil, na, na, na’, it was electric.
Then it all went wrong. Less said about that the better.
We’re pretty used to witnessing substandard displays on the pitch now, throwing away leads, and conceding sloppy goals are sadly something Villa seem to do quite regularly, some sort of backwards infamous party trick, I guess. The pain doesn’t get much easier though, the crushing feeling of walking out of a ground knowing we were so close yet so far, again, is nothing short of soul destroying. Usually the pubs are still fairly lively post-match, however The Barley Mow was shut and there were only about 10 of us left in the Spoons, not that I blame everyone for wanting to get home as quickly as possible. Big week ahead… #BombsAway

Kerry can be found on Twitter @Kerrylynn21 Give her a follow. Thanks Kerry from all at CABA