John Townley and Captain Phillips after landing in Berlin
John Townley and Captain Phillips after landing in Berlin
It will never be lost on me just how lucky I am to cover our beloved Aston Villa in its most exciting era for decades.
From Warsaw to Leipzig and everywhere in between, supporters have been making memories to last a lifetime following Unai Emery's Villa around the continent. Some of my favourite conversations have been with those fans who were there in 1982 to witness the greatest day in the club's 150-year history, but no matter which generation of supporter I speak with, everybody has a unique story to tell.
That was no different on Sunday afternoon, when I had the most surreal 'spotting' yet. Indeed, it came 35,000 feet in the sky en route to Berlin via Amsterdam. I was always quite a nervous flyer, but since taking around a dozen flights to cover Villa over the last 18 months, I don't mind taking the window seat anymore.
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But when the Captain left the cockpit and made his way down the cabin, it drew my attention. I was even more confused when the Captain reached over and greeted me with 'Mr Townley?'.
I was put at ease almost instantly by a big smile and compliments about our podcast: Claret & Blue! Captain Phillips (not Tom Hanks) took some 30 Villa fans over from Birmingham to Berlin earlier on Sunday and enjoyed some craic with them, before flying me over to the German capital in the afternoon.
After noticing my name on the passenger lists, Captain Phillips and I had a quick chat about the Villa at cruising altitude before continuing our conversation after disembarking in Germany. There he told me he's from a big family of Villa supporters and he braved Storm Darragh to watch Villa beat Southampton from the North Stand on Saturday. It's one of a few matches he can get to because of his work schedule.
After taking a couple of snaps with Captain Phillips, I then met another big Villa fan, Jonathan Collett, inside the train station. He kept me company as we headed out to Leipzig, with two stops in between. We arrived at our first stop, Berlin Ostkreuz, with about 30 seconds to spare before our train over to Sudkreuz.
Then, with two minutes to get from platform 11 to platform three, we managed to complete our whistle-stop tour of the capital before heading to Leipzig. Jonathan told me on the way that his 97-year-old father has his notifications on for Birmingham Live to get his Villa fix.
More than 2,000 Villa fans are in Leipzig today as Emery's side go in search of a victory which could lift them back into the top eight positions of the Champions League league phase table.
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Aston Villa face RB Leipzig in the Champions League on Tuesday, December 10. The game will be broadcast on Amazon's Prime Video and can be streamed free by signing up for an Amazon Prime 30-day free trial.
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