Villa fans should stop being so selfish, yes 30k of them suffering but the rest of the country are having a great time at their expense.
I think as someone said above the problem lies in their perception of themselves, nobody expect Villa fans see them as a football force and havent done for a long time.
Its okay banging on about history, yes they won the european cup, fair play to them and if we did it i would be very proud, but they have never been a european force, they had that great night (which wish we had) but other than that, very little, its interesting they dont really talk to much about their european successes in front of Liverpool and Man United fans, wonder why that is!
Sadly most of my mates are Villa fans and there is a definite split, half are sensible, realistic, etc and the other half are, well, Villa fans! The ones who talk sense knew that it was going to be a tough season and they had no right to go straight up, the others though every team couldnt believe they were going to get to play Villa, thats the wrong attitude.
Yes Burton, Rotherham, etc and clubs of that ilk Villa is a big game because they havent played them much or at all on a league basis, clubs like Leeds, Forest, Derby, etc couldnt give a toss about playing Villa because they are a nothing club, would be the same if we went down, most clubs wouldnt be walking round with a boner because Albion were coming to town.
Some of the comments last night were hideous, along the lines of they shouldnt even be playing the likes of Barnsley, let alone losing to them, they need to accept they had been s**t for a long time and eventually last season caught up with them, they didnt have one bad game and got relegated, its been on the cards for ages.
Football is in cycles, in the 50's Albion and Wolves were two of the big boys, before that it was Burnley, Blackburn, Preston, etc 80's Liverpool, 90's Man United, 2000's Chelsea and Arsenal, the last few years Man City, the difference is in the last 30 years since Villa won the european cup, all those clubs above have competed for trophies, been around the top of the league on a regular basis, got into europe, Villa never kicked on from that cup win.
I think given time Steve Bruce will sort them out, he will steady the ship, in time get them competitive and probably promoted, however i hope the Dr is getting twitchy fingers and sacks him and gets a Sven or Avram Grant in!