One match left, moments becoming opportunities and it's in our hands

It's almost as if every match is bigger and more important that the last one, that was at the time, the biggest match of the season. Well, they don't get much bigger than this on Sunday. 

And as an Aston Villa fan closing in on 50 I've seen some big days for Aston Villa. I don't really remember the early 80s but I remember 1994 and 1996 and even 2001. I suspect a lot of you will have to do a search for 2001, but on that night at Villa Park, it was silverware. 

But for me, right now and in this moment with all things considered, this match on Sunday feels bigger than them all.

Don't get me wrong and I've written this many times, football is about winning things. It's about putting silverware in the cabinet but after everything we've been through the past few years, this feels like a turning point for Aston Villa.

It feels like a moment. And it's in our hands.

And for me, it comes down to the owners and the manager. Things feel different. I'm not saying it feels like we can win the League next season, I've not traveled back in time to the 1980s, but it feels like we're giving ourselves a chance at something.

But the 80s were fun. For those of you not old enough to remember, back then at the start of each season, there was a real belief that you could win the League and everything was possible and this existed not for everyone, but for most sides in the League. 

The thing and this is because I've had two cups of very strong coffee and I'm feeling as optimistic as I have in years, I believe if everything comes together in the right way, we can create moments that can become opportunities that can, if the stars align, take us to where we all want to be. 

And where we want to be isn't about actually winning silverware. We can't want for the outcome, it isn't that easy. We want to be in a place where those stars can align.

It's hard, very very hard. But it isn't impossible (did someone put something in my coffee?). Leicester won the Premier League in 2016 because everything aligned and Liverpool did it in 2020 for the same reasons. 

And everything aligning isn't about everything happening exactly as we want, it's about enough of the last thing getting passed on to the next thing and that momentum moving us forward. It's like how we can't wish for the moment where we pick up the trophy, but we can hope to make it to the final. 

It's so many things. It's about knowing when to nudge, push, pull or do nothing and on so many fronts. It's about those around us getting that wrong or just wrong enough. We also need luck and that something that can't be explained.

And again, I'm not saying we're going to win the League or silverware next season, but I'm saying as an Aston Villa fan, things feel like they are heading in the right direction for the first time in a very long time.

And if it didn't happen on Sunday we'd all be gutted, but we'd understand. The manager has had the job since November and because of the last manager he was not in the best position. That was down to the CEO.

However and this is where I will contradict myself because sometimes I like to do that. This match on Sunday is exactly what is meant about moments becoming opportunities and needing everything to align. It is about that one match at the end of a long season or tournament that everything rests on. 

Sunday is that opportunity that this manager and these players have created from all those moments since November 1st 2022.

For me, it feels just about right. We'll find out on Sunday afternoon.