[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Derek Statham scores a late winner at Villa Park, 20th January 1982.

I recently found myself casting an eye over the highlights of our 2011-12 season on a quiet evening; our second year back in the Premier League, with Roy Hodgson at the helm, and a time which gave us plenty of results to remember.  I've always felt that many supporters have a selective memory when it comes to that season; they're happy to remember the great wins at St James's Park and the Britannia, the Molineux Massacre and our first Premier League triumph against Chelsea, but aren't quite so keen to relive the joys of, say, drawing 0-0 against Fulham at home without a single shot on target.  And I wouldn't blame them for wanting to skip over some of those dourer memories: the fact is that we had a poor start to that season, and an awful winter on home soil, which left us playing catch-up for a good two-thirds of the campaign.  Hodgson stamped a rigid, negative style on us, and he had his reasons for doing it - we conceded goals for fun the previous year, and he wanted to concentrate on plugging the leaks before sailing full steam ahead - but it's easy to forget just how disgruntled a lot of fans got by around mid-October, when results were average at best, and performances were depressingly bad.

And then, in the space of a fortnight, we beat Wolves at home and Villa away.  And how much better did everything feel?  The problems weren't over, but they were a lot more bearable.  Because for all the talk of win percentages, clean sheets and points-per-game - the cold hard facts which chairmen make their decisions on - for most supporters, football remains a game of emotion.  There are few emotions in the sport better than getting that all-important win over the neighbours, and few worse than getting found out by them.  Hodgson understood that.

Unfortunately, I think that Tim Sherwood understands it too.

It won't be the end of the world if we fail to gain a point or more at Villa Park on Saturday, and nor will it be the end for Pulis at Albion, but it would be a missed opportunity for him to win a bit more patience and goodwill from fans having their doubts.  I'm still hoping that in the long-term, we can get back to playing the style we caught glimpses of back in February against the likes of Swansea and West Ham, but right now it does feel like a long hard slog with little chance of anything better.  (Fun fact: those last ten words were actually the original Albion club motto).

The win that Hodgson delivered at Villa Park in 2011 remains our last victory on their turf - indeed, our only one in the last thirty years - and I have to admit I'm not particularly confident of a repeat performance; not just because of current circumstances, but also what generally tends to happen to us when we go there.  But if Pulis can get the players into gear for this one, and they can accomplish what (arguably) better Albion teams have failed to do at Villa Park in recent years, what a difference it could make in the weeks and months to come...

Paul Scharner celebrates his second-half winner at Villa Park, 22nd October 2011