Yes, of course it’s important, but not as important as it seems to be for the blues fans.
Mind you, I suppose with a history like they have, beating the Villa is about as good as it gets for them isn’t it?
You have to pity the supporters, as my opinion says the club are not comparable to us in any way whatsoever.
Trophies, crowds, ground, whatever you care to mention.
But still they try to make out they are and for me, the banter with blues fans I know is great.
It’s what makes the game so extra special.
I call them scum, but it’s only in retaliation for what they call us, I assure you.
It’s all part of the game and I’m on record as saying it wouldn’t be good to see them go down, for Midlands footy in general.
That said, it’s always a great feeling when we beat them and while I know I really ought to know better, as you never know, so I think we’re going to whup them.
What do we know then?
Grealish, Jedinak and Lansbury are all ready for selection.
Gabby is apparently still doubtful with his calf injury, although it wouldn’t surprise me if he makes the bench, just to wind the noses up when he’s jogging up and down.
Would Bruce do such a thing? Maybe not, out of respect to the blues. But then again, anything that might give us an edge etc.
I’d expect Grealish to maybe make the bench. Jedinak too, but I’ll be surprised if Jedinak gets in ahead of Whelan.
There’s no point risking both defensive mids in the same game and it would be too negative anyway.
I don’t see changes for the sake of it, just yet, unless Bruce decides he wants to beef us up in the middle.
blues have Carl Jenkinson, David Stockdale and Nsue, all out, injured. Steve Cotterill can decide between Lukas Jutkiewicz or Isaac Vassell as the central striker and it’s expected that Jota will return to the starting eleven.
Not that I care a toss about them.
So how do I see it going?
Well, we probably know what we’re going to get and it won’t be pretty. It never is.
Both managers should have the teams wound right up for this and it’s more about our players keeping their heads and not doing anything stupid.
In fact it might be a good tactic to see if we can get one of their players sent off. Dirty I know and not my normal type of thinking, but it’s the blues, isn’t it?, where it’s no holds barred.
Let’s face it, on paper we make whatever team blues put out, a joke in comparison.
And apart from their pacey attackers, they have very little to offer against us. Okay, they have home advantage, but that really ought to be the only thing in their favour.
I’ve seen it said that they were awful against Millwall too.
But this is a derby, where anything can happen. It’s a great leveller and all that…
And let’s not forget they beat Cardiff too, so won’t necessarily let us “duff them up”, with the likes of Whelan and Hutton handing out a bit of rough stuff.
So I’m certainly not counting my chickens.
Hence while I’m fairly confident, so I don’t think it’s going to be a whupping at all and certainly don’t expect the scoreline in the picture.
I’d like to think we can do a lot better, but I’m going to go for a cagey 1-0 to us.
The bad news on my part is that I’ve committed to going back to work tomorrow and I totally forgot it’s a 12 o’clock kick off.
There’s no way I’m going to be able to skank another day off already, so how the hell am I going to watch this?
If I buy a Sky pass, will I be able to record it and watch later I wonder?
I have AVTV. How soon will they show the game on there?
If anyone knows, please tell me.
UTV
While I wish you were right, Benno, The problem is, we have 3 strikers and 3 goals between them. We have a winger and a midfielder who have more goals than them by themselves. Even add Gabby’s one goal and that’s 4 in 4 and still Adomah and Hourihane have more goals by themselves. Kodjia can’t stay fit, as he sprained his ankle, and knowing ankle injuries as I have done myself, they’re incredibly difficult to get over and easy to re-injure. We need a striker that can score, and while we can claim Kodjia and Davis were unfortunate to hit the woodwork, hitting the woodwork isn’t good enough when they haven’t scored. if they’ve each had 4-5 goals already, fine, but they don’t even have that combined. A striker and a creative player are definitely needed if we plan on going up.
We missed a trick not going for Asombalonga in my opinion.
Important to win tonight. They have a weakened team and are on a poor run. We should be capable of taking control of games like these from the off. We need to get on the front foot, and not sit back. Not Bruce’s style but he needs to show he can adapt.