Whereas I was totally gutted that we lost to QPR at home, now I’m quite sanguine that we’ve lost to Bolton.
Yes, I totally agree that the conditions didn’t suit us in the slightest.
But it’s no excuse when you’re supposedly fighting for an automatic promotion place and you simply have to perform, whatever you’re up against.
Bolton’s goal was more down to our poor defending than anything else, but would you really begrudge them the win?
I certainly wouldn’t and thought they did enough to justify it. The same as QPR.
And it’s this that makes it so disappointing.
This was our first back to back defeat since August, according to Sky and that says it all.
We’ve bottled it, just when it’s most important.
We’ve blown 6 points when we needed them most.
Just when Fulham slipped too.
Anyone want to bet that Derby might get something against Cardiff tomorrow?
It wouldn’t surprise me; but it matters not now.
So second place is totally out of the question and we have to face the play-offs.
I’ve seen quite a few fans say that this was always our target for this season anyway and that’s fair enough; but I do wonder why, Wolves apart, we shouldn’t be in that top two?
How the hell have Cardiff beat us to it?
You can cite Warnock (who I actually called for, pre-Bruce), but this is a question for when the season’s over.
Onto the match then and it bored me witless.
I couldn’t see the bleeding ball, even after the change.
Why wasn’t it bright orange, like it used to be?
It just seemed that Bolton wanted it more and as much as we tried, we didn’t look like scoring in a month of Sundays.
The whole team looked poor and not really up for it, but I have to single out Hourihane, I’m afraid.
He was taken off and surely now has to be “rested”. His overall form has been terrible, even though he’s been given plenty of time to turn it around.
I won’t mention Bjarnasson. Ok, I will. He was terrible.
But I could say the same about the whole team.
Play-offs it is then and we need to get this bad run out of our system.
What worries me, is that if we can’t beat the strugglers, will we be able to beat our peers?
It’s only a game.
🙁
That exactly how I felt badger, no excuse is needed they was mentally not on the same planet as Bolton, so who do you blame?, is it Bruce or the players themselves. I’m now ready to walk away over the annoyance of that game, People can come up with different reasons to me it was heart breaking result..again there is no excuse for that game, both had to fight the elements we didn’t .
The Irish bloke who played for Wolves (Keith something) who was on the panel nailed it. “If you could choose there isn’t one player on the Bolton team that you would pick over a Villa player. Bolton had a plan but Villa had no plan”
Yes, I heard that too.
We all know it’s not that simple.
Otherwise Wimbledon would never have won the FA cup.
No excuses though; Bolton wanted it more, to my mind.
Poor display but conditions were awful. I think Bruce has to take the blame for Tuesday for not freshening up the team. Today came down to the players not been able to deal with the weather. Although to me that was a game suited for Jedinak not hourihane.
I was saying the same thing that away to Bolton it was crying out for Jedinak. If Bruce had made changes at home to QPR instead I’m sure Jedinak would have played and probably for me instead of Hourihane. I know he was on the bench but I think he was more emergency back up in case Terry or Chester got injured as no other defensive options. Overall regardless of the weather a really poor game with not one player deserving of praise. Picking up on what Badger said about the ball, I really struggled to make out where it was. I didn’t really see their goal and had to move closer to TV to see ball. Not a luxury you get at the game. It took too long to change ball from white to yellow, not that it made much difference. Who designs these balls. Orange would have been better or a bright pink or red. Can’t they put a fluorescent coating on ball? Comes to something when I’m having a rant about ball colour. 🏐👀
I turned it off after an hour. Partly because of the piss poor performance but also due to the fact that i couldn’t see the ball. I may as well followed it on the internet ( which is what I did ) Performances aside, it seems that the weather has become an enemy. It got the original QPR postponed when they were there to be shot at after their mauling by Forest ( Dont worry, a fully fit Grealish will be back for the rescheduled one , we all said ) and now it made an absolute lottery of last nights match. I’d actually allowed myself to think of automatic promotion. Never again, should’ve realised that this is Villa and we never do things the correct way. Just add this to the long list of let down’s we’ve suffered over the last 10 years ( O Neil and Lerner have a fucking lot to answer for ) !!!
bolton away was always going to be a nightmare. losing to QPR was the game to throw the toys out. bolton are fighting for their lives while they are quality wise lacking they always give 110% and add in the weather conditions it was always playing into their game.
i said preseason we will finish top two. we have been third for a while. but honest truth is a poor start and injuries, plus we are not good enough on most days to acquire top two.
i wouldn’t have played thor yesterday in the position he played. simple reason i seen bolton play and they always hit long to main striker. so thor will have had a rough time shielding defence with a big strong forward. much more suited to jedi. but 99% of fans before game wanted thor they really shouldnt moan about this choice,
play off where never the desired outcome. but while this lottery exist its the route which we should take serious. its a way into the money and momentum winning this, will help villa during the start of next season.
reality is we are not as good as wolves and cardiff they are more reliable they are able to play against different styles and conditions and win. we will deserve what we get as will all clubs
We still have some tough games to come. Cardiff, Millwall, Derby.. we really need to re-group as wr could quite easily fall to 7th in a few weeks.
Couldn’t see the ball either – why bother with goal line technology VAR etc when they can’t even design a ball you can see in snowy conditions – oh for the good old days when men were men and Sky was just a distant nightmare!
Agreed the conditions didn’t suit us and Bruce’s indecision and failure to make changes against QPR influenced another set of poor team decisions. I suggested that Hourihane be ‘rested’ after the Wolves game because, apart from his couple of goals, he hasn’t done enough for me recently.
We all wanted automatic promotion but after the woeful start weren’t we bottom after three games then play offs became the new target. Still all to play for but we have to find a run of form taking us into the play off dames. History tells Us it’s the form team that gets the third place not the highest finisher.
Duh *games not dames!
there are fans on other sites. fuming at other villa fans for suggesting we should turn our attentions to play offs. really dire. yeah we are all upset. but lets not go overboard. iam sure everybody wanted to get promoted top two. but that looks to have failed. so we have to look to the play offs. if we fook that up then we have to look forwards to another season in championship. that’s the reality of the situation.
fans saying the conditions were a factor. it was true. but some fans say bolton were playing the same conditions, that is also true. but bolton PLAYED them conditions better. their game doesn’t need the ball being able to roll on the grass as much as villa did. their game has been kicking long to a main striker and playing off him, less things can go wrong with this tactic, but villa tried to pass the ball. conditions were not suited for this.
had it not snowed and swirling high winds, we might have still lost the game. but we would have had more off a chance to win than we did.
I still think, wrongly or rightly It’s MY opinion, we’ll still get top 2. Admittedly it’s going to be tougher than tough but like I have said before until it is mathematically impossible I’ll keep on believing. One thing for sure is we have to go for it, no more slip ups.
One thing I have noticed though, for any superstitious fans on here is the play off final date. 😉
Keep the faith.
UTV
cardiff game is called off which villa should have been. so at least they will get to play their game on a pitch worthy of their efforts. i think the international break come at the right time. probably not for the players of staff but fans.
cardiff are in the driving seat for the last automatics, while its not forgone conclusion they will win enough of their games left. they might still hit the wall like the marathon runners. fulham and villa are still in good position to pounce.
i think we shouldn’t fear the playoff’s. this is part of the game. back in 87 i am sure we finished third back then. if so we would have had to do playoffs back then had that been the rule. play offs came in to add more razzmatazz keeps the excitement going right to the end.. winners of this play offs deserve the promotion. where finishing third shouldn’t really guarantee anything
Are you being serious Nath?
If so, why not take it a step further?
Play the whole season as normal, then disregard it all and all teams enter a lottery play-off to see who gets promoted, just like a cup competition.
The play-offs make a mockery of a league, imo and the Derby-QPR play-offf showed this perfectly, as it was a travesty that Derby walked that game, yet QPR had one shot and one goal and went on to win.
Promotion should be earned over a season and not a couple of games, it’s as simple as that.
I tend to agree with you Badger. The playoffs are yet another Sky money spinning stunt. If we have playoffs then all the top six teams should be involved with first and second getting byes into the ‘semi finals’ – see how popular they are then!
somebody posted somewhere else. our final 8 games look //////// when are these fans going to realise it doesn’t matter what we think hard or easy, its the game itself that matters and we cant call shit. or we all would be winning the coupon week on week.
the amount of times championship struggler’s beat tophalf of the table pretenders. compare this to top 7 in premiership. they rarely lose to other teams bottom half. this is shown better in odds on coupons they are like 2/9 on when villa played qpr they were never that odds on not even close.
NATH Quote…” there are fans on other sites. fuming at other villa fans “…
Yes some even swore…LOL
Villa fans were fighting each other on the way home…and not for the 1st time this season either…
i don’t like to say it, but its what i heard and what i seen. we all should be together. whether we have different views, we all have one thing in common our love for a football team. about the fights i havent seen with my eyes but heard about this. about the oneline abuse i have seen and its disgusting,
villa fans expressing their views whether right or wrong should be respected. but loads of other villa fans abusing them and it looks like mainly because they were trying to look on the bright side. its crazy
pot and kettle comes to mind with that statement especially on this site
you can talk.
said bruce was wrong from day 1 yet got loads abuse on here, a few good results some think sun shines out bruce arse
jvillan posts is a sign, villa lost and Birmingham win. time to comeout from under his bridge. hey thats banter same shit i put up with from other posters but hey i don’t whine about it
jvillan you probably get that abuse because you abused others when they tried to back the managers you slate. you could slate players and managers alike with getting abuse. but you started a slating other fans who supported everything you didn’t.
like the lambert days, some fans just support villa through and through, but you was in the flock calling them names like lamberts sheep or sumat like it, fans don’t decide on managers. clubs having too many managers like us are generally the ones in dire states. i saw some finances on villa, most of the money wasted went on managers compensation and loses player transfers
and we where right about lambert, i didnt start the abuse just responded with like,some fans think by backing the manager they are better fans than the ones that can see that bruce lambert mcleish are not good enough manager, and certain players are not fit to wear the shirt no matter how much effort they put in but then again we are not all blinded by stupidity
So JV – given your closing remark are you claiming that anyone with a differing opionion to you is stupid?
Never mind Hitch, next time I’m down Villa Park I will have a look. Err the sunshine out of Bruce’s arse.
@JV
Have to say that I don’t like abuse on sites like these but in your case I’ll make an exception. I’ve got zero time for trolls like you who can only be bothered to post when something goes wrong.
You’ve added nothing of value to any discussion you’ve ever posted on. Just go away
Bruce might not be everyone’s cup of tea and there have been decisions he has made which I can’t comprehend, but he has managed to turn a club in turmoil into one that is moving forward. I think trying to compare managers is pointless, because there are always those with potential but wouldn’t cope with a club our size. A few on here mentioned Gary Monk when he joined Leeds, now look at both. Look at Sunderland with Coleman and then you realise Bruce did well there. Whether he can manage a big club in the premier league is still an unknown but if he gets us promoted he deserves a good crack at it. If he doesn’t get promoted this season I will take the view that he has us moving in the right direction and next season we would get promoted. I’ve come to the conclusion that a change of manager will probably set us back, and do we need another upheaval of coaching staff and players? I know there are people who would be delighted if he went now and this site is great that we all have different opinions, but like nath said we all have the same passion which is Villa.
Completely agree Holte66, we need to look back and realise what a turnaround the club has made this season, we are unlikely to make auto promotion, but JT leading the lads out at Wembley, thats nothing to get negative about UTV.
Think you are getting ahead of yourself. We need to win a home/away two leg semi before getting to Wembley. I agree we probably won’t blow a play off place but I’m not seeing a nailed on play off final.
i would also prefer the turnarounds at Cardiff, Wolves and probably Fulham at the moment. Or is that just being negative?
Anyway on a lighter note god to see that John Gregory is still enjoying himself.
Now in India he’s only managed the team that won the Indian Super League –
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/43459335
Good on yer John!
It is a kick in the teeth to finish below Cardiff as is almost certain now, they don’t have better players than us individually but have kept momentum bar one losing run (where we’re now having our 3rd run of poor results).
It’s telling we never made the points back we lost to them in the disastrous first month of the season.
I just can’t see us getting past Fulham in a play off scenario (or Boro truth be told) – even if you fancy us to do something its just too risky – one stupid red card or refeering decision can screw you over. It is in many ways a part lottery and one given our resources Bruce should never have got us into.
Nevertheless, my opinion win, lose or draw never changes – this club can do some much better in the managerial department given the advantage we have over the rest of the division.
cardiff havent got the better players than us looking at theirs and ours. but that is a opinion i have and others have. but that opinion is wrong. cardiff have proved themselves better, warnock has got the maximum effort out of his team / players individually and used the system that suited their players. will they see out the season in second. i believe they will,they also deserve too.
they could falter but that will be because they see the finishing line and become nervous. they do have tough games left. but we should concentrate on ourselves. we have to forget the two last games. they have gone now and are missed opportunities.
if we end up in the play offs which is more than likely. i have no fear in any teams we might face. villa are capable of turning over anybody in this division.