So with me worrying somewhat that we might not be able to sustain our run against the Blues, it would seem we actually performed really well, with us dominating the game and grabbing a well-deserved 3 points that kept the momentum going.
The good news for me was the continuing fact that we don’t need to rely on the strikers these days and it seems goals are likely to come from any of our players, which is always a good sign.
I won’t harp on about that game, as although it was a great result, so it’s gone and we move on to another very tough test against Fulham, at the Cottage.
Squad news first and Albert Adomah has a tight hamstring, while Jack Grealish suffered a knock on the calf.
Both are quite a bit doubtful, but my guess is they’ll be itching to play and probably will do, unless they’re over-ruled.
It’s amazing how differently players feel, when they’re playing well and the team’s on a roll.
Fulham will have a late look at captain Tom Cairney, after a niggling knee injury.
Otherwise, both squads are pretty much ok.
It’s interesting to note that many of us see Fulham as perhaps the major threat to the Villa taking second place in the league.
It’s a view that I concur with, as they’re playing some nice footy and have won their last six games at home.
But I wonder how many of us knew that Fulham face six of the top eight Championship teams in the next three weeks?
I certainly didn’t and if they come through that particularly well, they’ll definitely be challenging.
I’m minded to think that it’s a big ask though and it may be a chance for us to gain some more daylight between us and them, regardless of what happens tomorrow.
If you’d asked me a few months ago how we’d get on in this fixture, I’d probably have said that we have very little chance and the draw would be the best we could hope for.
But following on from the “Can you see it now?” post, I now think our chances are better than that.
While I don’t think we’re anywhere near perfect, we’re a much more cohesive outfit these days.
There’s a resilience about the defence and the team seems much more “together” than it’s been for a very long time.
All in all, it makes us very tough to beat.
But that doesn’t mean that we should sit back and try to nick the point, at all.
Fulham have the guile to unlock the tightest of defences and they will, if you let them.
Fortunately, I think Bruce has a lot more confidence in the team these days and will not shackle the side.
The players are brimming with confidence too and I’m sure they’ll try to take it to Fulham, as best they can.
If we can keep them on the back foot, I’d be quite confident of us actually winning this.
But I’m not going to take that extra step in predicting a win.
This is a really tough game, I reckon and if we can nick the win, it might actually be a game-changer in my outlook.
But given that I can’t pick my nose, let alone the right result, I’m going for the draw.
I suspect we’ll concede.
So 1-1 it is.
And I’d happily take that.
Charlie Nicholas saying we are all over the place. Hopefully we can regroup and get back on course next Tuesday against Preston. Another tough one especially if we start with same team as today.
Always going to be a challenge losing our top scorer and the best mid fielder in the Championship. Most teams would struggle in similar circumstances.
Not the end of the world – just hope we can get them back quickly.
Adam, my only concern is why Green wasn’t the natural replacement for Adomah – is he still not match fit?
Last i heard he was scoring a few in the u23s a couple of weeks ago and not heard of any new injury concerns so its a bit strange really. He offers a lot imo.
I’m as mystified as all of us as to why Green didn’t play , I just hope Tuesday’s game he puts his thinking cap on and play player’s that wants to win at all cost.
If we start back pedalling now it’s the play off at best.
Keinen Davis subbed on in the 88th minute… Why? Were 2 down after 71mins..Bring him on with at least 15 mins or dont bother imo.
its not that we lack a threat, without grealish. but grealish is miles better than this level. he makes players around him look 10 times better. he carries them lol sadbuttrue.
i thought tuanzebe was decent. he lost his man for their1st but other than that he was decent. in fact we were well in this until they scored the 1st. then unfortunately once you go behind to fulham you need to be better than us to get back in. we offered little trying to play the same way as if we had grealish.
should have played davis and played off him
Bugger. Looks like we were wrong Hitch.
Roll on Tuesday!
Keep on being positive Bum Bum – we got blind sided by the injuries to Adomah and Grealish
Well he needs to look at that game again and again and understand what he put out was not good enough , I look at it like this , young players need to show their skills and be played, all our youngsters are ready to go in, stop holding them back , its the sign that you are trying to play safe.
not sure all the young players are ready, just want to point out mckirdy and suliman both dropped to the old div three to get game time. both are not starting yet. mckirdy is only getting on late in games. suliman has also not see much action if any,
green may not be ready to 1st team fitness if you cant do the 90 minutes some managers dont like to have them on the bench. maybe he is close but wasnt risked.
the length of his injury would also play a part. if it was a long time they will want him to play a few under 23 to get his strength back, without him being stretched to much too soon. best to have him assessed and eased back in
Disappointing but not completely unexpected. It may well have been a different game with Adomah and Grealish but we should still have had enough to get a draw. Sometimes we look a bit frail, and it also looks like we take a cautious approach to games against the better teams.
We just need to get back to where we were quickly, and keep pushing on. Ha! I sound like McLeish and Lambert – we regroup and go again!!
I must be generation’s apart , when your in your 20 s plus you should have learnt the trade, like my grandson last year under 12s 56 goals, this year 20 plus, he knows where the goals are , your all the same size on a football pitch and the game is to win, to be honest I don’t see that at Villa , the only one that runs his socks off is the youngest player, he makes players move with his passing and chances in creating them., that was not there today.
Andre Green is suffering with a hamstring problem – again – hencechis no show today. Looks like our injury hoodoo is about to hit us again at a critical time.
*hence his
This is such a competitive league that I knew our run probably wouldn’t go on for much longer. Losing away to Fulham is no humiliation but it’s what we do next that will tell us whether we’ll stand a chance of automatic promotion or not.
If they can bounce back on Tuesday then I honestly think we’ll go all the way.
Not long back from Craven Cottage. Fulham are an excellent side as I expected, they for me are the clear favorites for 2nd and I think they’ll finish comfortably ahead of us – Jokanovic is a class above our management and staff I’m afraid to say.
First half was pretty even but they dominated the possession as you’d expect. 2nd half Fulham dominated from start to finish and should really have scored and won by more than 2.
Yet again against a top side in this league we were nowhere to be seen. Credit to the players, we’ve had a great run but even despite that we’re still not in the automatics. The club has gambled on promotion and IMO we’ll fall just short and that will be a financial disaster waiting to happen, Hope I’m wrong.
Special shout out to the fans today who were excellent, apparently 7000 there. I was in the “neutral end” and even that was 75% plus Villa. Outstanding support.
As some said, it was likely we were going to lose. Fulham are on a great run like we were and were the second most inform team as we are and they were at home. It was the hardest game we have left, with the other big teams pretty much all being at home. I will question however the strength of the actual team though. Losing Adomah and Grealish while two of our biggest players, shouldn’t have that kind of effect, should it? Our fans like claiming we have the strongest squad, but if we lose a couple players and we start not being able to score, that’s a problem.
But we’re only 2 points off 2nd again, with 14 games left.
Andrew – against pretty much any other side (other than perhaps Wolves) I would agree with you but losing two of our best players who combine with such devastating effect against a very good Fulham side at a ground which has never been kind to us then ………..
for all you die hard villa fans that can only see black and white. don’t get too upset. the game yesterday was lost when grealish was not playing. he is the focal point to all our play. you can remove hogan adomah and we can cope but you remove grealish and you stop villa playing completely.
the game yesterday was decided by the first goal. after that yes fulham were better but that because we tried to chase the game. without anybody able to pick out a decent aggressive pass.
grealish makes other players around him look better than they really are. its obvious isn’t it he creates spaces that are not there without him. he passes through balls that other players cant see.
blues whole game plan was to hurt grealish and that was because they know we are a miles better side with, than without him. mission completed by the blues
I agree with nath in that one player crucial to us getting promoted is Grealish. If he plays for rest of the season then we have a great chance. Our opponents know he is the one who makes us tick. He nearly always has two players around him, creating space for the likes of Adomah and Hogan. The biggest difference in Grealish since his injury is his work rate. We have to get back to winning ways on Tuesday because teams around us will drop points. No reason why we can’t get another winning run going.
that is 100% true about the players he attracts around him. which is the reason our other players have space, when grealish is waving his wands.
this affect is only a part of the reason grealish is so affective. he also delivers in aggressive types passes his angles he creates with give and goes. also runs, going past opposition players as if they are road cones
You said that better than I did Nath, that is what I’m saying, surely we have another youngster with out saying he has to learn his trade, most in our team are in their late 20 and early 30s , if we hit injuries slot a runner in the team it has to help in some way.I wonder how many will miss the boat in the youngsters and never given a chance, to me its playing safe ,or taking a chance.
green and ohare are similar in many ways to grealish but are not at his level. i think green is close really close. needs games and these injuries are holding him back. he must have had a injury yesterday as hitch said. otherwise he would have been ideal replacement.
ohare needs games too, but not at villa. he needed to go out on loan. i cant understand keeping him at villa in the under23’s.
i really think they should have gone back to the target man yesterday. if you lose grealish to injury, we lose good field position, lose good movement and you lose opposition fearing you.
we needed to go more direct with davis and maybe hogan playing off him. concede you will lose midfield battle, you go longer and turn fulham around with balls in behind,
he probably decided against this because of lack of good width but they need to work on a plan b playing without grealish
We were in this game until the second goal. Which was a freak one. The test now is if we can go on another run. Fulham and the teams below us have to play each other. We need another run of 7 wins which is possible and we’ll sew up second. Shouldn’t need to rely Grealish as we were top 6 before he got fit again. Adomahs knack of getting goals on the other hand is a huge miss.