Well, Steve Bruce will feel justified in playing that weakened team in the FA cup and fair play to him, as today’s result says he got it right.
Forest play some nice football, but they totally lack when it comes to effectiveness.
And as much as they played the better footy in the first half, according to all the stats, so we countered them with what was a very solid performance from the defence and midfield.
I have to be honest and say I found the first half bored me witless, as apart from the goal, which came against the run of play and Terry’s header, we created nothing.
That said, Forest did nothing either.
The second half, however, made for much better viewing, with both sides opening up more.
While I still felt Forest looked the better side when they crossed the centre line, so they were still pretty ineffective.
Whereas we had that bit of a difference in a superb cross from Snodgrass, combined with some really nice movement from Scott Hogan to nod in the winner.
Add to that that our defence was very solid and we frustrated the Forest players with some old tricks like deliberately getting your body in the way and totally denying the opposition player a fair chance, but drawing the foul.
I hold my hands up and say I don’t like to see that sort of cynical play at all, but we’ve had it done against us enough times and I’m beginning to accept that it’s part of the game.
Add in the slowing the game down and a bit of time-wasting and it was all good.
If you like that sort of thing.
I say that as someone who’s brain blows a fuse when it’s done against us.
So all in all, very professional and I’m certainly not going to complain, as we got the points that keep us on a roll.
As was pointed out by the comms, we have what would seem some very favourable games coming up, where we might be able to apply some serious pressure to the teams above us.
We’re looking in a very reasonable position, I feel, as long as we can keep racking the points up.
What pleased me most though?
I thought Jack Grealish worked his nuts off, which suits us overall as a team, I think.
But I also felt that while he’s tracking back, so it takes the edge off his attacking game.
Which is the dilemma I’ve always had with him.
Still, never mind.
It’s 3 points in the bag and a very disciplined performance that I’m sure Steve Bruce will be delighted with.
He might even get some sleep tonight.
3 points = Happy days 🙂
That’s 3 league wins on the spin without conceding a goal. Barnsley at home next week, another good opportunity to get 3 points.
Well done Brucie and the boys, good solid win.
UTV.
Amen to that.
I forget the list of the next four games, but am sure they included Barnsley (who gave Wolves a good game today), Burton and the shit.
Barnsley home, Sheff Utd away, Burton home and Small Heath home.
12 points????
Dam, I’d like to think so, as that would apply serious pressure to anyone.
Probably not, but the mouth waters when looking at that 🙂
That’s just greedy Badger. 😉
I think 3 wins at home and a point at Sheff Utd would be a decent return. Although I do prefer your idea of 12.
Derby have got Bristol City on Friday so who knows, the gap could be as little as 2 points come 5 O’clock next Saturday.
Sheffield Utd match is to be rescheduled because if their cup commitments – so we get a rest.
@Hitch.
Sheff Utd match has already been rescheduled. We play them Tuesday 30th. 🙂
Oops missed that B6 – thanks
That will be one of those games that will be tougher than it looks. Can see us getting an ugly 1.0 win but il take that
I shouldn’t worry about Grealish tracking back he was probably making up for Whelan who was feeling his age . Gealish for me was the man to praise worked hard and Bruce thanked him after the game, Terry thanks for a head to bolster that defence, happy man today for once.
Grealish gets us so many cheap free kicks it’s untrue. Just what we need to to take the sting out the opposition.
Agreed Oohah, but its in the game of football, our goal came from a set piece, Terry nearly scored with a set piece, it’s in the game.
No it didn’t Bill it came from a Snodgrass centre, ( open your eyes,)
Ooh, I thought Hourihane did a good job too.
Very disciplined performance.
i think this performance has answered all my questions i had of the club. somehow they have addressed them, work rates again was high like the Bristol game. movement has improved all over the field. we have time and space all created by hard work and movement.
what can i say i really love grealish. as a footballer he is perfect. can’t believe he has come of age. he is no longer the naive kid, push off the ball and bullied out of the game.he is director of all villa good moves but more impotant, he is a leader, he is pointing talking directing. how did this happen when did this happen. he was bright pre season but he seems to have recovered from the injury a better player all round player.
great ball from snodgrass and a even better goal for hogan, his movement was world class, this is what i mean, if you supply him he will score. he comes alive inside the box. but we never gave him any service. but a beauty of a cross, hogan runs around the defender and nips in before the goalie.
iam drunk i know my coupon went down 🙁 i don;t care i heard scum lost and we won. everything is good again. i will check b6 coupon tomorrow hope you did better than me
I have to say Grealish is really looking the part. He looks a lot stronger, and is working really hard. Nice to see him on the pitch – he really is the best we’ve got. You’re right about Hogan, but he clearly always had that ability. It’s frustrating that we can’t seem to use him properly often enough.
Sorry Nath, but don’t be to downhearted, there’s always next week. 🙂
don’t tell me yours i always check in paper tomorrow morning. its my sunday morning laugh at how bad my coupon crashed. especially this season lol good result thou makes for a good read tomorrow
good write up and comments during game 🙂 guys
What a load of shit! We won again! But what about the fact we lost to Peterborough in the FA Cup with our reserves?! In no way did Villa’s first team benefit from a rest while Foresr played their first team and looked crap and knackered today! Bruce out! Everyone out! We will get promoted but we won’t win the FA Cup this year and we’ve always been really good in it in the last 50 years as well! Bruce out! Xia out! All the players out! We lost to Peterborough I don’t care that we are going up! We lost to Posh in the FA Cup! And will in no way benefit from a rest before the Sheff U game while they play in the cup on the Saturday before! Bruce out! Everyone out! Over and out!
Hah, fair comment Owen.
I think we get the point.
Bruce is indeed entitled to feel his thoughts have been validated tonight 🙂
I think you’re getting ahead of yourself. Professional win today but nothing to get too carried away on. Forest are no great shakes. Feeling they are good because of their great result against Arsenal is the same as feeling we were shit because of the result against Peterborough. A quick look at the league table might put that in perspective.
We have some relatively easy matches coming up (as this one was) so should make good ground. We still need to up our game though.
Still, I’m not on here to moan when we won, which is always a nice feeling. Your bet still has legs Owen, so let’s hope you are right in the end!
Bloody he’ll Owen youve convinced me , we lost to Peterborough.
Sometimes managers stumble into situations that work out really well. Thor has mostly played left midfield and left back occasionally but looked at home in central midfield. He has lots of energy and maybe offers another option to Jedi and Whelan going forward. Switching Hutton and Adomah to left side paid off when Taylor and Green got injured. I felt resting 10 players could have backfired considering we lost last week but glad to admit I was wrong and Bruce and all the players today deserve credit for a very professional performance.
Delighted to see Hogan on the scoresheet again. I have desperately wanted it to work for him since his move last year, and am fully convinced he can get 10+ goals for us between now and the end of the season if he can stay fit. That is a big if. Also interesting to see Bruce saying post match that he believes Hogan’s recent form is down to working with Agnew.
Bjarnasson coming on won us that game in the second half, if Whelan had stayed on the pitch he”d have thrown it away with another error. We’re infinitely better when that useless oaf Whelan is off the pitch, he should not be in the squad any more if we want to put a run together. Will Bruce ever learn?
Interesting comment.
I honestly can’t say Whelan did anything wrong tonight.
And while I’ve supported him mostly, so I think I’ve slated him too.
No real criticism of Whelan Badger but I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we looked better second half after Bjarnasson came on. He broke up play well but also showed good movement off the ball and looked more lively.
Whelan does a job but for me he’s a little too slow and static now. Bit like O’Shea if you saw the Sunderland debacle at Cardiff.
Whelan was okay. He didn’t do much wrong in the first half but Bjarnasson was fantastic the second half. Broke up play well, pushed us forward well. Think he’s slowly pushing himself into Bruce’s graces. Definitely should stay this window.
i have too agree. today he was very sound. i recall he tackled on edge of our box and then blocked a shot both was good defending from a very dangerous situation. his distribution was good and he was supporting good.
bjarnasson is a sod to type correctly, he also did good he has all the attributes to play the role well.
I think professional performance about sums today up. We deserved 3 points and got them. I think if we got second goal, it could have ended up as 3 or 4.
Really happy for Hogan getting another goal, he is without doubt an intelligent striker. Terry and Chester were excellent, although you have to feel a bit sorry for Elphick. Grealish very good too. Love seeing him as number 10.
Most interesting point for me today though was performance of Bjarnasson as a defensive mid. By far and away his best game for us, but also looked a lot better than both Whelan and Jedinak there. If I were Bruce, I would start him there next week against Barnsley.
before the game it was how would forest play. they tried to put pressure us. but they didn’t have the ability to press us, or are we moving more which makes it harder to press us successfully. forest were also good at keeping basic possession, but they had no penetration,or were we too good defensively.
it was a bit of both. villa have improved both with ball and they have worked hard without it. i noticed they pressed better, they are not pressing in ones and twos now. they also pressing from shorter distances , instead of long pressing from greater distance we have been doing all season. every villa players on the ball had options, which means better possession.
players they all did very well individually but better collectively. they looked like a team, i saw leaders out their. teams usually have one or two. all our players were talking and this is good. grealish is a real gem. hogan hopefully now will prove to some fans, he is a good striker and that we haven’t deployed him well before now, or supplied him with the service he requires.
villa have not played well all season, in fact they have been brilliant at getting results playing within themselves, but its very noticeable in last 3 league games. a change, more team work, from the basic stuff i mentioned and others, have been corrected. oohahaa says the new coach which coincides with the upturn.
25/1 to win the division Nath. Got to be worth a cheeky tenner. 😉
i have a outstanding bet on them to win promotion. but other selections have ruined my bet, so i might make another one. what about we go up via playoff.
wolves have too much quality to mess up now. plus they have got past the mad festival period. second spot should be the main target, if wolves lose two on spin they will get nervous and then make things interesting,
next thursday post your 5 selections on weekend fixtures. i need some help with mine.
Has Lee Johnson eaten his words yet? His comment after we put 5 past them and his comment was that they were still above us. What a difference a week makes 🙂
lee johnson i felt for, other week. just like we never saw that result coming, i don’t think he saw it happening too. they started the game really strong, but when villa stepped it up, his team folded. he took things very personal. he maybe tried to take the focus off the defeat, but he looked stupid doing that. should have just accepted it was a bad day and moved on.
been impressed with him and city, play really adventurous stuff. they really do play with freedom and work really hard. don’t forget 2days before they crumbled to us, they went toe to toe with wolves and being honest they were slightly better for most the game.
It appears that our Dr Xia been tweeting again only this time is in imoj don’t think I spelt that right , it goes something like this
Well, the starsign ‘Leo’ could potentially point to Leicester striker Leonardo Ulloa, who is a target of Steve Bruce’s.
The emoji ‘ATM’ minus the ‘M’ leaves AT – the initials of Manchester United defender Axel Tuanzebe ,
Could it be things are getting better.
Rest in peace Cyrille Regis age 59 no age condolences to his family.
Big Cyril. What a player. What a man. RIP.
Never forgotten. Thanks for the memories.
RIP Big man.
Paul Lambert Stokes New Manager wish him a the best.
Might as well pay our condolences to Stoke too then.
RIP Stoke City.
Love it B6 – and they complained about the football Pullis and Hughes served up! Not that I wish Paul Lambert ill but it’s hardly an inspired appointment.
Key board knackered. (All)
A great loss and another Iconic footballer taken from us too soon, RIP Cyril a true legend you will be remembered by so many across the Midlands.
Holte Enders In The sky.
Villa under 23s are on u tube now if interested.
Cyrille Regis RIP. A truly great player who was instrumental in Albions great years under big Ron. Special that he played for us for a while too.
Regis was fantastic. I was too young to realise the importance of him as a role model and one of the first successful black players. Hard to believe things were so bad at that time.
RIP
I’m really interested to understand whether Agnew is making a difference in the coaching. I thought some of our play against Forest was an improvement on what I have become used to. Clearly it’s impossible to change things overnight, but it will be nice if we progress over the next few games.
Stoke were excellent and they’re gonna have to go again after losing to United…
Agnew showed at Boro he isn’t a manager when he became caretaker. But he’s showed as “head of coaching” that he can coach a team. The team looks more confident on the ball. Off the ball is all Bruce really has coached the team and improved them, but on the ball now, I think Agnew has done well. Interesting, Jordan Rhodes is his nephew. Maybe that’s why he signed for Boro and then left.