I only heard the last 20 minutes or so of the game and it seems a fair chunk of that was probably the worst part.
Certainly it didn’t sound very good, as the home team put us under some serious pressure.
One of the commentators asked a very valid question as to why we were suffering such pressure from a side who are basically very poor and it’s a question that nags at me still.
I personally think some of us are getting ahead of ourselves in how good we really are.
That said, getting a little carried away is what you get when you win three on the trot and you can’t knock an away win at all.
It’s actually a good feeling to see that even though we didn’t have the run of play at that stage, we still managed to get the second goal.
That’s a sign of resilience, which has been lacking for far too long.
Having just watched the extended highlights on AVTV, the game seemed a totally different prospect and we actually looked quite good, with Hourihane particularly, beginning to look a threat. It’ll be interesting to see if he can maintain that against the better sides. If he can, it’s surely only a matter of time before he scores.
I’d have said the same about Bjarnason, but he’s not going to be playing for a while by the looks of it.
Which brings me onto the bad side of the game.
How unlucky are we to have lost Andre Green, Bjarnason and Grealish, all left-sided players, in such a short timeframe?
Injuries are of course, part and parcel of the game, but it really does seem like we’re cursed.
We have the best part of a team out, after all.
Still, although Steve Bruce has said he’ll bring one of the kids in, we still have Amavi, who you’d guess would be the next option on the list to play on the left.
There have been many, myself included, who think the defender would actually be a better bet in a more forward role, as he’s a decent crosser. While he’s limited defence-wise, he does have at least some ability and he seems perfect as a wide player to get forward, yet still cover the Right Back, Taylor.
Back to the game and Bruce has been a little critical us not being clinical enough.
It’s a good point seeing as we had 18 chances, but if we can keep the momentum going, that should surely improve.
And you never know, we might be able to keep it going, as confidence should be a lot better than it has been of late.
Against Huddersfield though?
Well, I’ve been looking at the form tables and things aren’t as clear-cut as you might immediately think.
I’ll go into that closer to the game, but the fact that I can see a remote possibility on Tuesday must mean things are improving.
Or maybe I’m just getting carried away.
It’s easily done after winning three on the trot for the first time in years.
In the meanwhile, discussing footy at work is much better than it has been for a while.
Happy days are indeed here again.
For now, at least.
I can’t believe how long it’s been since we won 3 on the trot.
Shows how poor we’ve been.
amavi is more than capable of playing the left midfield position. hes played winger lots of times during his career. bruce will promote a under21’s which is correct thing to do, these players will not let the club down.
3 games on the trots lol you can fluke 3 games its hardly a run to be getting carried away with but its a bloody good start. and correct 2010 last time we managed this small winning spree. does go to show us how bad we have been
And 2009 when we last won three on the trot with clean sheets!
I like Amavi although he’s made some major boo-boos in recent weeks. He can get to the byline and can cross. Make him a winger.
Samba starts for U23’s tonight – interesting to see if the big man can cut it – if so wouldn’t be a bad freebee squad player. Good to see Jordan Lyndon on the bench having missed most of the season injured. Kiernan Davies not in squad so sure to be on the bench tomorrow.
I think we may well make it four in a row tomorrow. Gonna be an interesting line up to say the least…Sort of excited!!!! 🙂
Id like to see Sellars and Abdo get some minutes personally.
Shame that Lyndon has been injured for so long – came on for U23’s last night, scored and made a real difference. Won’t be surprised to see him appearing on the bench for the first team quite quickly.
cant wait to see tonights game link permitting 🙁 i have come to terms with staying in this league another season. but delighted we have finally sorted this team and club, come summer we will be much stronger, bonded more and we will be far more competitive next season. i fancy us shocking Huddersfield with a 1 nil
ppl should watch reading as the team falling alarmingly, one team falls drastically and one team far back always storms home. you never know. it wont hurt the team to keep the dream alive why its stiill possible mathematically
Nath – I love your optimism, I feel the same, its amazing what 3 wins does, but remember this is the Villa, so we are bound to fall back down to earth !!
I would prefer us to have a good run to build confidence, but not get to the playoffs as that is a lose, lose scenario…. miss out and it dents our confidence, get promoted and we get spanked and are back down !!
Same here Saddened, we’ve managed to get 3 under our belt but can I see another ? no not at the minute the last 3 was of a poor standard , had to many knock backs to think we are making progress. I wish we can. 3-1 to them.
Bill, you can only beat the team in front of you and that’s what we’ve done three times in a row for the first time in seven years – I think that entitles us to be a little more optimistic.
Having said that, Huddersfield away is a different ball game when you consider our away form and their league position. The leveller might be the state of the pitch which could suit our more counter attacking style of play (or defensively minded approach if you want to take the negative point of view!).
All in all I’m going for a draw which I reckon would be a good result for us.
Hitch, that’s a Villa fan with blind hope, you know we have a hill to climb unfortunately its not now my friend, i for one want a win but we are not anyway near being a team yet. Yes one day it will happen and it hurts me to see us struggle like this, but like most we live in hope.
Can’t argue with you Bill – I get down when we lose and I tell the missus I’m finished with Villa and football and then a couple of days later the eternal optimism about the future returns. To me that’s all about being a fan – always hoping to win and become great again – I suppose it’s no different to buying a lottery ticket every week – but then I’ve never done that – not even once!
You Hitch sound just like me mate , i cannot remember how many times I’ve said that same thing to my wife, now she just laughs and says yer yer, but Villa fans don’t walk away.
🙂 🙂
This will be a tough one tonight, a draw would be a good result, Huddersfield are not a bad team. Will the Villa surprise us with 4 in a row. Utv.
please tell me guys this games got a link somewhere. i was reading Huddersfield fans forum yeah i was surprised they had one too. they were mostly confident of wining. while also recognizing villa will be very dangerous. they expect us to try do what newcastle did. but they say we are not as good as them and they will win.
its a very tough game to call. you have to take your villa head off and look at them with a neutral head on. they are not going into this game stress free, they will be edgy. anybody remember us losing to oldham 92/93 when we was at home, we was going for the title against utd. that defeat was down to us seeing the finishing line and oldham took advantage of this.
we need to be strong defensively and brave in possession. they also said on there forum that they were the best footballing side in this division. i don’t agree with that, i thought they were lucky not to lose at vp but for our goalie to boot the ball against their player in dying embers of game they would have.