A missed penalty and Mings sent off for two yellows within 34 minutes.
Yet still we managed to battle back from a goal down.
Do I need to say any more than the headline?
A place for comment and debate
A missed penalty and Mings sent off for two yellows within 34 minutes.
Yet still we managed to battle back from a goal down.
Do I need to say any more than the headline?
Yes, yes, yes!
Brilliant battling and I just don’t have enough superlatives to describe that performance.
Even if we go behind, we look capable.
‘Do you want to bet against us’
3 points on Saturday and I’d say we’re good for the playoffs. Cup final.
It’s been years and years since I’ve seen an identity at the villa and everyone pulling together in one direction. An actual team with character is what we have now.
As Hitchens60 put it in the sheff wed post though, the players have probably endured a brutal night there. Much needed r&r!
Erm! No,
Thing is now we are light in defence with mings out, plus Mcginn got hurt in the last few minutes, my guess is a few will be on the doctors table tomorrow morning. But have to say they fought like tiger’s second half ,so did Smith. 5th place lads we can do it. Utv.
Is Elphick out injured? Axel’s back so might not be too bad!
Smith’s got some decisions to make. Remember how much the Wolves win took out of the team last season. Bruce kept the same side and we slumped like an ageing boxer having one too many fights. I’d seriously consider resting Tammy since Kodja looked good, and maybe even McGinn, at least for first half. There’s options there with Hourihane and Whelan. Whelan would be a good idea anyway, as Bristol will be far more potent than Rotherham. Mings is an enforced change, but one or two more might be necessary…
Maybe Jedi might be a good bet on Saturday, to protect the weakened defence? This is why a string squad is needed, at this time of year when it all matters. I think we have the squad! Smith will make the right calls!
I wonder, IF we can take 7 points from the next 3 games, could top 6 be secure before the Leeds game? Can’t be arsed to do the maths – too many permutations!
We can afford to lose one and still be okay but that’s assuming that Derby win all their remaining six matches which is probably unlikely. Our GD is vastly superior to Derby and Boro so that’s a help.
I’d guess that three wins and a draw would probably do it. If it all depends on the last one hopefully Norwich will have won the league by then and they’ll be thinking about their suntans rather than their football.
Fingers crossed.
Going back to the squad, we will definitely need it over Easter – 2 games in 3 days! And those are the ‘easy’ games. This is where Smith really earns his money!
Hmm, I’ve just read the comments in the previous thread and found them interesting.
Contrary to the consensus, I thought Rotherham were actually very good; certainly better than their lowly position in the league.
They actually played us at our own game and I thought the press was phenomenal. So much so that I thought they’d never keep it up.
They had three men on Kodjia late on and I was amazed.
But what equally impressed me was the way we weathered quite well everything they threw at us.
That’s a sign of real character that Smith has instilled into this team.
Even Kodjia worked his guts out, I thought.
Jedinak was immense and won pretty much everything in the air.
Mings might well have done the same, but I do feel reassured when the Aussie is defending high balls.
John McGinn, good grief, we’ve compared him to Milner, but I’d suggest he has an even better engine, which is saying something. He made a run late on and you could practically hear his leg muscles shouting “enough”.
What an asset he is and he really does do the job of two men at times.
I find it impossible to criticise any of those lads tonight.
They worked their guts out to a man and half way through the second half, I was thinking “if we lose this, we’ll still have done well, given the 10 men”.
I’m frankly bloody proud of that performance.
Badger, having watched the game I’m in agreement with you – for the most part. In the first half Rotherham it seemed wanted it more but we were poor and with our quality should have done more. Maybe it was Abraham’s missed penalty that affected us?
Second half the real Villa of six consecutive wins turned up and you couldn’t fault one of them. Agree with Villa Away – special mention for Taylor who turned in a sterling performance having received so much past criticsm.
Do we have the squad depth to cope with the fatigue, knocks and loss of Mings for Saturday’s game?
UTV – Proud Villan
First time for years and years I have seen all of a Villa team run run run ….even Taylor was a star..
Tekkers commented on the generally poor standard of referee overall in the Championship and particularly last night. Both managers alluded to it and tbf to Rotherham’s manager he questioned the decision to yellow card Mings for the hand ball which he thought harsh.
Having watched the incident, whilst it’s probably a penalty it wasn’t a deliberate hand ball or a hand ball that gained a particular advantage for Villa. Surely a penalty would have been sufficient punishment rather than also sending the player off so he also misses the next game. Anybody checked which team the ref supports?
Can we appeal the second yellow or would it be a waste of time?
I don’t think you can appeal a double yellow Hitch. Just have to take it on the chin.
I’ve just had a look at the highlights and I agree that a yellow card for Mings, especially as the ref knew it would turn into a red, was very harsh indeed.
However, I’ve had a look at Jack’s goal several times and it looked incredibly familiar. I watch Barca a lot and if you inserted Messi for Jack and Jordi Alba for Elmo then you’ll see why I thought it looked like I’d seen it before. A really great footballing goal.
I’d like to see more like that.
A second half performance the like of which most Villa fans will have never seen before. John McGinn again was tremendous and one of the players that totally made up for the missing Mings. What a team we have. Reminds me of the 70’s.
At half time I would have snapped your arm off for a point so I was surprised we managed to get the win with 10 men. McGinn is simply awesome and undoubtedly one of the best signings ever. (thank you Steve Bruce) It’s a shame Mings isn’t available Saturday although Jedinak was excellent considering he has hardly played this season. All the players that started second half should start against Bristol City with maybe a 4-4-2 to allow Kodja to partner Abraham. Otherwise its Kodja out wide and either Adomah or El Ghazi. One things for sure is Bristol City play football as opposed to Rotherham’s hoofball. Not a criticism because they played well to suit their strengths and very similar to Stoke under Pulis. Bristol City will offer a different style of attack with Weimann bang on form and I’m sure will be up for it. Jedinak will be tested and will need more protection so maybe Whelan for Hourihane.
refereeing has been a constant headache in championship. its a problem of all clubs not just villa and like the weather the referee is out of our control.
i thought the result last night was another massive statement to all fellow promotion contenders, apart from the top two who will be grateful to miss having to play us in playoffs. like fulham last year we have the momentum.
i thought before the game last night it was gonna be a major test. rotherham tested our defence and our desire, but we came through it and in the end was comfortable. mings will be missed against bristol city, but they wont load up crosses and throws into our box like they did last night. it will be a different test and one which will be another examination of our promotion. weimann is not unknown to us and we should all know his dangers and movement and pace in behind is two. i thought he was a decent finisher too
lastly we are closing in on wba, but still behind them by 4 points or so. yet the bookmakers all have villa shorter odds than wba for promotion. work that one out
Well you carn’t get better than Manager of the month, Dean Smith was declared that for March, he also had his photo taken with Terry and his two coaches. How many managers do that when they win, nice touch Dean, showing together we work.
Well, at least my family don’t want to; mom predicts a win when we are one nil down – great considering we were lacking that one little bit and great as she bagged a nice tenner as well. Moral of the story: DO NOT BET AGAINST US. I am against people who lack faith in their team in this league. I can understand betting against us if we are playing Liverpool or Man City if we get promoted but other than that you can kind of say that’s not on. Overall great win, Rotheram fans should be very happy with that performance as again they desrved at least a draw just like Sheffield Wednesday did last week.
That’s torn it!
Deano wins manager of the month – which is as it should be – but the award also seems to attract a losing ‘curse’.
Congratulations Deano – let’s hope we can keep this going.
Beat me Hitch by 3 minutes. 😊
Staying with my Ipswich mate. May well go down to see Ipswich give Small Heath a bit of a kicking tomorrow – would make my weekend 🙂
Apparently when the Villa team bus was about to leave Rotherham the other night, someone stated that McGinn wasn’t on board before being told that he had decided to run back home.
I saw that Holte66 lol! Class player for hopefully a class team in the Premier League some day. If we go up then John McGinn’s price tag will be 20 times more than we payed for him !
AlfieAVFC, I hope you’re right and he will be a premier league player, but for Villa next season! Smith is building a new dynasty that reminds me of Sir Ron’s team back in 1975. If he can get us to the top flight we will have the right owners to push us on.
I booked tickets a while back for tomorrow’s game so really hoping managers curse doesn’t happen after MOTM for Smith. UTV!