To be honest, I’m not surprised.
We lost to a better team, through a totally negative outlook from the manager in the first half.
We tried to contain Fulham and it was obvious that it wasn’t going to happen, as early as 15 minutes, for me.
For the coaching team to not see this is nearly unforgivable.
Our defence was being run ragged and the only option was to take it to them.
What the fuck were the coaching team/Bruce seeing?
We came out playing our own game in the second half and looked much better for it, but never really looked liked getting the goal after going behind.
Bruce, you got this one totally wrong, you fool.
The annoying part is, that to my mind, we could have easily won this one.
I’ve just got a text from my Derby mate and he’s agreed that if we’d have played to our best, we’d have won that.
I need to think about our defence later, but I wasn’t impressed.
MOTM?
Probably Jedinak, who looked like the only one anywhere near where I expected.
As I said before, fair play to Fulham and they should have been promoted anyway.
But man, this hurts.
We just didn’t deserve it, did we? 🙁
Fulham in the prem over us just seems so wrong 🙁
But that’s the game.
I still can’t get away from thinking “Bruce, you wanker”.
We were scared shitless in the first half which is the way we do things. We looked decent in the second half but anytime they got the ball our defense looked worried.
We’re losing 3 starters from our team that we have on loan and 2 starters who are out of contract and 10 in total. That worries me far more than not going up. What Xia is gonna do about that. And how he can handle it and FFP at the same time.
Andrew, where have you been?
Your comments always appreciated.
But you’re wrong.
We weren’t scared.
That was orders, imo.
Bruce messed up, big time, imo.
Was getting tired of arguing the same argument with the same person saying the same things over and over so figured a week or two off would be good. Plus we didn’t play for a week and a half so not a lot to talk about.
While I completely agree with you we were ordered to sit back, I do believe our defense was far more nervous than usual doing so. Terry looked awful and shaken, which while Chester’s usually the better player, isn’t typical of Terry. We lacked the calming presence we usually have at the back. Which is where the experience was supposed to come in, but didn’t.
The one thing I still don’t get is how Adomah starts after like 5 months of being awful and puts in another awful game, and stayed on for as long as he did.
But I’m still more worried on how we make up for losing Johnstone, Grabban, Snodgrass, Onomah and Tuanzebe from loans and Hutton, Terry, Gabby, Bunn and Samba from end of contracts.
Obviously losing a couple of them isn’t a problem but that leaves us with 1 always injured goal keeper, 1 center back, two right backs, 1 left back, no right winger, 1 attacking midfielder. Yeah we’re freeing up a crap load in wages but our squad is getting quite thin. Not too mention all the late 20’s/30+ year old players we have. We can’t exactly afford a squad revamp anymore.
Sorry – I’ll be the biased Villa fan. Don’t see how you can blame Bruce for the team not performing in the first half. Would anybody have selected a different starting XI?
Then we have a ref that failed to protect Grealish -Fredericks a clear stamp and red card.
On balance, Fulham probably deserved to win the game but that doesn’t mean I like some of their tactics.
On next season, I’m intrigued by how much information some posters seem to have on our financial position and players contracts – personally I’ll wait to see what is said by the club.
Disappointed but still a Villa man UTV COYL – part of the pride
Oh fuck right off. The way we set out was 100% Bruce. Gave the imitative to them. Subs too late and 3 forwards was just desperation. Bruce all day long and totally predictable- see my previous posts all season.
No offence btw just pissed off
Obviously I’m still a villa fan Hitch.
And it was the right eleven.
But you only had to look at how we played in the first half compared to the second.
The difference was night and day.
And you can’t tell me the lads weren’t up for it, from the off.
Bruce must have told them to sit back.
Otherwise, we have a team of bottlers and have to change it up again.
I don’t believe that’s the case.
As for their tactics, we knew exactly what they’d do.
So why did we play into their hands?
Not as gutted as I thought I would be to be honest. Probably because we have got immune to failing on the big day. Fulham are a better team than us and that’s a fact and they deserve to go up. Another rebuild during the summer required and on a shoestring compared to previous seasons. That might be a blessing in disguise if it means we avoid the likes of McCormack. Hopefully a few from our U23s can make the step up. If we lack something it is pace because of our ageing team. We need an injection of youth and pace to achieve success next season. It’s a shame that our defence were made to look so static in such an important game, but I think Bruce should stay. My reason being that he has turned us round and deserves an opportunity to keep momentum going. Losing Terry, Kodja and Grealish especially for such large parts of the season probably cost us automatic and you can’t blame Bruce for such bad luck. Add to that his personal problems, surely his luck will improve next season.
Agree Holte
To defensive and negative never got forward enough in the first half.
How can you sit back and soak up all that pressure This was a cup final for god’s sake!!
Come on Brucie.!!
Probably have to agree to differ.
The real question is – Badger area you backing Bruce as manager for next season or do you want to gamble?
Still problems with the site mate!
Agree with Holte’s post – but problems exist with the site Badger
I’m with Hitchens60 on this one. You can’t blame it all on the manager.
Fulham beat us and we can’t complain. I really thought that after the sending off, we’d get that one goal and force it into extra time but we just don’t quite cut it in the final 3rd.
It’s a bummer and next season the pressure will be back on. Maybe O’Hare & crew can be our champions but it’s a tall order. I don’t think Grealish will be tempted away but the next few weeks are going to be interesting.
Not convinced that replacing Bruce is the thing to do right now. He’s undoubtedly brought belief and positive vibes back to the dressing room and it’s critical we maintain that going forward.
It hurts but we’re in a far superior position than we were before Bruce came in. We were basically in the same position as Sunderland and look what just happened to them.
However, we now look like we can become a Prem club, we have at least got our confidence back to some degree. I’d now like to see a new manager take over and see if he can take us to the next level. We must now be an attractive proposition for any aspiring manager who wants to be in the Prem so let’s see what happens.
TBH I was somewhat fearful of how we would cope in the the Prem with this squad if we had won but another year might make us stronger.
UTV – We go on
I’m with Hitchens60 on this one. You can’t blame it all on the manager.
Fulham beat us and we can’t complain. I really thought that after the sending off, we’d get that one goal and force it into extra time but we just don’t quite cut it in the final 3rd.
It’s a bummer and next season the pressure will be back on. Maybe O’Hare & crew can be our champions but it’s a tall order. I don’t think Grealish will be tempted away but the next few weeks are going to be interesting. The likes of Hogan have to go imo.
Not convinced that replacing Bruce is the thing to do right now. He’s undoubtedly brought belief and positive vibes back to the dressing room and it’s critical we maintain that going forward.
Haven’t seen ANY of the match….was in London since Friday and even though I passed Wembley on the train back I couldn’t even find out what was going on apart from us being one down….must be SHiT for the fans coming back as I had to go to Stafford. ..back to New St and then to Longbridge …can see them taking 5 hours to get home…..
Anyway what you say about the coaching staff is what I have said all season….no idea why they even bother to turn up on match days. …but I suppose I am not allowed to say anything.
After a season of 80% dross ……and that’s being generous ……how much longer are gonna go down this negative road.
While I get fans don’t wanna blame Bruce, but you win a game over 90 minutes, not a decent 45 minutes. Bruce’s way of playing is to win the game in the 2nd half, and not lose the game in the first. That didn’t work, and should clearly be put down on the system that was played today. Not taking away from the players at fault, like Terry being poor and not near the leader he was expected to be, but that should also be down to a manager getting your Captain to lead the team.
Just seen highlights of 1st half…..we didn’t look negative and Fulham were not all over us…..must be bad editing.
Was it a Villa created highlight? Because other than Grealish we were poor.
Very keen to know where some think we go from here, as I honestly haven’t a clue. Should we stick with Bruce? He has certainly improved us, and anyone coming in would be inheriting a much healthier position compared to when Bruce took over. Could he really improve us that little bit more and get us up? Or should we cut our losses, has he turned us around and taken us as far as he can? Is he no longer the mastermind of getting promoted, has the game changed beyond his limits?
I find myself very envious of Fulham, the football they play is incredible, that lad Mitrovic is an absolute animal and they have a very intelligent manager. Not trying to insult Bruce, but I feel he’s more lucky. While it’s not a bad thing having a manager who has some luck, I think I’d rather have someone who can change a game tactically, and knows what he needs for his team.
I’m not Bruce out or Bruce in, I really don’t know. I’m really just keen to see what others think, where do we go from here? Do we stick with Bruce and see if he can take us that step further? Or do we sack him, and if so… who do we realistically go to bring in?
23 years as a season ticket supporter, Bruce stays! Because I trust him!
The team, the squad will change. I love the change!
Gut wrenching day. The whole plan the board set out was a short term one – signing Terry, Snodgrass, etc and paying them huge money at this level was only ever going to work if we went up this season. The board gambled, Bruce failed despite the best resources imaginable at this level and therefore he must lose his job.
His defensive outlook and scared to lose attitude cost him – for that reason he should be removed now with immediate effect The first half was an exact replica of the diabolical performance we put in at Craven Cottage in February. Bruce learned absolutely nothing and that is the point. I’ve said time and time again he is a dinosaur . Wyness needs to man up and get us some progressive younger manager in. Realistically now we’re going to have to utilise the youth team more and perhaps some of our higher earners that we cant shift like Mccormack – lets get someone in who can do this.
first off we didn’t deserve to win the game, over the 90 minutes and throughout the entire season we were not good enough and would have struggled if we had won the game and gained promotion.
terry and chester have been great partnership, but the problem is we have no pace at the back, when you consider the sitting midfielder is jedi. fullbacks aside we are not mobile and unable to cope with any pace in behind us. this is also major problem when as a team you want to press high. against fulham you had to press them. if you watched birmingham beating fulham they showed you how its done. yet first half we did everything wrong.
of the game we lost it first half as everybody has said sofar. we started so passively it was crazy. you had to make your opponents fear you and afraid to over commit. we did the opposite. we stood off them, allowed them time on the ball to pick out anyone they wanted. it was ridiculous and obvious fulham would find their range of passing.
even the second half where we improved, hard not too. we never had the intelligence as a team to fashion good chances, it was all too rushed. first goal was always going to be very important and they got it through our own doing