It’s been a very busy couple of days for me.
The missus had a hip replacement, which, coupled with work, took up all my time: Hence my not posting about the game beforehand.
Cutting to the important stuff, I thought that was a very decent win today.
I think we need to look at Mick McCarthy’s verdict, where I believe he gives a very honest assessment;
McCarthy said. “Prior to the goal I thought it was a foul on our goalkeeper equally as much as it was, if it was, on theirs when we scored. But sadly both incidents were treated differently.
“But it was appalling defending after that. We ran out under the ball and didn’t defend it properly and playing against good players, you get punished. And they don’t need any help.
“I thought we were the best team up until the first goal. And then the game changes. If my auntie had you know what, you’d know what she’d be, she’d be my uncle.
“If we had scored the first goal the place would have been very quiet, it was actually up until that goal.
“But they are if anything efficient and certainly when they got in front, they made it very difficult to play against them.”
While I might disagree that Ipswich were the better side, there certainly wasn’t much in it at a pretty subdued Villa Park.
But without doubt, I agree that the first goal was most important, as it would shape the game either way.
If we’d conceded first, I doubt we’d have pulled it back.
Fortunately we got the first one, which meant they had to chase us, which they never really threatened to do.
And once Adomah got the second, you just knew it was all over.
He’s on some roll isn’t he, Adomah? Good job too, but we can’t rely on him. If he gets injured, we’re in trouble.
It’ll be interesting to see how Bruce plays this, come the transfer window.
Still, it is what it is and the plain fact is that we won again, in what’s been a good week.
Yes, when we have as many injuries as we have, I can’t disagree that things are progressing well.
We currently look very well set up to mount a challenge for second place, although I don’t believe we’ll achieve it.
Then again, I have a friendly bet that we’ll finish above Wolves, so if that pays off, we’ll be doing better than i thought.
Leeds away next, isn’t it?
That’s a serious test and much more realistic of where our chances lie.
You can only beat what’s put in front of you.
And we did, again.
What’s not to like?
I beg to differ Badger, did you see the game today? If you did you would have seen how we played close ball control to get out of difficult play at times, i personally thought we have footballing brains for a change, every one of them player’s fort in the game today, something that’s been missing. I didn’t hear what McCarthy had to say what ever it was it was sour grapes to me.
really doesn’t matter what mccarthy says or pundits. villa were comfortable even before we scored and for the entire game. fans got edgy like they do before we managed to score. but ipswich rarely threatened from open play, but from corners where they were a handful.
hate to spoil the fun for the villa fans that love to see us fall flat our our faces. but this season we are going to keep getting stronger. even with these injuries the squad seems to have that belief in each over, team spirit is good and getting better. we are gonna lose some games but not like last year hopefully were they lost for months. i really hope i curse us with this post just so the haters don’t miss out on feeling good like i do after we win.
i have only one worry and thats bringing in a centre forward who can help davis for the second part of the season and the most important part of season. even if gabby, hogan and murphy were fit i would still want another striker, its holding the ball up which is essential to our play. davis did that today and looked like a season pro. but he needs to be eased in not playing three games a week for the season. BURN OUT will be the result
Who are these “haters” that hate when Villa win? I don’t think any Villa fan hates when we win…
Not sure what foul McCarthy’s talking about. His defenders were lost, look at the two players that ran past where the ball was going to land, and then not knowing where Adomah was. They had very, very few chances from corners, but they were never a real threat. The passing still isn’t great but we created some decent chances and got a pretty easy win overall.
We do need others to step up though, much like we did last season and no one really did (bar Grealish at times) in terms of goals. Hourihane’s scored once since his hat-trick in mid-August. Onomah only has 3, while Davis (he especially needs to step it up although he’s playing quite well) and Snodgrass have 2. We’re going back to being over-reliant on one player and that has been our problem for years, since O’Neill left. Hopefully in January we can find someone to make that stop.
Leeds next, who’ve only won 3 times since late September. Their defense is in the crapper. Hopefully we can exploit their lack of a left back on Friday.
Forgot too mention, Whelan’s best game so far. He was all over. And Samba actually looked competent when he had to come on. Sucks for Jedinak though. Gotta feel bad for him that he keeps getting injured.
I felt we won the game comfortably enough. Could have been more.
The big worry for me is how we are defending corners. Since Terry dropped out we seem to get in all sorts of trouble and mysteriously Johnson has seemed very uncomfortable at times. What’s going on?
not sure i can go along with nobody takes pleasure in villa falling flat on their faces. i will say their is more typing on here when we lose. or when we struggle to break down a team. bruce out or hes a dinosaur.god forbit if samba goes up field in a act of desperation,the last stand most teams will revert too when chasing a game late on. we will get labelled longball team. even preseason when i called for another striker, a TARGET man was needed, because i recognised only davis was gonna do that shit. fans labelled us longball.
i love villa and i hate those that knock villa, i never in my life thought i would be defending villa against other villa fans. thats a shock to me
say villa get promoted it will please the jvillan and andrews because they will have more topics to bite into. losing against world class teams. wrong formations , anti foootball tactics. lets face it villa get promoted unless the owners throw billions at it , we are gonna need a to be clever and lucky to survive. we are miles away from being a established premiership team. i recall many on here bitching when we was top 10 established. most said they wished we did go down, then at least we have more wins and something to play for.
and i forgot to mention the constant disrespect show to fellow championship teams. all teams in championship are their on merit no good enough at premiership and too good for the division 1. so their are no easy games in championship. we are all playing at the lvl we are at currently. we are all trying to achieve our own goals. this may differs from each clubs. but championship is a far more wide open league.
not many on here spotted wolves would be sailing away. before a ball was actually kicked. before season started maybe 10 clubs could all have won this league. even now wolves are not home and dry. i think they will have their injuries and their sticky patch. but the rest still anybody could claim the other promotion spot, and the 4 playoffs is anybodies. its a very competitive league,
so we need to beat teams at our level to reach premiership so lets stop knocking the lvl of opposition
See that’s where you’re wrong. You don’t defend Villa, because they don’t need defending. JVillain and I are just as much of a fan as you are of Villa. We absolutely love it. The problem is the manager. That’s the only person you’re defending, because that’s our problem. It’s not with Villa, it’s with Bruce. However I’ve quite come around to the fact that he’ll never change and even admitted I’ve been impressed with how we’ve gotten results despite playing quite poorly. But yes, we’ll completely struggle in the prem. Our midfield would get over-run and the poor passing would get eaten alive by any top 10 side. If bruce goes next summer, I’ll gladly keep him around IF the results continue. Because yes, once those drop, we have nothing, because the performances aren’t great and we get the fundamentals wrong. Especially without Terry.
As Bill pointed out, Johnstone looks confused on crosses now, we flaps at them and was largely at fault for the two goals we conceded in the two previous games.
Think most of my comments have been fair. As I said I’ve given up the negativity towards Old Bruce, at least until the results stop. And no, that’s not if we lose a couple in a row, because I completely expect us too, but if we go on the run we did at the end of last season when Kodjia went down, or the run prior to February of last season where fans (a lot of fans) were calling for him to go before January even hit. But if we keep up with the top 6, then he can stay and get us up.
Also anyone claiming they wanted to go down was on drugs. But yeah, i read and argued against those same people who thought it was a good idea. Clearly it’s not, as most have seemingly changed their minds quickly.
Anyways, back to it. I agree completely on our striker situation. Davis overall has played really well, but his finishing lacks. He’s not a fox in the box and we still need to add someone that is. Obviously someone similar to benteke would be ideal, he could hold up play and be that fox in the box, but obviously someone to a lesser and much cheaper extent. Charlie Austin on loan would do wonders, as he could be that player. I do like the idea of Musa though. He’s quick and with great foot work. But he’s small.
Pretty confident as I said against Leeds. They did beat Barnsley and kept a clean sheet surprisingly but they’re typically poor at the back and have been in really poor form. Just hope we can get someone else on the score sheet.
hallelujah praise the lord we have a believer lmao
i will believe that when we lose to leeds and i’ll reel in your comments. as for jvillan he couldnt type something nice about villa. if he was hacked and somebody else typed it instead of him.
badger
what is with some posters on here,when nath prints crap as is most of the time i dont come on here bad mouthing him in print as he has constantly does ,imaging thinking that some club is going to give us money for mccormak after what his hero did last xmas ,sold us out to papers about gates 12m fee gone wage having to be paid up before any other club will take a chance on ross really first class man mangement there bruce,like yesterday leaving davies on to he got injured ,
Good to see you’re happy and in a good place jv. 😁
Davies isn’t injured. He got the ball kicked into his bollocks and given there were less than 10 minutes left and the game was already won it’d be a bit pointless keeping him on really. Especially as he’s our only fit forward, is 18/19 years of age, has played 3 games in a week and took a battering yesterday from both Ipswich centre halves. Personally think that’s good man management but I wouldn’t expect you to see outside the box.
IN BRUCE I TRUST.
UTV.
stop telling tales i am sure badger can see and read the post on his blog.
i have to say i never seen you post anything constructive. or anything positive about a club or past time you suppose to like.
i get most ppl on here myself including. i get other posters like andrew who wants things thats are unattainable right this minute. but i don’t get you.
what is your point. what is your pleasures in football please.you slagged of the lambert sheep and other name calling pathetic childish stuff. now bruce has turned things around under great pressures. calling him a dinos doesn’t seem to work.
so now you cant take the same criticism, like we took your jibes when your going was good.
bruce has nobody else to lead the line except davis. not all strikers are same, some actually do other things than standing in the middle of the goals. its these other things which bruce needs, i don’t think he’s injured, you will be glad to know. i think he just received a bump before leaving the field. that will make you feel better knowing he will be match fit on friday
Still buzzing with this week’s results. Couldn’t of asked for anymore.
Some people seem to want everything yesterday. It’s easy, really easy to sit in front of a tv screen and instantly become a top drawer manager. If that doesn’t rock your boat then there’s always a top drawer pundit career path to follow.
It’s unbelievable how some fail to see the bigger picture. Before this season started we were pretty much losing every week. That’s how it was for 4/5/6 years. We scrapped by and preserved our premiership status by the skin of our teeth. We flirted with relegation that many times the inevitable happened. We were relegated.
The club was ruined by a certain individual who employed yes men to get his money back and had no interest in AVFC and stopping the decline.
Now we are starting to turn it around and getting results. If anyone would of said last year that this time in 12 months you’ll be sitting in 4th, having won 3 games in a week, winning 9 of the last 12, just 2 points off automatics promotion we’d of bitten their hand off after laughing uncontrollably at the thought. Even more impressive is the fact we’ve done it without a full strength squad for the best part of the season.
I wanted Bruce to be our manager, I still want him to be our manager. The bloke is doing a very very decent job even more so given the restraints he’s had to contend with.
I don’t care if we play shit every other week. It’s more important to get the 3 points and out of the last 12 games we’ve done that 9 times. That 27 points out of a possible 36.
Tell me a club, manager, player, supporter who wouldn’t take that over performance?
Mmmmmmm, I know of a few on here but hey, some were born to live in a bubble that includes being negative and miserable.
Have a fab weekend everyone.
IN BRUCE I TRUST.
UTV
I have to laugh, are people saying they hate the Villa and hope they go down? I’ve seen some say they should go down just to come back stronger, and that to me is idiocy, some on here was on Whelans back not so long ago and yet he is a player that breaks play up and drives the team forwards , i don’t think we have many that watch closely, they just see the result, i was impressed with Villa’s play yesterday, i was seeing them getting in and close football play to beat the opposition, that to me was showing we are getting stronger week by week.
We have too many managers on here knocking manager, and player’s ,let’s look at the bigger picture Villa are fourth at this place in time, and its as Pat was saying they only come on here if we lose, let’s hear what we see in the game, who did what and how well they played.
bill i defiantly seen ppl post that very thing. saying we should get relegated so we will become competitive. whelan has been quietly doing his job and has got shit because some have failed to see this. he might misplace a pass or two. but he is right in the middle of everything villa do. he is bound to miss place a pass of two. but other week against sunderland soon as whelan was taken off then sunderland took over midfield and came back into the game. thats what he does mostly protect the villa weaknesses where ever they are. he never hides away.
agree with bill and b6
Well said B6.
middlesbrough totally smashed my coupon yesterday. their is a team that should be wining this league the experts agreed, they were my tip on winning the whole league. but shit doesn’t play out the way it should especially on a football field and in the championship.
story sofar it looks like wolves will take the crown. but the runners up is up for grabs and the 4 places in playoffs. villa and derby look obviously good and getting stronger. its about momentum this league. bouncing back from defeats quickly and keeping winning runs going. big squads with strength in depths.
so villa and derby will be contenders, cardiff deserve to stay up there but they might run out of steam along with sheff utd. middlesbrough should find their form sooner rather than laters.
it really is impossible to call, for villa they have the right manager in place. he knows the ropes in this league. he will not allow the players to get complacent.he will point to wolves and have his team chasing them down. never looking back. if wolves remain lucky with injuries they should see this home. they are the best team so far, heading into the difficult period. i reckon as we enter spring this league will still have questions unanswered. just hoping we dont have to deal with any more bad injuries.
hopefully mccormack gets some offers in jan that will give bruce some money to spend, we have a good squad but up front we lack players that can stay injury free. gabby hogan are not reliable enough. both are injury prone murphy seems like he is also always injured. kodji is a big miss, for us to rely on davis is not right. i did point this out pre season, can’t believe we didnt get another striker who could hold the ball up like davis in summer. get this corrected in january i will be confident of promotion then
I will keep saying the same thing, so after we won another game the blue-sky boys will lump me in with ‘the Villa haters’.
Actually I am really pleased we are beating the teams in the bottom half of the table consistently, and because of the way our fixtures pan out this year we have had a run of bottom half opponents and a winning streak. Who knows, it often happens that winning improves confidence so if we carry that forward we might be able to beat a team sitting in 8th place or higher for the first time.
One look at December and you can see the fixture list has swung round, All tough games against promotion contenders bar Millwall. If we bag half the points available we will be doing really well.
OLL – I fully understand your caution as to our promotion credentials. However I predict an undefeated December – this prediction may have something to do with the levels of rum inbibed over the last four weeks – UTV from the Caribbean
That my be so OLL, you have to have a Crystal ball to know if that will happen, you have to put fitness and being free of injuries plus imput at the start of the run in to say that, we are a big club with young players ready to come in soon. I’m still in the Bruce camp and I still think we will be in the play off at the end ,
As Pat and B6 saying in Bruce I trust.
hmmmmm run of fixtures lol there are 4 more games then all teams should have played each other once. so in theory all teams should be halfway through their fixtures. if villa just beat the bottom half, home and away they would have 72 points thats almost enough to guarantee playoffs.
you have to beat all the bottom teams just as much as beating your rivals. if you only beat the top 6 home and away you would be relegated on 38 points
if ipswich had beaten us they would have been on same points as leeds 29 and only 3 points behind villa. so they were hardly bottom half.
Yes Nath, and the teams we have yet to play are Derby Leeds Blades and Milllwall. 3 of them higher in the table than any teams we have beaten so far – which is why December will be the true test of where we stand.
i got your point. but leagues are not decided on beating teams in certain positions, its teams that collect the most points from all fixtures.
its nothing more than unwanted statistic . but the most important stat is only 3 teams above us currently. if we can finish with one above us we will be successfully.
if we beat leeds it will be another rubbish team, we should have beaten. if we lose omg you shouldn’t miss the celebration on here and other villa chat forums.
i have seen the next set of fixtures, they are hard and no harder than we faced before or after. i give respect to all the teams in the division, remove wolves and the league is very equal.
given the amounts of injuries our club have received this season, we shouldnt be anywhere near the top. so its a bonus we are. leeds up next, they are good team especially at home, so iam looking forwards to a good game.
Very hard to beat all the teams above you when there are only 3
“We haven’t beaten any one decent” people keep saying. We’ll we are 4th and nearly half way. The worst we will finish is 6th, we are making out that Sheff U, Leeds and Derby are amazing super teams who we should be shitting ourselves over. We’ve got them and the top 3 to play at home. We have been brilliant at home since Bruce took over. My money is on us. Some of you seem like you want us to fail. And would take pleasure in it.
Some good debate going on here and thanks all, for keeping it civil.
It seems to me we have three major types of Villa fan.
I suspect it probably applies to all footy clubs, but the groups are;
a) We’re brilliant, whatever we do and the glass is always half full.
b) We want the team to be world club champions, but don’t see everything as perfect and are willing to criticise or hand out praise as is deserved.
c) Whatever happens, we’re utter crap and we don’t even have a glass, let alone it being half empty.
But whatever, I’m convinced we all ultimately want the same thing.
I like to think I’m in b) along with most.
And it’s the debate between a) and c) that is the hardest part for me to moderate. The truth is I don’t want/don’t have time to moderate it at all.
Hence can I ask that we don’t get personal in naming names, but just criticise a way of thinking?
My opinion is that there’s no point in name calling, because you’ll never change someone’s outlook.
And it’s the nature of footy, where it just invites loads of opinions of all flavours, as we all see things differently.
Which is what sets it apart from any other sport imo.
Just my thoughts.
In the meantime, re: McCormack.
I was going to do a post about him on Tuesday/Wednesday, but never got round to it.
Where he was rumoured to have been suspended because of a fallout with the coach (possibly having missed training?), which was denied.
Fwiw, I think there’s no smoke without fire and getting him the hell out of the club was superb man-management by Bruce, whatever the cost.
You just can’t have a player who turns in when he likes and then expect full commitment from the rest of the squad.
I’ve said it previously, but RM will never be a major player for the Villa again, under Bruce.
And I’ll bet Xia fully backs the manager.
Whatever, the Villa are giving fans less reasons to moan as the season goes on, which can’t be bad.
There’s no doubt that we’re in an up-trend.
I’m sure we’ll lose more games and I’ll be amongst the first to moan.
But I’m sure we’d all prefer to be challenging at the top, as opposed to languishing at the bottom, regardless of what league we’re in????
I don’t think we are brilliant at all, but we are effective. Like Glenn Whelan. We have been a shambles for 6 years. Last year we actually won some games at home, this year we are winning home and away. We are improving in results and performance yet still people criticise. If we lose to Leeds fair enough criticise, but if we win or get a point what is there to moan about? I just don’t get it. And this shit about beating the top teams is nonsense. There are only three teams above us. You play 23 teams twice, irrespective of where you are in the league. We have 27 games left – of the top 3 we play Wolves again once, Cardiff once, Sheff U twice, directly below us we play Bristol again and Derby twice and Boro once. We could lose all those games (which we won’t as they are mostly at home) and still have 19 games and get 17 wins – we have already got 35 points – that would put us on to 86 plus points that we may luckily scrape from those apparently invincible teams I have already mentioned. I think we will get the 90 we need for second place. Though it will probably be less than that seeing as apart from Wolves everyone is fallible.
Bruce’s home form is 17 wins 7 draws and 4 defeats, 58 points from 28 games. That’s over 2 points per game – we play the “top teams” mostly at home now- so I’m confident. Even if we do lose to some of them our record so far against the teams 8th down to 24th is, 10 wins 3 draws 2 defeats. 33 points from 15, again over two points. Our form stacks up at home, against the majority of the league and we have a top 6 away record as well. All evidence to suggest confidence in the opinion we are going up automatically.
i agree with badger about the type of villa fans. but descriptions are alittle in accurate. but he has hit the nail on the head with there being three types
a) We’re brilliant, whatever we do and the glass is always half full.
while i am always a optimist. i wont say we were brilliant when we wasnt. i think i give a good honest assessments. i understand the game and know its not always as simple as we think.
take the goal which was rightfully disallowed against ipswich. some fans think the goalie was at fault. but i say it was a good corner, it was whipped in with pace and curve. also it was very accurate, the goalie was also fouled which is why he flapped.
also i played in goal once at school level, when our goalie was red carded and i wont slag of the goalie. its a tough position. you have to concentrate,even when their is nothing to do. in a split second your called upon to make lightening dives and you have to read the game. make split second decisions should you come off your line all the way or just to cut the angles down. then when you have 20 bodies all in your box, you have to watch the ball flight and the bodies in front of you, which might be on a collision coarse with your head.
you have to be mad to play in goal. also you get blamed for the goals you concede rightfully or not
All fair comments Nath 🙂
“I understand the game”
And that’s exactly my point.
We all think we understand the game, yet have massively differing views at times 🙂
Vive la difference, I say.
I totally agree that goalies have to be nutters though.
They’re either brilliant or totally rubbish.
my statement i understand the game is not saying others don’t, but if you have played the game at any levels. you do have a understanding of the game. which none players won’t have. they are still entitled to their opinions.
i was just stating a example, that i am a optimist but i am honest to say if we didnt play brilliant. the goal was example, when jonhston flapped. it was down to a wicked ball in. and he was fouled. even without the foul he might still have flapped because it was one of many brilliant crosses from the corners from them.
Look at January’s fixtures: Bristol City at home – Forest away – Barnsley at home – Sheff Utd away – I do not see us getting less than 10 points from those games. If we can get 12 points over the xmas period then come the end of January we should be top 2. December is the only slightly tricky month – if we are half decent this month I think we are odds on going up.
So Ipswich, who we ‘efficiently’ beat at the weekend, have just done us a favour by beating one of our competitors Derby away.
We might be a little better than we think.
yeah pat57
that was correct, derby beat middlesbrough with ease. then lose at home to ipswich who themselves were soundly beaten at villa with ease. all this info point to a very competitive league. so please guys respect the efforts of the villa players who have been tremendous. in the face of crippling injuries which has taken out most of our strikers and other important players. we still managed to get into a decent league position,
exactly right
I’ve seen a marked difference to our team over the last two matches, its what called coming together, shame that Terry got injured, my only concern now is young Taylor getting back to his best, i think the team in general now understands how important its getting to win games, that tweet from Xia got to mean working towards loan players have been going on under cover, 1 or two known players are on the cards imo.looking forwards now to us playing plus 4 games on the box coming soon. Utv