What a strange game that was.
I don’t know what Reading came as, but it wasn’t a football team with any intent on winning, was it?
I don’t know what their plan was, but if it was to try and contain Villa, it failed miserably even before they had Dave Edwards sent off for two clumsy challenges.
It was almost like watching an “A” team playing a “B” team, with the latter being instructed to not really try and the result was the most one-sided game I can recall in years.
It comes to something when their goalkeeper was probably their hardest working player.
Still, Reading’s lack of effort made it look like we were in a training game, where we literally had the run of the park, with plenty of crossing practice thrown in. Which is just as well, as it looked like we needed it.
With the poor crossing matched only by some equally poor shooting and heading, it made for somewhat frustrating viewing and that was the quietest I can recall Villa park being, for a 3-0 win, ever.
Never mind. After us having about fifteen attempts on goal and nearly 75% possession, Bjarnason opened the scoring with a nicely taken strike not long after the restart.
I have to say I marked him as our MOTM, as he worked hard and had much more movement in the middle.
Grealish was a close second, as he pulled the strings.
Anyway, after some more good teamwork, Hourihane scored the second with a glanced header and that pretty much wrapped up the game, which led to Onomah and Kodjia coming on for Snodgrass and Adomah, followed by Whelan for Grealish.
These were good, common-sense changes aimed at resting the starting three, but the truth is I could probably have got on and looked a threat.
Even Whelan had a small dalliance near the penalty area in open play, such was Reading’s lack of intent.
Not that I’m taking anything away from the win, as you still have to get the goals.
Talking of which, Scott Hogan scored the third to make things more deserving of how the game went.
So it’s hard to judge if we played well or not really, as the opposition were so poor, but a 3-0 win is exactly that, which helps nicely with the goal difference and should see us safely into the play-offs.
More importantly, it’s a win, where we can hopefully go on another roll, leading to good momentum for when it really counts.
Happy days, eh?
I can’t believe that was the same Reading that beat us last season.
I know it’s an old cliche but you can only play the team in front of you. So what if Reading were poor. At least we didn’t exert ourselves too much. Now if Norwich can produce a similar performance against us on Saturday we can go into the Cardiff match feeling a bit more fresher than they probably will be feeling after the Wolves match.
If we beat Norwich then we are virtually assured a play-off place. Next game against Cardiff Bruce should tell them it’s a free hit and to just go for it. If we lose it won’t affect anything but if we win then there’ll just be 4 points between us and that’s assuming that they beat Wolves. If they only draw against Wolves then there might just be 2 points in it. Squeaky bum time all around.
There’s still a chance for automatic promotion but I won’t be unhappy with a play-off place. After all most of us would have given a limb or two for that at the start of the season.
Decent win but they are a very poor side and with 10 men it was a foregone conclusion once the terrific first goal of Bjarnasson went in,
I really want us to beat Cardiff, nothing to do with our own chances as they are dead but there’s still a tiny chance Fulham could pip them as I think they’ll win every remaining game. A demoralised Cardiff in the play offs would give us an edge.
Best we can hope for now is a good run in to leave us confident going into the playoffs. We missed the boat with the defeat at Bolton. That game was the one that killed of automatic promotion in my opinion. If Cardiff do slip up it will be Fulham that takes advantage given their form and run in. Personally I am disappointed that we are unlikely to get automatic promotion as I fully expected us to get top two given the squad we had assembled. Kodja and Grealish injuries played a big part in us not getting off to a better start. Villa in the playoffs is a recipe for heartache which we all have had enough of. Let’s hope we can finish on a high and get up one way or another and allow the Doc to move to the next phase of our rebuild.
Sure, if we win against Norwich and Cardiff lose to Wolves, it’s cut down to 4 points and for Fulham it’s two when they beat Wednesday. People still forget, Cardiff have a game in hand. Week from today it could be 1 point, but then it could be 4 when they play the game in hand. Utter shame we only had 1 point out of 9 against much weaker sides.
Anyways, Reading were absolutely awful. Even with 11 they were pretty dreadful. A team that can beat QPR when we can’t shouldn’t be playing like that. They’ve got to be happy they’re still 5 points above the relegation zone, because they were, just yikes. Two wins and a draw is all we need to confirm top 6, although 5th-10th are all looking like average at best sides who will drop points so it’ll be before that. Bjarnason and Hourihane need to be the starting 2 midfielders for the last 6 games, whether he changes up other positions, fine, but those 2 are a must.
“Bjarnason and Hourihane need to be the starting 2 midfielders for the last 6 games”
I’d definitely agree about Bjarnason and maybe Hourihane too.
I saw Hourihane get on the edge of the box and it made me think “what has he done in this game?”
And I thought it was next to nothing.
I think I’m missing what he does; just the same as I saw what Whelan did, when many others didn’t (before Whelan went really crap, I mean).
It’s a funny old game indeed.
Anyway, agreed, we look more lively and energetic with those two.
Problem is, we only have Lansbury that can really do what Hourihane does, which is not sit back and do nothing. Unless we’re gonna bring in like, Doyle to play, Hourihane has to be it as Lansbury isn’t near good enough. Jedinak and Whelan are typically a waste, mistake prone and slow. Jedinak maybe 2 games, sure, but Bjarnason needs to play. 6 games, no real need to rotate unless injuries to one of them.
i cant believe some fans are still not happy. on other sites, its been said already reading beat qpr who took us to the cleaners and that was not a fluke. thats football. teams hit highs and lows. teams with more highs are the better teams in the league. reading faced villa last night with villa upping their game from last few games. villa players were rested and hungry benefits of a bigger stronger squad.
reading games plan looked obvious, they were going to try hit villa on the break. some teams that have made villa look ordinary,but they are teams they press the shit out of us, but not all teams adopt this tactic. reading allowed villa to build up, hoping we would break down around their box which they would break on us with barrow speed. the sending off fooked that plan up.
i thought it was a good performance, taking in the last few games, the pressure building on the players and manager. first requirement was to score and win the game. we earned this result by shifting reading around with neat passing. we earned the red card and then we exploited them further by making the pitch bigger even more than before the sending off.
i would forget cardiff still, its about maintaining a steady ship to reach peak form around the playoffs. other teams will be flat out like cardiff, i expect they will hit the wall and lose games from here on in. but they have just about enough points gap to make top two. we need to use the squad clearly making sure all players we need will be fresh and in form. kodjia had a decent run out and these minutes will do him a world of good. hogans looking good after his rest and grabban was unused. the midfielder have be rotated as where the full backs.
That shouldn’t be a reflection on the Villa, Blues beat Bolton, football a funny old game, we all have off days.seeing the match and watching closely we have some good understanding with each other. Problem lies with the end product .
I don’t care how poor the opposition is as long as we beat them. It was vital that we stopped the rot, and hopefully that’s the case.
A win’s a win and earlier in the season we failed to beat Middlesbrough when they were down to 10 men for pretty much the whole game.
Agree that Bjarnasson should be playing all remaining games. My one slight gripe 13shots on target – we need to rediscover that clinical finishing that we showed against Wolves.
Spare a thought for our Ray Wilkins, who has past away today. Ray I have seen you in your prime, RIP for all you contributed in the name of football. God bless.
Well said Bill. Thoughts with his family at this very sad time.
RIP Ray Wilkins. Very sad, far too young.
Yes, Butch Wilkins.
Great player.
Wolves 1 Cardiff 0 . 76 minute.
Cardiff lost .
tell you what cardiff will do extremely well to recover for the villa game. they gave everything physically against wolves. but emotionally they looked fooked missing two pens. seeing wolves celebrate like they won the world cup will be soul destroying
Hope so Nath. ..and hope we don’t bugger it all up ourselves…chance to get to one point behind Cardiff…only trouble it will help Fulham as well
just have to play our games and not worry about fulham. but cardiff will have to show strong character to recover, villa game on tuesday innit doesn’t gave them long to recover, they looked done for like a boxer once they get knocked out they are never the same.
i give them credit thou they are not a great team or even a good one. but they go until the final whistle. every single game. so villa better be ready to go to war. wounded animal they will be. sheff utd and wolves both hammered them, but never built on the lead.
wow can’t believe the fallout from last nights game. first i respect their should be a handshake from winning manager, before he dances around like david pleat did at ipswich when saving their arses wayback.
wolves manager did the exact same thing when beating villa back at their place. our players and backroom staff did return the compliement by celebrating a 4th goal in front of their bench.
its just a storm in a tea cup. warnock and nuno both acted poor and unsportsman like but hey so what. great game hope villa cardiff is another one.
their i go disrespecting norwich lol. but match up with cardiff will be a hard battle. one which we should win. they commit many players inside the box. they should be food and drink for chester and terry. they don’t rely on speed but brute force. they will try to load the box even from throw ins.this even before they chase the game. they leave plenty gaps to counter i mean massive gaps, i thought wolves should have finished them off way before the pens. sheff utd did the same, they missed plenty of chances to end cardiff way before the equaliser.
Before we all wet ourselves with excitement over Cardiff losing – we have the small matter of beating Norwich before thinking about Cardiff – and they still have a game in hand although it’s away at Derby.
Fulham 18 games without defeat – if they take that to the end of the season then they will most likely pip Cardiff and would thoroughly deserve to do so.
So, still all to play for UTV
Early kick off so a fantastic chance to up the pressure on Fulham. Come on lads dont let us down.. when is Andre Green back? I loved watching him flying down the wing.