Villa 3 – 1 Barnsley; Whatever you think, you can’t knock it.

If I’d had time to do a preview, it was going to be something along the lines of “well, we beat the Tykes 3-0 on their patch, so surely we can expect the same today?”
To then counter that it just doesn’t work like that and anything was likely to happen, because it’s the Villa after all, isn’t it?

I saw via my phone during a smoke break, that we’d gone one up after just five minutes via Scott Hogan.
And that was the last I heard/saw until I was driving home and listening to WM on the radio, where to my delight I found we’d won and Hogan had got another, along with a third by Hourihane, very ably assisted by some incisive play by Jack Grealish.

I feel I should hold my hands up a little here.
It wasn’t so long ago that I said I couldn’t see Scott Hogan ever scoring many for us, as although I thought he makes all the right runs, so we don’t play to suit him.
Likewise Grealish, who I’ve acknowledged is a cut above anyone else we have at the club, yet I never felt he’d be the right player for Aston Villa and would be better suited elsewhere.
Well, that’s now two good games on the trot they’ve had, with Hogan now scoring 4 in three games and Grealish apparently pulling the strings again.
It’s seriously beginning to look like I might have been totally wrong on both counts and long may it continue.
I guess I’m just fickle.

It’s the same on my views of Steve Bruce really and my opinions will vary depending on how we’ve performed and more importantly, the results we’ve got. After all, the latter is all that counts, isn’t it?

Which yet again, just goes to show what a funny old game it is.
How long ago was it that we were 10 points off second and all looked doom and gloom?
I said last week, that we were beginning to look in a very decent position and with Wolves losing and Derby drawing, we’re looking even better today.
My point here is, that although I’ve blown hot and cold with regards to Bruce, so I’ve consistently said that I believe he’s the right man for us.
As it stands, I can’t see anything changing my mind, even if we fail to get promotion this season.
If we do fail, well, that’ll be another story.

I gave my Derby workmate some abuse/banter about the Bristol City result this morning and when it stopped, he admitted that in his eyes the race for second is now between Derby and us.
What was more interesting, is that when I pointed out that Derby have a seriously bad recent record of running out of steam in the last couple of months, so he conceded that I was right and it’s a worry.

I also temporarily have in my midst, a couple of Smoggy supporters, who after a very brief conversation, seem quite knowledgeable. Plenty of room for a bit of banter there, I reckon, which is great, because I love it.

Not much else to say, except all us Villa fans will no doubt be very content for this weekend.
Well, I’d be a lot more content if I didn’t have to work tomorrow; but we can’t have everything can we?

I’ll take automatic promotion as compensation, ta very much.

Please let it be so and we worry about being in the Prem if it happens.

Of course, I’m too long in the tooth to take anything for granted, which raises another point.
I heard a Wolves fan slating his club for having a monster pre-game fireworks display today, where he felt like they were celebrating without having won anything and maybe slacked off.

It’s a good point. While we’ve done nowt yet, so we need to keep the effort at 100%. Which Bruce himself suggested was a bit of an issue today, where we were also a bit slack and apparently let them back into the game too easily.
This is the part I like about Bruce and what makes him the best bet currently.
He’ll let them know we can’t afford that, in no uncertain terms.

And there I think I really have finished, although lots of thoughts/possibilities are streaming through my head.

Enough.
Well done lads and Up the Villa!

Oh and well done you people who have kept the debate going in my absence.
That’s the whole point of the site, where any stuff I chat is only meant to raise a few points.
It’s great to see you all move things on and update each other, as well as myself.
Cheers.