It’s only a brief one, as I’ll be on my way to the airport soon for the trip home, but I couldn’t resist spending a few minutes to post about the game.
In my opinion, we’d have easily lost this today if it were played just a couple of months back, but the fight in this side is now blatantly obvious to anyone.
I watched the game in a pub that also had the Liverpool game on, along with the commentary, so didn’t really get to appreciate the atmosphere or even any discussion.
But for me, the midfield were outstanding, with Delph, who was given a tough time by McCarthy, taking command of most that went on.
The first Villa goal was a header from Benteke after a nice ball in from Delph and when I saw it, I immediately assumed there was a foul or an offside, as it appeared the Everton defenders didn’t even challenge. It looked incredibly easy for Benteke, but that’s the sign of a top striker in form, I suppose.
We were beating Everton all over the park and it was no surprise really when Benteke stuck again.
Grealish put a lovely ball in from the corner and I think it was knocked on by Vlaar, which saw the ball land towards the back post where Benteke was unmarked to smack it home.
2-0 then at half time and I don’t think Everton had a shot on goal.
Everton upped their game somewhat after the restart, but we were still looking the better team until Everton got into the box and applied a little pressure.
Vlaar caught Naismith, but it was as soft a penalty as you’ll see, in my opinion. Certainly soft enough for a neutral in the pub to say it wasn’t a penalty.
Lukaku stopped his run-up midway (which I didn’t think was allowed anymore?) and hit a poor one that just evaded Shay Given.
2-1 and the usual worries about us being to hold out crept in, but the fears were temporarily groundless.
After a cracking (purposeful, I should add, it wasn’t a punt) long ball from Bacuna, Tom Cleverley took the ball first time and finished with a nice shot.
3-1 and surely now it was all over?
No, as the trusty Villa never fail to scare us do they?
I’m still not convinced about what happened for Everton’s second goal, but with no sound, it looked like another one where the ref had blown for something, as the away team’s attackers had already turned away from the goal. But Given inexplicably scrambled to get a ball that was heading just under the bar away and jagielka nodded in.
Someone in the pub said Given was fouled, but I don’t know. I’d have to see it again, but whatever, it just looked like a comedy of errors.
And then the final whistle went, which left me feeling mightily relieved and of course elated.
All in all, a thoroughly deserved win against a good side, that was tempered slightly by Leicester and Sunderland winning.
Still, we’re looking fairly secure now and as I suggested a while back, Newcastle are looking very dodgy.
Not that I care about them.
A brilliant win against 12 men.UTV VTID
Was clattenburg that bad.
Yep
Yes, he was imo.
Delph was battered by McCarthy and got no protection at all.
Delph should of hit him back then can’t rely on ref to sort the bully out for you
Should definitely rely on the ref to do something about McCarthy purposely stepping over him, just missing a “stamp” on him, when he didn’t need to step over him. But no doubt any reaction, Delph was gone. That’s just how bad the refereeing was and pro-Everton.
And that is our problem Andrew and always has been we are too nice. A streetwise player like Roy Keane, torre etc would have got their revenge on the sly. We need an alan Hutton type player in midfield who wouldn’t stand for what McCarthy did.
Meh, maybe but the way Clattenburg was, he’d send any of our players off, even if he didn’t see them do it. If McCarthy ended up on the floor, Delph would’ve gone.
can you delay your flight for about three weeks or so cause we’ve played cracking while you’ve been away cant change any routine now
he tries to play advantage to much so it looks like he has missed the foul, is obstruction still a foul because you very rarely see it given now
If only mate.
My pocket says yes, just about, but I don’t think my gaffers would be too happy.
Another great performance all over the park from Villa today. Delph and Benteke were outstanding again. Grealish starting to be a real player too. Thought Cleverley was excellent again as was Okore, but noboy had a bad game.
Both their goals were a bit lucky, and lets be honest, they deserved nothing. If we take that performance into next week, you would think we will beat West Ham and I think that we will be enough to keep us up. But in football, you never know!
One thing for sure, Im looking forward to the Cup Final and to see who Sherwood brings in during the summer!!
Clattenburg never does us any favours; just glad he’s not referee for the Cup Final. We don’t need to be playing Arsenal and the ref!
Didn’t he ref for the semi v Liverpool. He did ok then. It’s not him for final anyway can’t remember refs name but not him
Jon Moss is reffing the final
What’s he like
A disaster of a ref. Never worth a final.
That’s all we need must be pro arsenal then as no one wants us to win it
He made some awful decisions in the game he did ref, I think it was the late ko at Manure, and the commentators said his next game was the Final.
Unbelievable bound to give them a last min pen to win it then
About 5ft 10in and dressed in green……he will probably be wearing a different colour than the 22 players, but could be dressed very similar to the 2 funny men waving flags 🙂
Want to know more?
Great attacking performance. Terrible ref and very poor Vlaar defending. Delph was Fab(ian) today! Bacuna’s through ball to Cleverley was one of the passes of the season IMO. The movement of Cleverley, Grealish and in particular Zoggy who occupied 2 Everton players all afternoon was outstanding!
Given was a calming influence at the back!
I would have been seriously worried had we lost this game. A very flattering scoreline for Everton!
We fear NOBODY, did you hear me? NOBODY
Spot on Langford. Two (debatable) goals flatters Everton; pity their manager isn’t as honest as Rodgers.
I love you Langford!!!!!! Yr the bomb!!!;-)
LOL….would you like to take me out….I’m very cheap 🙂
H60…. The second goal should never have stood. Cant really tell about the penalty but Vlaar had ample opportunity to clear the ball!
Just hope we sell that glory hunting prick
Call me an apologist but I think Vlaar was hard done by with the penalty and OohAh ‘glory hunting prick’ that’s boll***s. You might not like the guy but he’s not made any big issue about his future – just kept quiet which is fair enough in my book.
Amazing how he said how great we were after semi. Just wants a glory hunting trip to Wembley and a new contract in case utd don’t come in for him. Complete waste of space bet he won’t be injured for final funny that
Well.thats the Baggies all but safe. Lets hope they turn the Barcodes over next week!
That’s what worries me they don’t really care now they are safe. Still a great result beating Utd tbf.
OohAh you need to take some happy pills
You probably wont believe this but I am on them
Then you ought to get a refund as they are clearly not working! 🙂
they wont beat newcastle .they will just roll over . just wait every game where they could do us a favor and beat other bottom six teams they have lost. im hoping its just bad luck but part of me thinks they want us down.
Given was mugged before the second goal. Shouldn’t have been waved off for interference. And I also thought “feigned” penalty kicks weren’t allowed anymore.
Not out of the woods yet with the other results yet, but feel a lot better going into the next matches.
*Should have been (stupid beers)
I think the ruling is that you cannot stop/start in your approach to goal, once you start moving you cannot stop and in fairness to Lukaku, while adjusting his stride in a very obvious way he still maintained his momentum towards the ball. tricky thing to pull off to be fair.
this is the worst case scenario .. you probably might have seen this but so funny, worth a watch, The penalty taker must have moved countries and changed his name after this, it was so bad!!
forgot to post link … http://www.theguardian.com/football/video/2011/sep/07/al-ahly-amir-sayoud-misses-penalty-video
Very funny
That makes sense. When I saw the replay today he slowed down but kept his momentum going forward. Which is maybe why he didn’t get much on it.
Watched the game again and Clattenburg was absolute sh**e. No protection to Delph and yellow cards for Villa for nothing but how come McCarthy didn’t get booked and Martinez’s view of the game was crass – no class.
Soft penalty (most refs woud not have given that) and Given was fouled for their second goal.
We got 3 points any other result would have been a travesty.
H60… After watching the penalty decision several times I agree with you that it was very soft and the second should never of stood! In reality, it should have been a 3 – 0 victory. That score would have been a much fairer reflection of the game. As for Martinez saying they deserved a draw, that is a total joke!
Martinez is a twat. Though I disagree with pen I watched on MOTD last night and vlaar did stick his foot out and caught player to me that’s a pen
That’s why you don’t listen to managers. Jagielka admitted they didn’t deserve to draw and weren’t unfortunate to lose, you just gotta take your hats off to your opponents. He’s at least willing to admit they were thoroughly beaten.
It’s true that we got nothing from the ref, but plenty of positives there. I know everyone’s talking about Delph and benteke – rightly so they were superb – however, Tom cleverly looks like a world beater in recent games under Sherwood. I thought he was man of he match yesterday. The goal was just a fraction of his contribution. My one concern was that twice, lukaku dribbled from the half way line with players waving a toe to tackle him. The second run resulted in the penalty of course. Great to see our gaffer saluting the Holte End! Touch of class there.
There’s no reason we can’t pick up points in all of our remaining games now.
Other results not really going or way – it’s really tight at the bottom. But if we keep playing the way we are at the moment it will be a real travesty if we go down! Looks like QPR and Burnley are all but gone, so one place left to avoid! Need to sign Cleverly up, as he’s been on fire under Sherwood. Delph and Benteke also look reborn and Grealish is starting to look like a top player in the making. Goals coming from midfield, players making runs into the box, crosses coming into the box – all things that were unheard of under Lambert. Just need to sharpen up at the back and cut out the silly errors.
If we go down we deserve it its how you’ve performed over 38 games not the last 6 games that matter.
Yes oohah you are right. If we go down it’s deserved across the season. Thing is, we are so much better now, that even appointing Sherwood a month earlier would have left us safe. That would be the most frustrating aspect.
Sunderland will get naff all from their remaining games I’m positive about that. Keep the faith LADS UTV 😀
Ps it took 2 spot kicks to beat the saints,their a team unable to score goals basically their really SHITE like their north east neighbors.
You can’t say that everyone is beating everyone at the moment. Look at WBA yesterday
We’ll see
United have been awful in fairness. So have Sunderland bar yesterday and so has Southampton. Agreed with Giddy that them winning again seems unlikely.
Depends whether Mclaren comes for their last few games or not
There’s no saving them, McLaren’s not the best manager ever.
For once I only saw the MOTD clip. It looked a dynamic and confident performance.
Maybe this column does get read in higher places, Given comes in on the match-day team sheet as requested. Sod’s law being what it is – the 2nd Everton goal involving an illegal arm-lock on our keeper is one goal Guzan with his height and College basketball experience would not have conceded. Otherwise I agree with Langford the defence looked more confident with Given as backstop.
Cleverley has been transformed, he hadn’t had a worthwhile shot all season and now he’s scored 2 in 2, the last one a belter.
It was a great finish by cleverly tbf. Utd will want him bk at this rate. Prob go to Everton though they arnt much better than us. But maybe geographically better for him as its near Manchester
Great performance all round. I thought Westwood was awesome in the first half making space for himself and laying the ball off. Our midfield always looked limited under Lambert now it looks like one of the best in the country
Totally agree on Westwood; always been a fan of his. He’s compact, good skills and rarely gives the ball away. With Delph and Cleverley now free to maraude forward he can sit in front of the back four where he plays best. He’s also playing far more forward balls than he did under Lambert, primarily because there is actually someone running into space in front of him!
There’s a good piece by McNulty on BBC web site about Newcastle. Reading it reminded me of us pre TS – it’s worth a read.
This is what I was referring to a while back, in that Newcastle look very vulnerable.
They’re an awful side atm and if anyone thinks we’re in trouble, they surely have to be more so.
After Carver’s rant, you’d have to expect half the side to turn against him even more, if he hasn’t already lost the lot of them.
Fortunately, I can’t see Sunderland getting many more points and 35 points may well already be enough for us.
Hull have a tough run in too, so that’s 3 clubs who have to out-perform us and that’s if we don’t get another point.
But you just never know.
As it’s been for the last few seasons, the relegation battle is way more interesting than what happens at the top.
Sunderland have at least got experience of a relegation battle after a miraculous escape last year. Moreove they have a game in hand. I think Newcastle look more likely than Sunderland…..but who knows? All we can do is look after our own results. I have a feeling that we will end up with 40 points after one win and two draws!
I think you’re not far wrong with that 40 points Langford, fwiw, but anything can happen.
I think my point was more that we certainly don’t need three wins (although I can of course see what Sherwood is doing in saying that) or even two and I very much think one would be enough.
The thing is teams like us hull,Sunderland have been in a relegation scrap all season and all teams on the ascendancy. Whereas Newcastke who were on the beach a few weeks back are suddenly in free fall and Havnt a clue how to deal with it
Only saw the game on MOTD but thanks to technology I could look at the penalty and last Everton goal quite a few times. Definitely not a penalty and even more definitely not a goal. Kind of reminded me of the times when it was legal to charge goalkeepers into the back of the net.
However it’s 3 points and we really needed them. Tim made the point that we might need to win all 3 games left but I think 2 will be more than enough. West Ham are drifting, nothing to fight for, Southampton pretty much the same and Burnley are already down. The way we’ve been playing all very winnable games.
Tim said that Everton was the form team with 5 out of 6 wins and we made them look very average, so I’m very optimistic but I still can’t wait for them to be mathematically safe. I’ll breathe a massive sigh of relief then and look forward to great anticipation to next season.
UTV
Havnt Leicester won 5 out of 6 too? I think a win and a draw should be enough
MattVillan, I’ve read your submission and it’ll go up tomorrow morning, cheers.
Carver is a tosser. Said he would love it if Villa got relegated, this comment was to emotional and unprofessional. Newcastle are doomed.
On another note I wanted to spread some awareness about the justice for Henry Hicks campaign. Henry was an Arsenal fan who died unlawfully at the hands of the Police. A lot of people are ggetting behind d the campaign I believe they will be at Wembley on final day
Now here’s a very interesting line from Sherwood, especially the first half.
‘I am allowed to sign whoever I want in the summer as long as I can justify it, but I believe even if we didn’t make a signing we wouldn’t be in this position again,’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/article-3066602/Aston-Villa-won-t-fight-relegation-says-Tim-Sherwood.html
In other words he’s got fuck all to spend but expects to keep us midtable without spending a bean. Whoopee do better rush out and buy 10 season tickets…not
That’s the negative way to take it, you could however take it that he’s praising his players and instead of claiming he won’t buy, is insinuating that Lambert was a garbage manager and he could without spending a dime make the players win games and have us mid-table.
Disagree players are midtable at best. Sherwood will not be able to sustain this form long term trust me