Work. The curse of the drinking class.
That’s the saying, but it also applies to the footy fan class as well. I didn’t finish work until 3.20, so missed most of the first half.
What I did see of it looked pretty good and really it was all quite comfortable, with us doing our usual trick of playing some very slick, first time stuff that’s a joy to watch.
The goal came and that was it. Watkins was given it, but Bailey had it covered anyway and it was 1-0. All good at half time.
Then came the restart, with Morgan Rogers quickly scoring a really nice goal to make it two and I was thinking it was game over, Brentford crumble and we go on to win at a canter.
Oh, no, no, no.
It’s never that simple with the Villa.
Brentford go on to score, maybe a bit luckily, with the ball going in from the player’s back foot after he’d missed it with his primary foot. It gave Martinez no chance and that was that. How they go in isn’t important. The score is.
And then Brentford scored again within a couple of minutes which had me fuming. How can you go two goals up and then concede two in a couple of minutes?
It’s quite easy when you’re the Villa.
There was commentary that said it was a great goal, but I don’t care. For me, it was just poor defending.
And then to send me totally apoplectic, we conceded again after taking a free kick and instantly giving it away, for christ’s sake.
This is amateurish stuff.
Emery was apparently doing his fruit and no wonder.
Meanwhile, I was nigh on having a coronary myself, complaining about how we had switched off and had allowed a plainly inferior side to dominate the game.
We pulled the equaliser back, but we never looked like we were going to get the winner and quite simply I kept thinking to myself that’s a massive two needless points dropped and my guess is it will have cost us fourth place when we look back at the season.
I know everything is possible in Premier league football and anyone can beat anyone on the day.
But you just can’t afford to not get the win in this kind of fixture if you want to be successful.
My over-riding thought during the last few minutes?
How often do we get that last minute winner that the usual teams do?
And the answer is “hardly ever”, isn’t it? I certainly don’t remember many.
And that’s how I knew we wouldn’t win.
UTV!
I like your style 🙂
Whatever happens, don’t panic. Arsenal fell apart towards the end of last season but the experience has obviously fired them up this season. It might be the same for us.
I still think we have a good chance of fourth place but even fifth is still two places better than last year. Given the injuries and a squad that’s not quite there yet, I think that Unai has worked miracles.
I was at the match and I still can’t understand how we let those three goals in but it is what it is. We outplayed Arsenal at VP so I see no reason why we can’t come away with a result so I’m going to stick my neck out and say that we’ll get a draw.
Whatever happens it has been a hell of a season and certainly better than when we were hanging around the relegation zone.
Anyway, LOSC next and I’m backing Ollie to get a hat-trick. COYL
Rachel Daly retires from International football.
Totally under rated and never fully appreciated when you consider she played most of her England career out of position.
England’s loss is Villa’s gain.
UTMV
Yet another injury problem in defence for Emery.
With Cash still not fit, Lenglet has also picked up a ‘small injury’ and is unavailable for tomorrow’s game. With Konsa having to play at RB we only have two other fit CB’s in Torres and Carlos after which we are looking at the unthinkable!
There comes a time where constant injury problems, particularly in the same area of the field, simply reach breaking point. I fear we may be at that point now.
Whatever happens over the next few weeks, Emery has done a brilliant job which, as fans, we need to keep foremost in our minds if, indeed, the season does fall away.
UTMV
Should we be jealous / concerned about Small Heath’s proposed 60,000 new stadium. Owner Tom Wagner says relegation won’t affect plans. Where as Chris Heck is put off losing 6,000 fans every game for two years with the scrapped North Stand rebuild. Totally lacking ambition and vision IMO. I hope there are a lot of things happening behind the scenes to get us a stadium that can accommodate 60,000 fans because we are in danger of being left behind. You know that famous saying whereby if you stand still, you go backwards! The thought of Blues or Wolves becoming top dogs of the Midlands isn’t something we should laugh out too much. I bet Man United fans never would have thought 20 years ago that their noisy neighbours would ever become a threat.
The differences are:
1. You don’t lose any revenue whilst building a new stadium
2. I respect the ambition. Realistically I suspect they are broadly trying to line up being back in the EPL with having a new stadium
3. They have the land to include major commercial revenue to support the stadium.
The biggest question marks are over their ability to fund the transition from Championship (I think they will avoid relegation) to a strong EPL position in the time frame given (a) they are not state funded and (b) FFP or whatever it’s eventually called and planning!
But the biggest question mark is – where the hell are they going to find 60,000 to fill a stadium built to house Birmingham City – it could well become a mausoleum!
If we can’t accept relocating from Villa Park then a 60,000 plusstadium is out of the question given that it seems the owners are reluctant to reduce the seating capacity whilst stands – North / Doug Ellis and even The Holte are redeveloped. Add to that the very limited ability to create a strong supporting commercial element at VP and any increase in seating at VP may well be minimal.
Having said all that – the reality is that being consistently in the Champions League is the real goal not an extra 10,000 seats!
60,000? Blues? Who’s paying for that?? They could fill it with sex dolls. They’re forever screwing themselves so it would be fitting. Would make for a great atmosphere. 20 odd thousand noses interspersed amongst 40 thousand human sized sex aids…
60,000??? 60? Thousand??? 🤷
No. They are scum. The owner knows bugger all about footy and is just trying to emulate the Citeh takeover of ManUre.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/teams/aston-villa
Haven’t listened to the podcast but this is an interesting take on McGinn
60,000! Blues! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I know! It sounds crazy. I had to re-read the story many times before I realised it wasn’t 6,000!
Blues currently losing and 23rd in the league. Agent Rowett continues to secure relegation form to league one. Meanwhile another 40,000 fans apply for season tickets to their new stadium! 😂
🙂
If I’m right, the place where the noses are hoping to build the new stadium used to be called ‘The Tip’ in my day and it was a right eyesore. It had a few scrapyards and people would go there to dump any old rubbish.
So it seems that nothing will really change.
On a different note, anyone watch the Barca/PSG game last night? A totally different type of football to the one served up in the EPL. LOADS of space, very little press or tracking back. No wonder there are so many goals!
WHEN (note I say ‘when’, not ‘if’), we qualify for the CL this year, it’ll be interesting to see what type of game is served up later this autumn. While Eddie Howe may have had the resources prior to their injuries, Howe had zero European experience at Managerial level while Emery has…………………..F*CKING TONS!!!!!!! 🙂
It will be really interesting to see how the FFP or whatever it’s been rebranded as morphs into next season as it’s clearly not fit for purpose, and we need reinforcements, even with all our crocked players out. Any news on how bad Kamara’s ACL injury is? Will he be back for late August?
I doubt we’ll see Bouba before New Year, Bum Bum…
Interesting debate coming through about the French league postponing league games to allow their teams to have a better chance in Europe and subsequently improve their coefficient; they’ve stated it explicitly. Meanwhile, the PL pull Villa’s pants down. While Pep, justifiably, whinges about how it affects him and his team, Unai gets on with it with a can-do, no excuse attitude. Trooper. 👏👏👏👌
Also strange that both Real and Barca had well over a week to prepare for their UCL games with Barca playing on a Friday for the first time in yonks. Obviously some leagues feel that it might be a good thing if one of their teams won something whereas the PL doesn’t seem too bothered.
60,000? 🙈