It’s a funny old game indeed.
Just when everything was looking really bleak, so we get a superb (but awful quality) win at Middlesbrough and then cap it with a 5-0 trouncing of Bristol City.
Apparently it was our biggest win since we beat Sunderland 6-1 in April 2013. That’s some length of time and probably shows how poor we’ve been in recent years.
And make no mistake we did trounce City and it was a pleasure to watch, with us applying strong pressure over a very sustained period, which simply proved too much for the visitors.
Where on earth has that come from after some really turgid performances over the last month or so.
Whatever, it makes a really nice change to not have to point the finger at Steve Bruce today and I think about my only criticism is in asking why he didn’t get the kids on earlier. If you can’t give kids a go when you’re three or four goals up at home, when can you?
Of course, O’Hare and Murphy did get on eventually, but I’m just saying…
There were some excellent performances today, notably from Hutton, who linked well with Adomah: Hogan, who I thought looked sharp, Snodgrass who got two goals and looked for a third and particularly Jack Grealish, who grafted his nuts off to good effect for once.
He looked every bit the player we all think he should be and he pulled the strings for an excellent Villa performance.
What was most noticeable was that sustained effort, which I didn’t for one minute expect us to keep up.
If we could keep playing like that, we could walk this league, that’s how good our performance was.
Talking of which, we now sit fifth, just five points off Derby in second.
If we’ve had our bad run, how encouraging do things look all of a sudden?
And the bonus, for me anyway?
AVTV works fine via a paid-for VPN.
Very happy days.
Comments
131 responses to “Villa 5 – 0 Bristol City; It feels good to be a Villan today.”
Problem with Davis and Murphy is Davis doesn’t score and Murphy’s coming off a string of serious injuries. They both look like talents, but neither are going to get us up. And while I can understand people’s problems with making other teams players better, the sheer amount of money we’ll get going up will 100% outweigh Johnstone making United 4m or Onomah going on to being a good squad player for Spurs. However it’s unlikely Bruce will go for a youth player from one of the big clubs again, and will likely look at outcasts from Newcastle or Palace or such. Or even outcasts from Liverpool who won’t be there in the future. And even if we don’t sign the loanees permanently, I think the promotion money is well worth making other teams a few million. If we were a top 10 Prem side, I’d agree that it’d be annoying.
You make a good point that the value of promotion to premier league outweighs the negatives of loans. This is obviously only the case if we get promoted. Another season in the championship will probably see both players going elsewhere and Villa back to square one. If this happens we need to show more faith in our own. I know Watford have been successful through the revolving door system but I think they are the exception. Stability usually proves the best option. Too many loans will be disruptive going forward.
I get that, and yeah I’d rather see Davis and Murphy start rather than getting like McBurnie or Solanke in. Both would be pointless as we have better youth currently. Or at least our youth who will be our future. But those two aren’t going to get us up. We need goals and neither are regular goal getters, well hard to claim Murphy isn’t, but Davis has proven he isn’t. Whether he’s unlucky or not, and not to down play his other game play, because he’s very good at bothering defenses and holding the ball up, but we need goals. If we have to loan in like Ulloa, I don’t think it’d disrupt us too much. Likely a permanent signing in the summer if we get him and he does well.
I think Davis will score goals in time. He’s been unlucky not to score more already. For the future of the club it would be better not to bring anyone in and let Davis, Hogan and RHM fight for the striking position. The problem with that is If Hogan were to get injured, we would be relying on two very inexperienced strikers.
Problem is, we need to go up. We’ll be set to lose a lot of money and have to sell a lot of our better players if we don’t. Davis and RHM won’t take us up and Hogan hasn’t proven anything yet.
Great news sees Terry and Green starting the FA Cup game. Lansbury confirmed to be a sub and likely feature for the last half hour.
““Five of them will be 20 years old or under tomorrow.”
Hogan twisted his ankle so is out and Onomah’s been given the green light to be played by Tottenham so he’ll likely start.
I would rather have seen Hepburn-Murphy start instead of Davis but he is on the bench so he might get an opportunity. Still a good mix of youth and experience though. Terry without a recognised centre back to partner him so will be interesting to see how that works out.
I take it all back. Davis should definitely start.
Well he’s just scored a goal.
Losing to Peterborough! 🙈
Good we don’t need a replay
I’m not overly bothered about the result as we have much much bigger fish to fry than a competition we ain’t going to win.
Fair play to Peterborough, wish them well in the next round,
UTV
Well 3-1 now ….
Still an embarrassment. We should be smashing any league 1 side with any side we put out. Takes all the confidence out of the Bristol win too.
Winning is a habit and hopefully losing this won’t cause a downturn in our league form.
Normal service resumed with another embarrassment under Bruce.. at least we can concentrate on scraping 6th and bottling it in the play offs… Absolutely shit management yet again by the dinosaurs in charge
We are free to concentrate on the league!
Definitely not our strongest starting 11, and you know what I say about building from the back – it isn’t a bum steer.
sack bruce lol should have played Ohare
Well I streamed it and we was back to normal, Peterborough good luck to them they was up for it, we wasn’t.
Today just doesn’t matter, if we lose to Forest be annoyed- our reserves lost today- so what?
It does matter and this is why:
1: Winning is a consistent habit and we are not consistent.
2: What an opportunity to play again / blood key U23 players. A number of missed opportunities. If SB really felt an FA Cup would be detrimental to promotion chances then play the future players and damn the result and views of people like me. But don’t play key players and loose. That’s a half way house and demonstrates a lack of judgement.
3: Lack of judgement: It’s only when circumstances go against the manager’s plan that he picks a team that wins. This normally occurs when he is one game away from us fan’s perceived last game before dismissal. Deep down a Whelan / Jedinak is the manager’s preferred combination. Yet one of them allowing Grealish a free run is a fan’s choice.
4: Entertainment: Apparently we are a top 100 world football club, which amazingly is in debt. We are fast running out of the Premier league grave boat. Under FFP rules our principle income for investment will come from ticket sales. Dear manager, that is us the fans who you despise due to our “one match from a crises”. No Mr multi millionaire manager. Us poorer individuals want to be entertained. If we lost 3-2 playing attacking football, then despite the odd groun we would be happy. But you dare not loose as it will stop until picking up a multi-million pound contract after us. Well, if promotion is not achieved this year and our connection to the premier train fails to materialise, us fan’s income becomes critical. Therefore, don’t slag us off and play tobwun every game. Then we would give you our full backing.
5: How long do you trust the winds of luck. According to the papers SB’s contract is s rolling one. Here’s my view. I don’t rate you for all the above, yet I welcomed your appointment. If we are promoted, I would let you go, as you do not have the required nouse to survive in the evolutionary premiership. If you fail to achieve promotion, I would let you go.
I worry that Dr Xia has backed two dud manager’s with fantastic funding, only for their limitations to squander this investment.
UTV
Well said Sid, its a stigma on the club, ok the youngster have had go now we know. Go for the league place.
Only getting to the prem will service our debt not the FA cup. Bruce did the right thing.
Annoying that’s what, think about it Owen, young up and coming against want to be’s , the want to be won, and against a club with a proud history. a little embarrassment to say the least. Still lets hope things get better.
It just doesn’t matter, we were never going to win the FA cup, people say I’m delusional for saying we’ll get top 2 and people in here saying we’ve got to go full tilt at the cup because of our history. We’ve not won it since ’57 with some great players so this bunch had no chance. All I care about is promotion because getting into the prem only way to get out of debt. Yet again when we won 5-0 no one’s on here yet our reserves lose a meaningless game and guess what….?
I understand Owen what your saying, you and I have to agree that what we have at this time is not able to take us up, if your in the middle age you would understand what I mean , I’m still in the age of winning the game every time you put on a boot, i hate loosing, Yesterday angered me in that youngster didn’t play to win, do you think they know it might mean they will be sold , Villa is not in my mind playing to get us back on track, player power to get what they want is going on.
✔
@stokecity
CLUB STATEMENT: Stoke City can confirm that the contract of manager Mark Hughes has been terminated with immediate effect.#SCFC 🔴⚪️
8:10 PM – Jan 6, 2018
The Premiership has lost its best-dressed manager. All he needs is a brolly and bowler and he will be a (calf-leather) shoe-in for the remake of the Avengers.
That good, Bruce is now say he picked the wrong team,,never mind you do it regularly
Steve Bruce delivered a brutally honest assessment after Aston Villa crashed
out of the FA Cup to League One club Peterborough United.
Bruce made 10 changes from the team that battered Bristol City 5-0 in the Championship – and admitted he got his selection wrong.
The XI was made up of players returning from injury and young rookie and Bruce acknowledged he should have picked a different side .
“Of course I’m not happy about it,” said Bruce. “In football you accept getting beat, but it was the manner of it
Another legend gone, Nigel Sims Rip Nigel.
Very sad to loose ‘Big Nigel’ but I didn’t realise he was 86! That’s scary Bill; just shows how long we (you longer than me) have been supporting this wonderful football club.
we win 5 nil against top championship side. talk of us going to walk the promotion again. then we lose to peterbro a league below us. reality bites back.
cries for weeks to play ohare, manager has played him in all 4 cup games no goals in any. taken off yesterday. is he ready now to play championship??
truth is apart from davis and green the rest of the youth, probably need a long loan at a much lower level. onomah has been sent to villa to achieve this. why would spurs play their kids if they are not quite ready, send them to another finishing school or club like villa they will do the job for you.
the team on paper we played, was possible the best we could send out if the manager wanted to rest the first team after a hectic christmas. had he played the more kids, posh would have declared at cricket score. truth is our next best team were easily beaten and 3 1. could and should have been 5 or 6 one.
Apart from Shef Utd we have a run of very winable games coming up. We should be looking at 19 points out of the next 7 games imo. Positive from yesterday…Green is fit and has cleared the cob webs and Terry the same. Lets hope that gives us the freshness and squad depth to smash this league and get back to where we belong! One or two transfers wouldnt go a miss either!!
Agree with Adam that we need to take positives from the game, and getting injured players back fit to boost the squad will help our push for promotion. 2nd place is still a possibility and we need to aim for that or the lottery of play offs as the minimum we should expect. Cup game has gone now and being Villa fans we are becoming immune to these kind of disappointments. The future is what matters now. Bruce isn’t going anywhere whether we want him or not. The second half of the season will see him sacked if he fails to make top six. Forest on Saturday is a must win now he has ‘rested’ his best team. Trouble is it’s on Sky and we all know our record when we are on TV ☹️
We’ll go up in second as all the other teams fade away. Derby on a good run but all the others slipping and we have a full squad now apart from Kodjia. Confident we can make it.
Whilst a cup run is always good for the fans, I think Bruce did the right thing in resting most of our first choice players. It’s really not his fault that the team he picked failed to turn up and take their opportunity but that doesn’t just apply to the younger players does it? For me Onomah just doesn’t cut it and neither does Thor.
Moving on, I see Barry Fry has apologised to Dr. T which is fair enough but I’m more intrigued by Dr T’s response which says quite clearly that Villa is the worst performing business in RECON’s sports and entertainment group.
Now, is that because football is the least predictable / controllable of businesses or is he dissatisfied with the way the club is being managed?