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.
