There you go, it’s right at the top of the post, so you can vote and don’t have to read my prattle if you don’t want to.
I have to confess that I’m worried about this one.
We’ve had a great run in winning six games out of six and when you’re having such a good run, thoughts have to turn to when that run will eventually end, as it surely has to.
Unfortunately, Blues seem to have turned their very poor form around and they’ve won four, drawn one and lost one of their last six, while also scoring a lot of goals compared to previously in the season.
Couple this with the fact that I’m not so Gung-ho in my thinking these days and I see this very much as a major banana skin that we need to avoid, if we’re to continue in our challenge for second in the league.
It’s not that I think Blues are as good as us, it’s just the fact that it’s a derby, where we all know the odd simple mistake can decide the game.
So what do we know?
We’re in very good nick, with only the usual long-term sufferers being out.
Lewis Grabben has trained this week, so might get a few minutes, depending on how the game goes, but you’d have to expect that Steve Bruce will yet again make very few, if any at all, changes to the starting eleven.
On the Blues’ part (and I really couldn’t care less) full-back Jonathan Grounds is out with a knee injury.
Winger Jacques Maghoma might make it, after missing the last couple of weeks with a groin problem.
None of it really matters, as it’s all about who wants it the most when it comes to the second city derby, in my opinion.
We’re the better/bigger club, by a mile.
We have the better first X1 and squad.
We have the better everything; it’s as simple as that.
As we all know.
But it means nothing, as derbies are on a level only equalled by the FA cup, in that everything goes out the window.
Where the result can massively inflate/deflate a club’s confidence either way.
That said, the bookies have us as odds-on favourites and they’re no mugs.
And as much as I’m worried about this one, so I refuse to think that the scum can beat us on our own patch.
I’m going for a 2-1 win.
I don’t give a toss who gets the goals and I don’t care how we go about it.
As long as we out-work and out-fight the toe-rags.
The word is that Steve Bruce is hoping to be at the game, after the sad loss of his father, combined with his mother’s ill health.
He has my sincere condolences and I suspect he will indeed make it, purely because he won’t be able to resist such an interesting game. That, plus work takes your mind off things, I’ve found.
Fingers crossed for that Villa win.
UTV!
