Apologies for not having been here for over a week, but I’ve been heavily involved in a job in South Wales that had to be finished asap. Hence I’ve been working long hours and frankly, couldn’t be bothered in what’s been another daft international footy period.
I see England beat another no-hoper team in Kosovo and are apparently now ranked as one of the favourites to win the Euros.
What an absolute joke.
We will of course, fail as soon as we meet anyone decent and this gifting us an easy route, the same as the WC just insults my intelligence, as I’m sure it does yours.
Whatever.
So the proper footy restarts and it’s the Barcodes at home.
The press are doing their usual thing and trying to make something out of the Steve Bruce thing, with perhaps some players having issues, where they’d seriously like to get one over the ex-manager.
No doubt Bruce might want to get one over us too, particularly after the cabbage incident.
I’m sure he saw that as a major insult, but I doubt he’d hold it against the club or the fans, as he’s surely long in the tooth enough to know it comes with the territory.
However, while I think the background stuff won’t matter too much, I still see this as a very important game.
It’s one that we really, really ought to win and while if we don’t, it won’t be the end of the world (no single game is), it would be a major setback, confidence-wise, especially for us fans.
Squad news is that Jed Steer is out for a conservative 3-4 months.
Jack Grealish should be fit, although I note that Dean Smith said he thought that he was ready a couple of weeks ago, yet didn’t make it.
Strange, that, but perhaps suggests that Grealish is just itching to play and tries to underplay things.
Which is good, I suppose.
Jota and Kienan Davis are still out.
As for Newcastle, a certain Cieran Clark is touch and go, after a knock suffered playing for Ireland.
Lascelles is out until the new year.
Lejeune and Schar are back in training, but Matt Ritchie is definitely out.
I’ve never heard of any of those three and don’t give a toss either.
So what to think?
Well, surprisngly for Steve Bruce, Newcastle can hit you with a fast counter, but can also maintain it too, as witnessed by when they beat West Ham. They only had 31% possession, yet still managed 9 shots on goal.
Fortunately, I don’t think overall that we’re a team that are particularly vulnerable to the counter.
I might appear daft in saying that, but certainly it seems to me that we’re more vulnerable to sustained pressure on the defence.
It’s certainly what cost us the Liverpool game, for example.
Indeed, I’d say that us sitting back more and more as the game goes on, seems our biggest problem.
And that’s regardless of if the scientists say we aren’t overly-tired.
If that’s the case, we need to attack more, later in the game!
It seems we’re slight favourites and I think the best call is possibly a draw. I don’t think for one minute it’ll be a 0-0 or a 1-1 though.
In fact, I’m not going for a draw at all.
It wouldn’t be good enough.
We need to win this one and I’m going for a 3-1 win.
Because I think we’re capable of it.
UTV!
I’m off to walk the dog and will post later.
Very good win. We seem to be making people look ordinary at times. Earlier in the season I thought that it was down to luck (which may be part of it) but we keep doing it and you’ve got to think it’s down to us playing pretty well on the whole. Get in a striker to take the pressure off Wesley and those lost points become wins and we’re in good shape. Jack clearly had an amazing game – those injury breaks just seem to fire him right up. I kinda prefer Konza next to Mings than Engels…
After a sloppy start to the second half we managed to stabilise and ran out comfortable winners. Should have scored more and Wesley won’t get a better opportunity than the one he fluffed. Grealish dominated the midfield and if he practiced shooting he would easily make the England squad. Hourihane and Luiz both deserve mention as did Heaton who produced a few excellent saves at crucial times and his handling was excellent. Happy to be a few points clear of the drop zone. We should have enough with Grealish staying fit plus January acquisitions to push up towards mid table.
Back from the free boozy cocktail party and celebrating with red wine!
Get in.
UTV
On a serious note – an important win against a side many tipped to struggle this season. We have to continue to beat the sides around us.
Newcastle are truly dogshit.
And I’m going say so on one of their websites, as much as it’s something I don’t normally do, tomorrow.
A very long term Barcodes website too, who invite everything they’re going to get.
Simply disgraceful and deliberately trying to generate animosity, imo.
The dog has walked my legs off and I’m knackered, so I’ll probably post tomorrrow.
We beat that utter shit and will be fine, simple.
Not like you Badger. Just ignore them.
Very valuable 3 points. It does show how important Grealish is to the team, same as last year.
i watched the game in the pub and for once, i was fully relaxed and confident of a win. newcastle never really got into the game,except for the 5 mins before h/t and just h/t . that period of all 10 mins max, we looked nervous and they were pressing for once. thats the reason we looked edgy cause they were so negative for the first 40 minutes we took the game for granted a little. forgot they could be dangerous. but once we switched back on, we should of ended up scoring more of a convincing win.
iam glad our fans showed some class with bruce. we have the makings of a good side here lads. the way we broke on newcastle in the second half was scary. we opened them up at will. albeit they were trying to get back in the game and were open to the counter. only downer was not adding more goals.
bring on manure, beating them would be a personal goal. their fans totally get up my nose. they would be a good scalp, very beatable sheff utd had them in a firm headlock and somehow they allowed them to get back in the game. but still sheff had enough character to smash and grab a point they fully deserved.
Aman Singh Shergill has left Birmingham City to become Physical Performance Scientist at Aston Villa. [@ground_guru] #avfc..
https://trainingground.guru/articles/performance-scientist-shergill-leaves-birmingham-to-join-aston-villa
Interesting but not Villa, Emery Sacked from Arsenal Llongberge takes over.
See Deano has signed a new four year contract – well deserved. Let’s hope it works out well for everyone – new contracts for managers have a history of backfiring.
What’s that telling us lads , Newcastle 1- Man city 1 45 minutes…
Here’s some pretty sobering statistics –
Villa have only won once in the last 41 meetings with Manure (home and away) and that was a 1-0 win away 10 years ago (L30 D10)
Villa have only won one away game in their last 24 PL games (and that against Norwich) (L20 D3)
Villa haven’t won a single game against the established top six in 17 games only one of which was drawn! (L16)
JG is the most fouled player in the PL (45 times) which is an average of 4 per match!
Some things never change.
I thought I’d bet the house on a double – Villa to win and JG not to draw a single foul 🙂
Ah well maybe not!
Take a draw tomorrow but I’m not holding my breathe.
*24 PL away games