Pre-season Friendlies Match Thread

[dave.woodhall]

First game, against a team busting a gut to beat us. Nothing to worry about.

[Simba]

First game, against a team busting a gut to beat us. Nothing to worry about.

see your point but.... surely our lads would have also been " busting a gut" to prove themselves.

Ok I will relax, and see it in context but imagine- and I am sure you have played the game as most of us have-  the dressing rooms at half and full time. Someone with a responsibility to AV will be sleepless tonight.

[Clampy]

First game, against a team busting a gut to beat us. Nothing to worry about.

see your point but.... surely our lads would have also been " busting a gut" to prove themselves.

Ok I will relax, and see it in context but imagine- and I am sure you have played the game as most of us have-  the dressing rooms at half and full time. Someone with a responsibility to AV will be sleepless tonight.

A bit melodramatic Simba. It was only a freindly.

[darren woolley]

I agree with dave there is nothing to worry about it is our first pre season game.

[Simba]

First game, against a team busting a gut to beat us. Nothing to worry about.

see your point but.... surely our lads would have also been " busting a gut" to prove themselves.

Ok I will relax, and see it in context but imagine- and I am sure you have played the game as most of us have-  the dressing rooms at half and full time. Someone with a responsibility to AV will be sleepless tonight.

A bit melodramatic Simba. It was only a freindly.

As I said, Clampy I will take it as exactly that. A friendly.

Melodramatic? Did it sound that way? Well, all I am trying to say is that we are, after all, a pro club and friendly or not, against motivated players or not, we should have the players and the coaches to beat a team like Basingstoke. At as canter as they say.

This result is not important. In that I suppose you are right. What is important is that we have depth because we sure as hell cannot compete in the  transfer market. These kids have been carefully selected from a very large pool. This should have been a big win for them. At the risk of repetition they must have been slated by our coaches and Basingstoke players will dine out on this for years.

However, what you say is true- no sense in falling on a sword for a friendly. I will submit that. Still worries me though.

[Legion]

v. Peterborough United (A) 19.7.10 7:45pm K-O

[richard moore]

Just back, a relatively meaningless workout in the sun to be honest. 2-1 the final score, we dominated but had no one up front to put the ball in the net. The pressure on their goal increased towards the end and we could have had 3 or 4 in the last ten minutes, instead of just the one we did get. No one stood out significantly, though Shorey had a useful second half and was instrumental in most of our best moves. Our big centre forward - forgotten his name - certainly made an impression when he came on too in the second half and gave us much more of a focal point. Davies was pretty composed at the back and played the full 90 minutes. Good turn out from the Villa fans, plenty all around the ground and even some singing! When Carlos went off and walked around the ground, it took him about 20 minutes to get to the changing rooms for signing autographs and having his photo taken! The kit looks just ok in the flesh, I can't abide claret socks and the top looks alright.

[richard moore]

First game, against a team busting a gut to beat us. Nothing to worry about.

see your point but.... surely our lads would have also been " busting a gut" to prove themselves.

Ok I will relax, and see it in context but imagine- and I am sure you have played the game as most of us have-  the dressing rooms at half and full time. Someone with a responsibility to AV will be sleepless tonight.

Don't over-react, it was just a training match in the sun to be honest, lots of tippy tappy football and no one busting a gut in the slightest. We could have had 5 or 6 if we had wanted to turn up the tempo, and very nearly did as it was playing half cock...

[davevillan]

First game, against a team busting a gut to beat us. Nothing to worry about.

see your point but.... surely our lads would have also been " busting a gut" to prove themselves.

Ok I will relax, and see it in context but imagine- and I am sure you have played the game as most of us have-  the dressing rooms at half and full time. Someone with a responsibility to AV will be sleepless tonight.

A bit melodramatic Simba. It was only a freindly.

As I said, Clampy I will take it as exactly that. A friendly.

Melodramatic? Did it sound that way? Well, all I am trying to say is that we are, after all, a pro club and friendly or not, against motivated players or not, we should have the players and the coaches to beat a team like Basingstoke. At as canter as they say.

This result is not important. In that I suppose you are right. What is important is that we have depth because we sure as hell cannot compete in the  transfer market. These kids have been carefully selected from a very large pool. This should have been a big win for them. At the risk of repetition they must have been slated by our coaches and Basingstoke players will dine out on this for years.

However, what you say is true- no sense in falling on a sword for a friendly. I will submit that. Still worries me though.

Basinstoke are Conference South, they are a semi-pro club. They play at a good standard, and would have been back in training before our players, with also some ex pro players.
All these games are for, is fitness and to try out a few things.
Wether we win, lose or draw is totally irrelevent.

[dave.woodhall]

Today was no more or less relevant than a day at Bodymoor.

[Ads]

I’m not sure there is a great deal of relevance to any pre-season game to be honest. I can think of two seasons back where there was wall to wall coverage on SSN of Tottenham’s pre-season campaign where they won every game by 10 and didn’t concede... only to find themselves being rescued by Harry “we only had two points when I got here” Redknapp at Christmas.

[richard moore]

Today was no more or less relevant than a day at Bodymoor.

Spot on Dave. It was a day out for our young reserves, probably their first competitive game back supplemented by a few 'known faces' who had probably been asked to come along just to give the crowd some faces to recognise. The match very much had that sort of atmosphere...

[richard moore]

I’m not sure there is a great deal of relevance to any pre-season game to be honest. I can think of two seasons back where there was wall to wall coverage on SSN of Tottenham’s pre-season campaign where they won every game by 10 and didn’t concede... only to find themselves being rescued by Harry “we only had two points when I got here” Redknapp at Christmas.

Exactly, look at us last year. Peace Cup and then we lost to Wigan. Spurs drew with San Jose yesterday, West Ham lost to Thurrock. Complete irrelevance and in the 'old days', you wouldn't even have known these matches were taking place apart from some tiny small print at the end of the results section in the national newspapers....

[VillaAlways]

Well I hope they go up a couple of gears for the Walsall game I'm taking the kids and don't particularly want to see us walloped there !!

[Simon Page]

Just got off the phone with my nephew who played for Basingstoke. That's why we lost; they had a Villa fan in their side. I think his one ambition now he's played against us is to play for us, so if Martin needs a right back/centre back/holding midfield player, he only has to call. If he wants he can play him right back as he's more accustomed to centre back.

Apparently Shorey was excellent. And if it's any consolation, Basingstoke beat Southampton yesterday by the same score.