Birmingham City v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[Countryside Villain]

Not the best performance, but better.  On another, luckier day, we'd have put 4 past them.

The defence looked better but Clark struggled with Bentley.  Makoun will add some steel to the midfield but we are crying out for more quality up front and a more creativity in the centre of the centre of the park.

Easy prediction of the day - this thread will soon be filled with cries of "Houllier out"

[TopDeck113]

Frankly I'd have taken the point at the start and, as it was, probably a fair result.

Derbies are different.  From now on, though, it had got to be three points when we play the teams around us.

[ez]

can't remember the last time i was so relieved to see a villa goal

[Somniloquism]

but we are now out of the bottom three by GD.

Not according to the table on the BBC site we aren't.

You need to refresh the page.

[Greg N'Ash]

Probably a fair result though both teams could have nicked it near the end. The main difference before the substitutions was they had forwards while we were playing with what looked like a 6ft concrete post, except less mobile and not as good at trapping the ball. If the baggies want him, then sell. Can't fault the effort even though the application was wanting at times

[Countryside Villain]

Played reasonably well. Fonz looked good when he came on, should start ahead of Carew against Man City in my opinion. What was the attendance?

Just over 22,000 and about 1,700 of those were Villa.  Shockingly poor.

[Holtenderinthesky]

We didn't lose. But one point isn't much good to us.

Well it has taken us out of the relegation zone.  I'd say that makes it "good for us".

[pauliewalnuts]

We didn't lose. But one point isn't much good to us.

Thats patently not true.

This was a six pointer. Getting something was absolutely vital here. Can you imagine the mood that loosing would have caused at the club?

[TonyD]

Bannan and Fonz looked useful.    They have to start next time with Petrov left at home to oil his zimmer....

[richard moore]

Awful and unlucky at the same time

On the credit side were Albrighton's attacking, Walker too, Nathan's cameo and Clark recovering to be much better in the second half
 
On the debit side were the totally anonymous Reo-Coker and Petrov, Carew poncing around like a bloody fairy on top of the Christmas Cake, Albrighton's defending, Gabby's role and therefore Gabby himself though not really his fault and, for me, the central defence still wobbles like jelly far too often
 
A game we were never in control of
 
Urgently needed - a striker who can shoot and head straight and a midfielder to partner Makoun (Delph?)

[eamonn]

We had more quality about us - the Fonz's bit of play deserved a goal, that was top-drawer stuff.

A battling point not to be sniffed at. The margins are so fine, we got 6 points off this lot last season but I don't think we played much better, if at all, than the derbies this year.

[hawkeye]

A loss would have been catastrophic, thank god and Ridgewell it wasnt. We looked so much better when we had Fonz and Gabby up front why cant our manager work this out?

[citizenDJ]

A draw away to them lot is no disgrace, and to come from a goal behind today (and in truth, we could have won this, I think) showed a degree of fight that some may have felt was missing not so long ago.
I was impressed with Walker on the whole, and although taking off NRC caused me a bit of concern I think some credit is due to Houllier for going with a very attacking pair of substitutes. Delfouneso did very well indeed in his time.

So, for me, I was desperate for us not to lose, and we didn't. I'm fairly happy with that.

[Chris Smith]

Loads of bottle today and unlucky not to win it. That sort of commitment the rest of the season and we'll be fine. Back 4 were great.

[PaulWinch again]

Good fightback, and we had some shocking luck.