Aston Villa v Blackburn Rovers Pre-Match Thread

[Simon Ward]

Thumping 4-1 win I hope. Will be in the cheap seats goading the Blackburn fans, (all 20 of them!)

[Toronto Villa]

I hope and expect McLeish to pick a far more expansive team for this weekends game. He'll want to get a win in his first VP game and he'll want to prove that he can do it with a bit of style and flair. I'd want Heskey, Gabby and Petrov dropping to the bench for Makoun, Ireland and either Marc or Baz coming in.

I'm going for a relatively comfortable 2-0 (Bent and N'Zogbia)

[Reuben]

Probably the first time I/we've been so confident of a win for a while, may be more down to the opposition.

I'd like to agree with some of the 3-1 and 4-1 predictions but see it more as a 1-0

[Rip Van We Go Again]

1-1. Zog for us.

[Risso]

Internal memorandum

From: Everybody@heroesandvillains.co.uk
To: Alex.mcleish@themightyvilla.com

Dear Alex

As part of your probationary period, we think it only fair to inform you that nothing short of a good thrashing will do where Blackburn are concerned.  The sheer tedium of playing them 8 times a year is only relieved by a 5-2 thrashing, so please see to it that this happens.

Yours

The fans.

[Jockey Randall]

As has been pointed out before I don't think we can afford to drop Heskey at the moment because he adds much needed height for set pieces, especially not against a fairly physical Blackburn side. I'd be very surprised if he was benched. As much as I admire Petrov as a model pro, I think his role should be more of a cameo these days and Makoun should take his place. I'd go:

                    Given

Young   Collins   Dunne   Warnock

           Makoun   Delph

N'Zogbia                      Heskey

         Bent    Agbonlahor

Predictions wise I'll go 2-0 Bent (21) and (72)

[manic-road]

2-0 Bent x2
Blackburn have their two best defenders injured at the moment as well, so this is a great chance for the first three points of the season.

[villan1975]

If we don't win this one we are in trouble.

2-0. Bent and N'Zog.

I like Mazrim's team but would think about Bannan in place of Ireland.

Agree with this or even delph in the advanced role.Not understanding the Ireland love in.

[villan1975]

The referee for the match is Stuart Attwell (Nuneaton)

Last season we were unbeaten with him in charge, while Blackburn drew in the one game he oversaw.

The assistants will be Andy Halliday (yellow flag) and Charles Breakspear (chequered flag). Kevin Wright is 4th official. 

What colour strips they wearing statto?

[KRS]

They lost at home to Wolves on the weekend and will be fired up to try to beat us for a change, so expect them to have a bit of fight about them. There is still a job to be done so hope the players arent as complacent as the fans. Its hard to see anything other than a Villa win but if we're not focused from the kick-off then it could get messy.

3-1 Villa

[IRISHPHIL]

blaclburn will want to get revenge for the asia match , so will have more incentive

[Deano's Mullet]

3-2 Villa with us hanging on at the death after they score a second late on.

[Holtenderinthesky]

blaclburn will want to get revenge for the asia match

Or the last 4 cups we've knocked them out of in the last 18 months!

[IRISHPHIL]

at home we need to play too strenghs, not there weaknessess
so have bent up front with support from albighton, ireland and cnz

[Villanation]

Win win, and i suspect Gabby getting on the score sheet, looking at him on Saturday he's getting his hunger back, huge amount of work he put in and set up some nice balls for Bent and others, was busy, think he will be an important part of the game, so Villa win 2-0.