Championship Play-off Final : Pre-Match Thread

[Mister E]

Lampard tried to go toe to toe with us twice and ended up with a bloody nose both times so my guess is that he is going to change course and stop us playing. It could turn out to be a real tight struggle.

I think this is probably how it will pan out. The questions that it raises are:
- are Derby good enough to play the containment game?
- will we be patient and disciplned enough to combat it?

Should be fascinating and nerve-shredding.

[Newby]

Is it just me or is this week really dragging?

[KRS]

I’m on holiday and it’s gone far too quickly for my liking 😣

[colin69]

We will win 3-1 in 90 minutes.

[FrankyH]

I've had a fiver on that at 16/1 , and a fiver on 2-0 Anwar El Ghazi anytime  at 24/1.

I'll take any Villa win  though.

[Nii Lamptey]

Off to Pembrokeshire for the bank holiday weekend, so that should take my mind off it for a few days..... until first thing Monday morning when hurriedly packing shit up and shovelling porridge down the nipper's throat, so that I can get back in time for the match!   :S

[Toronto Villa]

Starting to get a little on edge.

[gpbarr]

Fuck the Albion let’s get back on important stuff. Lampard tried to go toe to toe with us twice and ended up with a bloody nose both times do my guess is that he is going to change course and stop us playing. It could turn out to be a real tight struggle.

This. Unfortunately.

Everyone expecting quite an open game but I don't think so somehow. Lampard will have looked at the last 20 mins of last year's final where we knocked and knocked on Fulham's door and couldn't carve out a real, true chance, and he's seen the exact same happen v WBA last week.

They'll play to frustrate us. I trust Dean to account for that and drill defence & midfield to keep things very tight at the back to try to force a final 10 minutes (or Extra Time) where Derby have to start attacking, and then hopefully we can punish them.

Agreed. Derby will be patient, they are not going to repeat the mistakes they made twice in the league. And Leeds were a better footballing side than Derby, yet still lost. I see two keys to this game - do we turn up and play to our potential, and are we patient enough to unpick the 10 behind the ball approach I expect Derby to deploy.

Overused phrase but I really think the first team to score will win promotion. Praying its us! 

[KRS]

Derby don’t have the defensive mindset that Baggies have had drilled into them over the last few years. It takes organisation and discipline to do what they did in the semi final, and I would expect us to expose the gaps or mistakes if Derby tried something similar.

[adrenachrome]

Derby don’t have the defensive mindset that Baggies have had drilled into them over the last few years. It takes organisation and discipline to do what they did in the semi final, and I would expect us to expose the gaps or mistakes if Derby tried something similar.

I agree, and I don't think they will try that strategy.  They will try high pressing in waves which might unsettle our defence, but could work to our advantage.

If they sit back, we will get through them.

[Lastfootstamper]

If only there'd have been a shit team that'd sneaked into the play-offs, maybe we could've played them. Oh well, never mind, there's always next season...

These lot have been our biggest aggregate win in a season since god knows. Only Forest shipped more, but they found a way to score 6. These got none, and they were lucky to get that! They might've made some changes since we last played them all of two and a bit months back, but have they signed Messi while I wasn't looking or something? From reading on here, I'm not sure if I have to expect them to park the bus having spent ten days practicing long throw-in routines, or batter us into oblivion with incessant waves of rapier-like attacks, and they'll be champing at the bit after their rest while we'll be a rusty rabble from having spent 11 days in our pyjamas eating nothing but crisps and biscuits!

I know we can't just turn up and expect to win, but a lot of people are getting very 'Villa' about this.
That's not us any longer.
We're different now.
We're new Villa, sharp, powerful, progressive.
We plan meticulously. 
Our revolution has purpose, stand before us and be crushed.

I, for one, can't f***ing wait for this.

[AV82EC]

If only there'd have been a shit team that'd sneaked into the play-offs, maybe we could've played them. Oh well, never mind, there's always next season...

These lot have been our biggest aggregate win in a season since god knows. Only Forest shipped more, but they found a way to score 6. These got none, and they were lucky to get that! They might've made some changes since we last played them all of two and a bit months back, but have they signed Messi while I wasn't looking or something? From reading on here, I'm not sure if I have to expect them to park the bus having spent ten days practicing long throw-in routines, or batter us into oblivion with incessant waves of rapier-like attacks, and they'll be champing at the bit after their rest while we'll be a rusty rabble from having spent 11 days in our pyjamas eating nothing but crisps and biscuits!

I know we can't just turn up and expect to win, but a lot of people are getting very 'Villa' about this.
That's not us any longer.
We're different now.
We're new Villa, sharp, powerful, progressive.
We plan meticulously. 
Our revolution has purpose, stand before us and be crushed.

I, for one, can't f***ing wait for this.

This, I’m nervous but can’t fucking wait. Bring it on.

[andyh]

You have convinced me LFS ! 👍

[Bren'd]

If only there'd have been a shit team that'd sneaked into the play-offs, maybe we could've played them. Oh well, never mind, there's always next season...

These lot have been our biggest aggregate win in a season since god knows. Only Forest shipped more, but they found a way to score 6. These got none, and they were lucky to get that! They might've made some changes since we last played them all of two and a bit months back, but have they signed Messi while I wasn't looking or something? From reading on here, I'm not sure if I have to expect them to park the bus having spent ten days practicing long throw-in routines, or batter us into oblivion with incessant waves of rapier-like attacks, and they'll be champing at the bit after their rest while we'll be a rusty rabble from having spent 11 days in our pyjamas eating nothing but crisps and biscuits!

I know we can't just turn up and expect to win, but a lot of people are getting very 'Villa' about this.
That's not us any longer.
We're different now.
We're new Villa, sharp, powerful, progressive.
We plan meticulously. 
Our revolution has purpose, stand before us and be crushed.

I, for one, can't f***ing wait for this.

This with claret and blue bells on.

[Steve kirk]

I think it's very natural that edginess may be creeping into us Villa fans as we just want this oh so much but we are a very different proposition to last season, even when we've not been as free flowing as in the Albion semi our professionalism and inner strength got us over the line, I have a feeling our players are more than ready for whatever Derby throw at us and I expect us to finish the job this time.