Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: dave.woodhall on May 22, 2025, 01:05:19 AM
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Aah, the memories. Blame Dave Collett.
https://heroesandvillains.info/2025/05/22/the-end-of-the-line-paul-lambert/
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Lambert was well ahead of his time with his 'fucking about with it from your own goal kicks' tactics. Other UK teams didn't latch on to this particular brand of footballing suicide for many years.
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Could've been our Ange.
Weren't we in the FA Cup QFs when he was finally sacked?
He had good records v West Brom and Liverpool in his time here so not impossible we could've got to the FA Cup final under him and who knows he might've come up with some sort of plan v Arsenal. All while scraping 17th on 20 goals....
It was incredible how long Lambert actually got considering how miserable the Football was under him for so long. At least know when we make managerial mistakes we quickly rectify it and get rid of them after a year.
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I'm sure he was given a contract extension just months before being sacked.
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I was there that night at Hull, Christ it was grim.
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Great run-through. I remember going to the pre-season game at Forest and thinking, "we're making hard work of this" but knowing it was far too early to judge. The opening defeat at West Ham was the same - "you can see what he's trying to do". In hindsight, Benteke and Lerner's reluctance to go for a pay-off kept him in a job.
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I was there that night at Hull, Christ it was grim.
That was shocking, looked certs for relegation. Out of depth manager and most players not trying a leg. Lambert was incredibly badly advised in taking the Villa job when he did with little or no budget. McLeish's team was decimated by injury to key players and Petrov's illness. Given, Dunne, Petrov, Bent, might be missing one or two. They hardly played again at the highest level. With his record at Norwich he could have swerved Villa then and got a juicier gig with budget.
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The Bradford debacle. Cheers Paul.
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I was there that night at Hull, Christ it was grim.
The match was rubbish as well
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I was there that night at Hull, Christ it was grim.
The match was rubbish as well
(https://i.ibb.co/4nSsPkLY/download-13.jpg) (https://ibb.co/4nSsPkLY)
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I can't remember exactly when it was but we had a really long run without scoring. We may have ended it in a beating at home against Chelsea. I hated nearly every part of his reign of us.
The January from nightmares was probably the low point. Knocked out of the Fa Cup by Milwall. Losing a 2 legged semi to a 4th division side. Getting dicked constantly in the league, wasn't it 3 games for a total of 13-0 or something equally shit. And him turning in to a tramp.
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I can't remember exactly when it was but we had a really long run without scoring. We may have ended it in a beating at home against Chelsea. I hated nearly every part of his reign of us.
The January from nightmares was probably the low point. Knocked out of the Fa Cup by Milwall. Losing a 2 legged semi to a 4th division side. Getting dicked constantly in the league, wasn't it 3 games for a total of 13-0 or something equally shit. And him turning in to a tramp.
Yep that Xmas and January were just
Embarrassing. We’d come off a good run of results in Nov and early December including a cracking 4-1 win away at Norwich in the League Cup Qtr final then it just got worse and worse. Dicked 3 times in the league by Chelsea, Spurs and Wigan, the Bradford Debacle and then wimping out down at Millwall. And still he hung on like the turd that wouldn’t flush.
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For a split second I thought our erstwhile manager had been reduced to covering the Travelling Wilburys.
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We go again.
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He got more Glaswegian the longer he was here. That's all I'll allow myself to remember.
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I hated him. I actively avoided watching or listening to Villa games during his tenure.
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In terms of League games that Wigan match is one of top 5 worse games at Villa Park
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Still holds the record for our heaviest ever top flight defeat. 8 bloody nil.
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And he would say, I thought we were outstanding, after another embarrassing defeat.
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I was there that night at Hull, Christ it was grim.
I remember seeing the team coach arriving at the ground. Lambert was at the front of the bus looking thoroughly pissed off before a ball had even been kicked. Then again, we played a pre season friendly at Luton who had just come back in the league, we lost 2-0 and he looked thoroughly pissed off there when it was still goaless.
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Still holds the record for our heaviest ever top flight defeat. 8 bloody nil.
Christ I was at that one .
And the hull away game .
And Smethwick away when Guzan started taking goal kicks backwards to Hutton hemmed in near the corner flag.
Halcyon days for sure .
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The post match thread for Hull away.
https://www.heroesandvillains.info/forumv3/index.php?topic=53601.0
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The post match thread for Hull away.
https://www.heroesandvillains.info/forumv3/index.php?topic=53601.0
I feel that reading that back would trigger some sort of PTSD.
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The post match thread for Hull away.
https://www.heroesandvillains.info/forumv3/index.php?topic=53601.0
I feel that reading that back would trigger some sort of PTSD.
N-n-n-n-n-Nineteen. Vietnam Hull Saigon Aston
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The post match thread for Hull away.
https://www.heroesandvillains.info/forumv3/index.php?topic=53601.0
I was unemployed, had dislocated my knee the day before, and my youngest brother was in intensive care with then-undiagnosed Type 1 Diabetes.
Great days.
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Still holds the record for our heaviest ever top flight defeat. 8 bloody nil.
Its the record defeat for any competitive Villa game in any competition, and was so nearly 9-0 if not for Guzan saving a last minute penalty. That winter outdid anything McNeill could do, 8-0 at Chelsea, then 2 consecutive home 4-0 and 3-0 losses to Spurs & Wigan in a couple of days. And out of the cups in the new year at Millwall and 4th tier Bradford (over 2 legs).
But we pick ourselves up and go again!
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&ab_channel=UnderTheCosh
The rambling starts at 1:18
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Still holds the record for our heaviest ever top flight defeat. 8 bloody nil.
Its the record defeat for any competitive Villa game in any competition, and was so nearly 9-0 if not for Guzan saving a last minute penalty.
Bizarrely we had won 3-1 at Anfield the week before
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Still holds the record for our heaviest ever top flight defeat. 8 bloody nil.
Its the record defeat for any competitive Villa game in any competition, and was so nearly 9-0 if not for Guzan saving a last minute penalty.
Bizarrely we had won 3-1 at Anfield the week before
One of my favourite Villa goals is when Benteke backheeled the ball back to Weiman who scored at the top end.
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Thanks, Dave C.
I suffered through the Lambert years on here and they were at least as excruciating as you describe; probably worse. Thanks for biting the bullet and addressing a dark time for The Villa and for us all. I still shudder at the words, We Go Again.
I loved watching Chris Benteke play and he’s one of the better memories of those times, with Andi Weimann.
A weird memory glitch is that I am convinced that I saw him play in what I remember as a pre season friendly v Luton for Villa right at the start of his stint with us, but you have him joining us after the season started. I don’t think it was the following summer, because he’d made his mark by then, but I’m probably wrong!
Anyway, he was a bit of a superstar for his goals ( thanks CB) and rather unpredictable, but we loved him while he was here, as you’ve described. Thanks for including the good bits as well as the gloom of the inexorable slide into the Championship.
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Paul Lambert. Shudder, what a terrible manager and dickhead he was. I was too young, probably only 8-10, but who was worse, McNeil, Turner or Lambert?
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I think Turner and Lambert were out of their depth whereas McNeil didn't seem to care very much.
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I think Turner and Lambert were out of their depth whereas McNeil didn't seem to care very much.
Everyone in football knew McNeill was off to Celtic at the end of the season. Manchester City were on the verge of sacking g him when we paid them compensation. Then was paid him off a few months later when he'd have resigned anyway. All hail the master businessman.
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I think Turner and Lambert were out of their depth whereas McNeil didn't seem to care very much.
Everyone in football knew McNeill was off to Celtic at the end of the season. Manchester City were on the verge of sacking g him when we paid them compensation. Then was paid him off a few months later when he'd have resigned anyway. All hail the master businessman.
I still have no idea how Doug managed to appoint SGT after his previous two aberrations.
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In a weekend when we might clinch back to back CL qualification it's quite jarring to see this berk being high on the list of hot topics here. Or a topic of conversation in any way, shape or form.
Personally I'd prefer to consign his shit football and shit beard to the dustbin of history and never speak about 2011-2018 again, for that matter. But maybe some of you find it cathartic.
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Still holds the record for our heaviest ever top flight defeat. 8 bloody nil.
Its the record defeat for any competitive Villa game in any competition, and was so nearly 9-0 if not for Guzan saving a last minute penalty. That winter outdid anything McNeill could do, 8-0 at Chelsea, then 2 consecutive home 4-0 and 3-0 losses to Spurs & Wigan in a couple of days. And out of the cups in the new year at Millwall and 4th tier Bradford (over 2 legs).
But we pick ourselves up and go again!
We were actually doing o.k up to that game. Had just won 3-1 at Anfield and also had a 0-0 v Arsenal so we were slowly improving and the front 3 was starting to cause some serious damage. 4-1 win at Norwich in league cup QFs and Wembley was a near certainty playing a league two side over two legs...
Even at the end of that season we finished strongly winning 6-1 v Sunderland and at Norwich again so that gave a feel we could at least push into mid table the next season especially with Benteke signing a new deal.
Next 18 months were awful. Tonev one of the worst players I've ever seen for us and he was hyped up as some elite player when he signed which shows the difference to what we generally sign now.
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I think Turner and Lambert were out of their depth whereas McNeil didn't seem to care very much.
Everyone in football knew McNeill was off to Celtic at the end of the season. Manchester City were on the verge of sacking g him when we paid them compensation. Then was paid him off a few months later when he'd have resigned anyway. All hail the master businessman.
I still have no idea how Doug managed to appoint SGT after his previous two aberrations.
I thought accepted wisdom was that SGT pretty much appointed himself.
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Sir Graham knew he had three years to be successful at a big club to get the England job and that he'd taken Watford as far as he could. Dick Taylor was his best friend in football from their Scunthorpe days and had a shop on Witton Road. He had a word with Doug and Sir Graham duly appointed the Villa to be managed by him.