Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: PeterWithesShin on April 19, 2026, 03:58:05 PM
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Never in doubt.
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Phew!
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phuck me
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3-3 and you fucked it up. Have that you ******.
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Good on Sunderland, absolutely brought it, demented game and sporting handshakes all round.
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Sancho buying Tammy and Emi a Guinness after that.
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Thank f**k.
Sancho you absolute bellend.
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Unbelievable.
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Can I come out now?
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Sancho had the ball three times and nearly gave away three goals. What a signing he has been. Huge win we, got away with one big time.
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Great game 8)
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Jesus, madness.
Emery talks about control, but we totally melted down after McGinn's withdrawal.
Kudos to Martinez, Digne and Abrahams.
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A bit boring, that.
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Mental.
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Great game 8)
Trying to pin our meltdown on Watkins is rather rich, as you did in the match thread.
In other news, anyone wishing to sign Sancho should definitely think carefully about confirming their wish
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Fucking hell. Well done Digne and Abraham. Cool heads when we needed them. Martinez too.
But mainly fucking hell.
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Naturally Liverpool are winning.
Thank fuck for Emi Martinez. Phew.
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Sancho had the ball three times and nearly gave away three goals. What a signing he has been. Huge win we, got away with one big time.
He's a gutless pr*ck but I'm not putting all that on him. Konsa caught in no man's land. Tielemans legs gone in midfield is on Emery too. Gaping space in midfield and between our centre backs.
But....delighted for Tammy. Typical Tammy goal from an unbelievable cross from Digne.
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Ollie is ace. Great impact by Tammy.
But bloody hell we can’t be that weak defensively again.
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Great result..
Thank you boys. Glad for Tammy.
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Never in doubt.
Can never trust Everton, ffs.
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Can we now stop any talk of buying Sancho? He's been shite all season other than one or two games. Bailey and him are complete liabilities to Emery's system.
Ollie superb, Martinez mom for that save alone. Four more points will do it.
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Bonkers game, should have cruised that second half.
McGinn was awesome.
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Great game 8)
Trying to pin our meltdown on Watkins is rather rich, as you did in the match thread.
Not my fault you can't detect a bit of sarcasm.
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Wow. should have been home and dry long before they got back in it, and even at 3-2 you can't let them score right from the kickoff, unforgivable. But thank you Tammy for saving the day!
Shame Redscouse had to score in Redscouse Time (fka Fergie Time).
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The winning move.
https://xcancel.com/EsezaNamiyingo/status/2045879995235520791
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We were cruising until Sancho's cameo.
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Our defensive structure as a team really falters without Pau in there. Hope he’s back next week.
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Thank fuck for the winner with Liverpool having won at the death too.
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We were cruising until Sancho's cameo.
He is never going to risk getting hurt, total chicken.
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Our defensive structure as a team really falters without Pau in there. Hope he’s back next week.
Lindelof is in better form than Konsa too. Mings seemed to think his job was done when Brobbey went off.
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Our defensive structure as a team really falters without Pau in there. Hope he’s back next week.
Even Pau can't stop Sancho mis-controlling then bottling the challenge on the edge of the box.
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Our defensive structure as a team really falters without Pau in there. Hope he’s back next week.
Backline was fine most of that second half.
McGinn going off and Sancho's horror show nearly did for us.
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Can we now stop any talk of buying Sancho? He's been shite all season other than one or two games. Bailey and him are complete liabilities to Emery's system.
Ollie superb, Martinez mom for that save alone. Four more points will do it.
Couldn't agree more, both are a total waste of space and a liability at times.
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What an absolutely bonkers game. For the vast majority of it, we looked absolute quality - some great passing moves, and we looked totally in control for most of the second half. Then, on 86 minutes, we turned into vintage 2016 villa and looked totally fragile for a 6 or 7 minute period before the winner.
Ollie will rightly get the plaudits for two goals and an assist, as will Tammy for coming off the bench to score the winner, but that save from Emi at the end was worth more than just a single goal. We would VERY easily be looking at zero points today with a different keeper in goal, and instead we're looking at all three.
Yes, that's his job, but that was an incredible save from a keeper brave enough to stand up as long as possible in the last minutes of the game.
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Oh my word.
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It feels like I’m just looking forward to the end of the season, we seem to have been on 33 games for about 2 months.
Worrying loss of concentration when the subs were made, we cannot afford to be carrying any underperformers at the vinegar strokes point of the season. We are going to have to go hell for leather against Forest who are clearly going to target Cash and run at us from the off.
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The world’s number one. I wouldn’t swap him for anyone, even at 34 or however old he is.
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That was a bit mental
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Absolutely mental. Not sure what to say. I have no notes.
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The world’s number one. I wouldn’t swap him for anyone, even at 34 or however old he is.
34 isn't old for a gk.
We've got him for a few more years yet.
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Will be happy never to see Sancho on the pitch again
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Our defensive structure as a team really falters without Pau in there. Hope he’s back next week.
McGinn not being on the pitch is our biggest weakness. We're just not a fraction as sloppy when he's in the side.
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Can we now stop any talk of buying Sancho? He's been shite all season other than one or two games. Bailey and him are complete liabilities to Emery's system.
Ollie superb, Martinez mom for that save alone. Four more points will do it.
Sancho awful from the outset. I recall the cowardice cameos against Leeds and Wolves when we were holding on at the end.
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Blimey
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Our defensive structure as a team really falters without Pau in there. Hope he’s back next week.
McGinn not being on the pitch is our biggest weakness. We're just not a fraction as sloppy when he's in the side.
McGinn got us going again at 1-1. Leaving Luiz on bench when Tielemans gassed completely was stupid from Emery.
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SJM by far our most important player. I've said before that as good as many of our players are he will be the hardest to replace when the time comes.
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SJM by far our most important player. I've said before that as good as many of our players are he will be the hardest to replace when the time comes.
This.
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Never in doubt.
Can never trust Everton, ffs.
Everton winning would have been a worse result for us. We would have an 8 point gap over 6th rather than 10 points.
3rd, 4th or 5th matters little
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SJM by far our most important player. I've said before that as good as many of our players are he will be the hardest to replace when the time comes.
He’s utterly unique, so therefore irreplaceable.
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The world’s number one. I wouldn’t swap him for anyone, even at 34 or however old he is.
34 isn't old for a gk.
We've got him for a few more years yet.
I assume he still wants to leave so hopefully we get a good price for him after the World Cup.
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Just had to suck and breath in on my inhaler for ten minutes lying down why do you do this Villa to me .
still shaking . .. that Tammy goal is so fcuking BIG !!!!!!
should have been done and dusted until Sancho started to change into temu Bailey but thank fuck for never giving up at the end and Martinez wow , could have been zero points.
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The world’s number one. I wouldn’t swap him for anyone, even at 34 or however old he is.
34 isn't old for a gk.
We've got him for a few more years yet.
I wouldn't be rushing him out the door unless we get a good offer.
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Was getting a bit bored at 3-1 tbh, so glad both teams agreed to make it exciting.
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Never in doubt.
Can never trust Everton, ffs.
Everton winning would have been a worse result for us. We would have an 8 point gap over 6th rather than 10 points.
3rd, 4th or 5th matters little
Not many people were wanting an Everton win, but to hold out for the draw which would have given us five points over 5th instead of three.
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Never in doubt.
Can never trust Everton, ffs.
Everton winning would have been a worse result for us. We would have an 8 point gap over 6th rather than 10 points.
3rd, 4th or 5th matters little
Not many people were wanting an Everton win, but to hold out for the draw which would have given us five points over 5th instead of three.
That's fair enough
Personally I don't really care whether we finish 3rd, 4th or 5th as it all amounts to the same thing
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Sunderland showed why they are level with us on most points gained from losing positions. Just glad we stopped them going first in the table.
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Not many people were wanting an Everton win, but to hold out for the draw which would have given us five points over 5th instead of three.
That's fair enough
Personally I don't really care whether we finish 3rd, 4th or 5th as it all amounts to the same thing
Well there is a £2.6m bonus for each league position so with our SCR troubles, every scrap helps.
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Still won't be first on motd tonight.
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Sunderland showed why they are level with us on most points gained from losing positions. Just glad we stopped them going first in the table.
But they didn’t look threatening until Sancho came on
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Two very important life-lessons from that game: 1) take nothing for granted and 2) never give up.
Oh and a third one too - leave Sancho on the bench.
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Sunderland showed why they are level with us on most points gained from losing positions. Just glad we stopped them going first in the table.
Still won't be first on motd tonight.
Even if it's a 0-0 borefest at Wastelands.
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Sunderland showed why they are level with us on most points gained from losing positions. Just glad we stopped them going first in the table.
But they didn’t look threatening until Sancho came on
Every decisive through all for them didn't come from a Sancho error. Was worrying to see us opened repeatedly with the same through ball.
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(https://i.pinimg.com/736x/0c/93/b7/0c93b7ebe1c978a83108d3286a3a21c4.jpg)
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What a rollercoaster! Comfortable almost turned into disaster, only for us to clinch it at the end. The drop off when we began making substitutions was a bit alarming.
Huge, huge win though.
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Incredible mentality to go on and win the game from that position.
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Weirdly, I knew we’d win even when they equalised. We are not the Villa of old
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I was having Stoke flashbacks at 3-3 but this team is made of different stuff. What an enormous, stupendous three points that is.
I need a lie down.
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SJM by far our most important player. I've said before that as good as many of our players are he will be the hardest to replace when the time comes.
We need to try and identify someone with similar attributes, particularly from a character pov.
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SJM by far our most important player. I've said before that as good as many of our players are he will be the hardest to replace when the time comes.
We need to try and identify someone with similar attributes, particularly from a character pov.
Might be a tough one that. He's a pretty unique combination in style and personality.
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Four cracking assists today, inch perfect.
Rogers didn't track first (great finish from their kid), Sancho/Konsa abysmal for other two. Mings and midfield awol for the one they missed
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Us scoring a late winner at Villa Park in our chase for a CL spot feels so much better than conceding a late goal to Stoke.
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SJM by far our most important player. I've said before that as good as many of our players are he will be the hardest to replace when the time comes.
We need to try and identify someone with similar attributes, particularly from a character pov.
Might be a tough one that. He's a pretty unique combination in style and personality.
It’s a lot like Ollie too. He does a very specific thing for Emery’s style and character. Emery will need to evolve much like other great managers do when top players leave or are no longer as effective.
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A tale of 3 subs.
Sancho fucking it up twice.
Digne and Tammy combining to dig him out of the shit.
Off to Dortmund with you.
Oh and to all those fans who bugger off early --- hahaha.
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I think when you do get out of a game like that the lessons can be learned pretty easily, I highly doubt we’ll be that loose late on again.
But the most important thing is we’re starting to score plenty of goals again - you can weather defensive lapses when you’re free scoring.
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"How good was that!! HOW. GOOD. WAS. THAT!!"
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Nearly gave me a heart attack today. Great win though!!
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Incredible.
Man City just scored.
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Sunderland showed why they are level with us on most points gained from losing positions. Just glad we stopped them going first in the table.
Still won't be first on motd tonight.
Even if it's a 0-0 borefest at Wastelands.
At this rate we'll justifiably be second on
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The big positive is that we haven’t bought Sancho. ——Stealing a living on top player money!
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The big positive is that we haven’t bought Sancho. ——Stealing a living on top player money!
I reckon he's a good, sometimes great, player. But I also reckon I'd never want to count on him when it's muck and bullets. The Antimcginn.
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Sunderland showed why they are level with us on most points gained from losing positions. Just glad we stopped them going first in the table.
Still won't be first on motd tonight.
Even if it's a 0-0 borefest at Wastelands.
At this rate we'll justifiably be second on
Ha, yeah and I assume the Merseyside derby will also trump us.
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We are scoring some classy goals
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The game reminded me a little of the 3-3 with Brentford almost exactly two years ago. We were in the driving seat at 2-0 and then Brentford scored thrice in ten minutes before a late Watkins equaliser.
Then Dougie got booked in injury-time, knowing he was one card away from a two game ban with this being the last game before an amnesty kicked-in. He couldn't see it out and his missed pen against Olympiakos soon followed with his fine Villa career coming to a frustrating end as he left weeks later.
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Wow that's probably taken 10 years off my life, which is not great at my age!
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Obviously there's no way of knowing, but I wonder if Isidor is played onside and gets to run through the gaping hole between our centre-backs if Pau is on the pitch.
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From a Mackem on RTG:
We had arguably a better first half than Villa. They were better second half overall. We never gave up, scored 2 late goals when we’d been written off yet again. We could’ve won it but they did, because same as us, they never gave up.
They are a great team but we were able to score 3 against them. We made mistakes, but so do Arsenal, so do Man City. We can’t expect our lads to be perfect and make the right split second decision every time, because the top teams don’t every time either. The fact that this game could’ve been 3 points to us today shows how far we have come and should give everyone encouragement. Villa are a top 4 team, established, in Europe this year fighting for a trophy and in a Champions League qualifying place and we matched them. Anyone can pick fault, but take a step back and see how far we’ve come.
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McGinn Ollie and Emi at the end were brilliant.
Rogers at it today again.
Pressure off - go and win EL and finish 3rd
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Very well said by the Sunderland fan. It’s been some ride for that lot. A dreadful few years as they plummeted down the leagues. And to now be back in the PL and perform as they have their fans must be in dreamland. Well done for a top season. They absolutely could have won it today.
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Yep, well said. Every Sunderland fan I've met has been a top bloke.
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Emery - post match
On Sancho's error: "It’s not his mistake. If we were doing more passes (for their 2nd goal) before we passed to him with the opponent close to him, we could have avoided it. I am never punishing. After the ball we lost, the players didn’t respond well to protect the goals.
The players have their own emotions. When we conceded two goals like we did, it is difficult to keep balance in the mind. I tried to settle the players down. In that moment of Emiliano's save, I thought it was all or nothing."
I will need tomorrow to take a day off and recover. I am so happy. 90 minutes we played how we wanted to perform. We conceded two goals in a crazy minute, we lost our minds."
On Dibu's save:
"We need strikers and goalkeepers. It was the match - three points for them and no points for us."
Protecting Sancho - which is what all good managers do post match. Sancho looked emotional at full-time as he headed straight down the tunnel after the referee’s whistle. He was consoled by Damian Vidagany.
Unai may say something different about the goals at BMH next week.
I reckon Emery will probably go back 2 or 3 passages in play BEFORE Sancho's cock-ups to pinpoint where he saw the problem(s) arising.
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Just got back from the game and blimey I have no idea how we contrived to almost throw that away. We were completely in control for most of the second half, we pretty much had the slippers and cigars out.
The subs totally changed the game. In particular we replaced McGinn, who’d been imperious, with the brittle Sancho. They replaced Brobbey, who’d been largely ineffective, with the lively Isidor.
Thank god for Tammy’s winner - that was almost Buendia against Arsenal level limbs.
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There is a human component to all this.
Sancho may not be up to snuff, but he's not here just to take the money (and the piss) like some of the wasters we've had over the years. Good that he's emotional, if that part about him at the end of the game is true.
Emery seems to see summat in him so I imagine he'll get other chances before the campaign is out. For good or for ill.
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I’m still shaking at the moment!! For half an hour after the game I couldn’t sit down. Just unbelievable and why we love the game (I think). For me, Emi’s save and Tammy’s winner are moments that I’ll remember forever. Possibly the difference between Champions League or not next season
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Quite like Sunderland, don't like Newcastle. Great to see them above the barcodes.
What an incredible roller coaster game, summed up perfectly by the Sunderland supporter. I'm not sure I've ever seen 4 goals of such quality in one game, absolutely brilliant goals and great to see Watkins fired up. Shame Liverpool scored so late on, but so did we. 10 points clear of Chelsea, still got my fingers crossed but hopefully we grab a place in the CL and watch us enjoy a positive summer transfer window to move us on another level. Great game today, really enjoyed it. Tammy's goal has quite probably paid his transfer fee.
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From a Mackem on RTG:
We had arguably a better first half than Villa. They were better second half overall. We never gave up, scored 2 late goals when we’d been written off yet again. We could’ve won it but they did, because same as us, they never gave up.
They are a great team but we were able to score 3 against them. We made mistakes, but so do Arsenal, so do Man City. We can’t expect our lads to be perfect and make the right split second decision every time, because the top teams don’t every time either. The fact that this game could’ve been 3 points to us today shows how far we have come and should give everyone encouragement. Villa are a top 4 team, established, in Europe this year fighting for a trophy and in a Champions League qualifying place and we matched them. Anyone can pick fault, but take a step back and see how far we’ve come.
It's nice that Niall Quinn posts on there. But then he's always been a nice man.
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Some people near me missed three goals by leaving early!
It reminded me of when we won’t 3-4 at Spurs years ago. 94 I think
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I’m still shaking at the moment!! For half an hour after the game I couldn’t sit down. Just unbelievable and why we love the game (I think). For me, Emi’s save and Tammy’s winner are moments that I’ll remember forever. Possibly the difference between Champions League or not next season
We'd likely still qualify as the chasing pack are incapable of stringing a couple of wins together.
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Some people. War me missed three goals by leaving early!
It reminded me of when we won’t 3-4 at Spurs years ago. 94 I think
With Jim Barron in charge.
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I know hindsight is a wonderful thing, but we didn't need to make a triple substitution when we did, even if it's commonplace nowadays and even though Sunderland were not threatening.
Sancho had a nightmare, not on purpose, but the defence also has to take some responsibility for the 3rd and also the chance where Martínez saved us.
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Some people. War me missed three goals by leaving early!
It reminded me of when we won’t 3-4 at Spurs years ago. 94 I think
With Jim Barron in charge.
If I remember right they had Gerry Francis in charge - also a caretaker manager.
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Buendia and Digne were fine when they came on, then it was Tammy who was fine and then Sancho who wasn't. It was only Sancho for SJM that didn't work.
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Some people. War me missed three goals by leaving early!
It reminded me of when we won’t 3-4 at Spurs years ago. 94 I think
With Jim Barron in charge.
If I remember right they had Gerry Francis in charge - also a caretaker manager.
That’s right. When we were 3-0 up we were singing “Gerry Francis what a difference you have made!”
He was permanent manager though wasn’t he? Just appointed
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Is Barron our only manager with a 100% record or did he do another game before Brian came in?
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Just got home.
We never do it the easy way. Never ever!
I think I aged 10 years between their second goal and the final whistle. Fair play to Sunderland, though: they were brill!
If it was a Leap Year I'd ask both Tammy and Big Emi to marry me!
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What a shock those two goals we conceded were. Sunderland looked done. So many over hit passes from them and no threat and then…..
Just as shocking was that we found a way of getting the winner. Emotionally draining!
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Whatever you say, Sancho is not the sort of player that we need, require or should even consider.
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I know hindsight is a wonderful thing, but we didn't need to make a triple substitution when we did, even if it's commonplace nowadays and even though Sunderland were not threatening.
Sancho had a nightmare, not on purpose, but the defence also has to take some responsibility for the 3rd and also the chance where Martínez saved us.
Maybe because we have played on the last 2 Thursday's and Unai was worried about energy levels. Sunderland put on fresh legs.
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On the other hand, our winning goal was both assisted and scored by a sub and three of the four subs played well. We should easily have seen it out from three-one, nobody in the ground thought they were getting back into it, and resting/rotating players when you have the opportunity is vital. Our failure to ever do so was a large part of the reason why we would always collapse around March when O'Neill was manager.
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What a shock those two goals we conceded were. Sunderland looked done. So many over hit passes from them and no threat and then…..
Just as shocking was that we found a way of getting the winner. Emotionally draining!
Sunderland had all but given up and were playing with no urgency at all. Then Sancho started making a bid to be their player of the season.
Should have won
Should have lost
Won
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What a shock those two goals we conceded were. Sunderland looked done. So many over hit passes from them and no threat and then…..
Just as shocking was that we found a way of getting the winner. Emotionally draining!
Sunderland had all but given up and were playing with no urgency at all. Then Sancho started making a bid to be their player of the season.
Should have won
Should have lost
Won
My heart sank when they looked like getting the winner but great stop from Emi. So important we got the 3 points though!
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It is a little worrying that we lost control of the game so easily with the substitutions.
I am sure we will learn from this.
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It is a little worrying that we lost control of the game so easily with the substitutions.
I am sure we will learn from this.
Since Emery took charge we’ve been generally very good at seeing games out. That was so uncharacteristic of us. I thought conceding the second was out of nowhere but we’d see out the rest then an even worse goal conceded. Twice we let someone run through one on one, that’s not us normally.
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Any news on Torres?
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He was just left out for a rest, confirmed by Emery.
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Any news on Torres?
Just having a rest according to the maestro.
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He was just left out for a rest, confirmed by Emery.
That’s a relief