Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: Rip Van We Go Again on March 22, 2012, 09:37:47 AM
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birminghammail.net
Richard Dunne has challenged his Villa team-mates to repeat last season’s late recovery by finishing with a flourish.
Dunne is targeting a late April comeback after being sidelined since breaking his collarbone against former club Manchester City in early February.
And the experienced defender wants his colleagues to climb the table in the next few weeks so he can help seal a top-ten finish upon his return.
“We’ve had a steady season so far and we could quite easily finish the same way as we did last season,” said Dunne.
“We had a late run and ended up finishing ninth. I think that’s still achievable for the lads. The last three performances have been brilliant, the results have been good and there’s plenty of confidence now going into the games coming up.
“They’re going to be a bit tougher, playing against sides pushing for the Champions League places, but the lads have been doing really well.
“There are ten games to go, plenty of points up for grabs, and we can go and strive to get up towards the top half.”
Dunne reckons the aim is to reel in former Villa manager Martin O’Neill’s new club Sunderland in ninth. The Black Cats are just four points better off than Villa, having played a game more.
“The teams all around us have similar runs, so we can get up there,” said Dunne.
“I think the big thing for us is that we’re looking up.
“We’re ten points off the relegation zone, so that thought doesn’t even come into it.
“We’re looking up at Sunderland in ninth place only four points ahead of us.
“Win a few games and we can push up there. We have some big games coming up at Villa Park, so hopefully it can be an entertaining end of season for the fans.”
Dunne has been a frustrated spectator for the past five weeks and admits he has found it tough to deal with the longest injury lay-off of his career.
“The lads have only played three games but it feels like I’ve been out for ages,” he added. “To be honest, you just want to be out there playing but it’s one of those injuries that just takes time.
“I’ve never really had an injury where I’ve been out for a long period of time.
“I’ve had injuries and operations, but I’ve always put them off until summer, so I’ve never really missed an awful lot of games. This is, by a distance, the longest period I’ve ever been out.”
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Wow... let's catch... Sunderland.
Sorry, I'm in a piss taking mood today.
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Ambitious.
Although we do have to pick off the mighty Norwich, Fulham, Albion and Stoke before we can aspire to catching Sunderland.
It's up for grabs now.....
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“We’ve had a steady season so far and we could quite easily finish the same way as we did last season,” said Dunne.
Yeah, we're looking much better defensively of late, Richard.
I wonder why that is?
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I think we should be more interested in looking over our shoulder. Some worrying results yesterday.
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A steady season? I wouldn't say it's been steady at all, I'd say it's been more perilous.
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As long as we finish above Baggies...
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Get as many points as we can with attacking intent, finish as high as possible.
Simple.
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As long as we finish above Baggies...
That's how far we've slipped
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As long as we finish above Baggies...
That's how far we've slipped
Indeed. Very sad.
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You beat me to it paulie, we've looked defensively better since he stopped making mistakes in the centre, turning circle of a bus
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Beating Sunderland would be a big help in 'catching them up' but you can bet your life that Pubehead will have them revved up for our clash, as if it's a World cup final.
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I don't think there's ever been a more inevitable result than Aston Villa 0 - 1 Sunderland on April 21st, with a 76th minute winner from a set piece.
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I wish Dunne would fuck off to MON's Sunderland.
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I don't think there's ever been a more inevitable result than Aston Villa 0 - 1 Sunderland on April 21st, with a 76th minute winner from a set piece.
If the 76th minute goal happens if they are playingthe MON way they will inevitably retreat and keep hitting the ball back to us. So we just stick about five strikers on and go shit or bust. And they will concede two minutes before the end, and two minutes into injury time.
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Is this what we've come to? We've gone from chasing the big four, to chasing Sunderland...
:'(
Saying that, if we can get one over on pubehead, then it'll put a shine on an otherwise shite season.
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There's a difference Richard in being steadily shit and steady.
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As long as we finish above Baggies...
Is the correct Answer
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"The last three performances have been brilliant" We have drawn against Blackburn and Wigan and scored in injury time to win against Fulham. Celebrated like we had won a cup. Hardly brilliant Mr Dunne.
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To win the fans over, McLeish should order Alan Hutton to slide tackle the little shit while he's leaping around on the touchline and not looking. Bonus points if he follows through and gets Robertson or The Other One in the throat.
If he did that, I'd actually vote for him as player of the year.
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I'm not sure Mr Dunne would be able to catch a rather elderly tortoise, let alone anything more fast moving.
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To win the fans over, McLeish should order Alan Hutton to slide tackle the little shit while he's leaping around on the touchline and not looking. Bonus points if he follows through and gets Robertson or The Other One in the throat.
One of them (Bibs and Cones) didn't go to Sunderland with MON if I'm correct
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As long as we finish above Baggies...
Is the correct Answer
You can add Stoke to the Smethwick Brazil, especially as many on here seem to use Stoke as our new benchmark of progress.
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I'm not sure Mr Dunne would be able to catch a rather elderly tortoise, let alone anything more fast moving.
It depends if it had Ketchup on it.
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Its not where we get, its how we get there.
And getting there this season has been fucking horrible.
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Personally if I could end the season now with us purely staying up I would. I'd happily give up all the remaining home games.
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You’ve got to love the ambition. It come to something when catching Sunderland and finishing 9th is seen as some sort of success.
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We should be thinking of being better than someone like Sunderland I really want us to go on a run and finish the season strongly and get a top ten place maybe 8th sounds better.
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You’ve got to love the ambition. It come to something when catching Sunderland and finishing 9th is seen as some sort of success.
No one has a devine right to any sort of league position. The game is all about money, so given our austerity measures I think 9th would be a good return.
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The last three performances have been brilliant, the results have been good and there’s plenty of confidence now going into the games coming up.
mmmmmm not sure my take on things quite reflects this statement. I'm fairly certain I wasn't lauding our performance or using very many positive adjectives to describe our performance at Wigan or the 2nd half at Blackburn.
Funny how we all see things differently
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The last three performances have been brilliant, the results have been good and there’s plenty of confidence now going into the games coming up.
mmmmmm not sure my take on things quite reflects this statement. I'm fairly certain I wasn't lauding our performance or using very many positive adjectives to describe our performance at Wigan or the 2nd half at Blackburn.
Funny how we all see things differently
What are the last three matches? Wigan, Blackburn, Fulham? Five points out of those matches isn't really my definition of "good", either, Alex.
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No I think definition would be poor to inadequate I think.
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To be fair, had Dunne claimed we could push on for the top six/CL spots he'd have been rightly ridiculed. It's hardly exciting but at least it's a realistic goal. I'd snap someone's arm off for a top ten finish this season.
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Did he say the defence has looked better since he hasn't played.
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I'm not sure that its Sunderland that Dunne is using as a rallying call but Martin O'Neill. If we can focus on a target then it will unify the players, management, and the fans. If we make that focus beating O'Neill then I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. And we will beat them on the 21st.
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how depressing
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I know he's getting some stick much of it deserved. But it is good to have realistic target- even if that is just to finish higher than Sunderland. I would hate to jinx things but I'm really hoping that weimann's goal against fulham will be seen as turning point when we look back on this season. Very little chance of mcleish getting the bullet now unless we completely implode. Let's just hope we can build on the promising signs.
Actually, fuck it, that sounds far too optimistic for a villa fan- I must have been too long in oz!
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Beating Sunderland would be a big help in 'catching them up' but you can bet your life that Pubehead will have them revved up for our clash, as if it's a World cup final.
agreed, but if McAgent wants anyto achieve a chance of getting the fans onside it is winning this match.
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Beating Sunderland would be a big help in 'catching them up' but you can bet your life that Pubehead will have them revved up for our clash, as if it's a World cup final.
agreed, but if McAgent wants anyto achieve a chance of getting the fans onside it is winning this match.
A draw.. and classed as a good result against an 'up an coming big gun'
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Not a chance of catching them
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I think he actually said-"Let's catch the train to Sunderland".
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Well Dunney, that's shagged that then.
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Wow... let's catch... Sunderland.
Sorry, I'm in a piss taking mood today.
How about sending Dunne to Sunderland...he can than achieve his ambition for his club.
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Does anyone really believe the players actually say this stuff? Every week someone seemingly gets rolled out to impart some vital company message. 'we can turn it around', 'team spirit is wonderful', 'we're all backing Emile to come good'.
Sod the quality of the football, we must have the most articulate squad in the league.
What's Dunne doing talking to the Mail in the first place? Hasn't he heard of Twitter?
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I can just see Mcleish's post match comments when they beat us.
"Sunderland have a completely different agenda to us..."
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I am literally counting the days until the titanic clash with 'Martin O'Neill's Sunderland Galactico's' © Football pundits book of cliches.
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I can just see Mcleish's post match comments when they beat us.
"Sunderland have a completely different agenda to us..."
Yep, that's the spirit.