Wycombe Wanderers v Aston Villa Mega-Thread

[mattjpa]

What odds I get live pictures 3 seconds before the final whistle.

I went live with 30secs remaining. piss off villa

[PeterWithesShin]

Nope, final whistle and no pictures.

[Axl Rose]

it's 2-2 according to Matt Kendrick. Westwood free kick-that's surely his first goal for the club?

Hey Nikk, shouldn't you be getting frivolous in a bar in the French concession at this time of night?

haha. Hello mate, how are things? I should be Paul, but I am flying back to Birmingham on Monday for a couple of days, mainly to see the parents, before heading to Amsterdam for a stag do...followed by 3 days in Paris for a mate's wedding...hilarity should ensue. When are you heading back to this part of the world? I'm off to Tokyo at the end of September-would be good to see both you and Aftab out here soon!

[BC54 VFC]

'We'll show you some pictures of the Villa fans at the end'! How exactly?

[manic-road]

After watching the game, I think we definitely need a quality centre back. I can only recall Wycombe having one corner in the first half and yep they scored from it.

[PeterWithesShin]

Villa followed up a trilogy of 1-1 draws in Gemany with a 2-2 score-line in their first pre-season friendly on English soil.

Paul Lambert's men trailed twice at Adams Park but hit back with equalisers from Matt Lowton and Ashley Westwood.

Despite the absence of several key players, it was another useful work-out for Villa in front of more than 1,500 travelling fans who almost filled the away end.

Lambert again took the opportunity to make wholesale substitutions, this time changing the line-up for the final half hour.

The starting XI included 17-year-old Jack Grealish and the youngster almost made an explosive entrance to the senior stage.

Andi Weimann latched on to Matt Lowton's pass for a low cross from the right, and Grealish was moving in for the kill until Anthony Stewart intercepted at the expense of a corner.

Villa dominated the early stages and in the 10th minute Weimann wasn't far wide with a low right-footer, but a minute later the home side went ahead.

There seemed to be no imminent danger when Marvin McCoy delivered a deep cross from the right but the flight of the ball completely deceived Brad Guzan and the ball dipped wickedly into the far corner.

Despite the game's "friendly" tag, both Ciaran Clark and Weimann needed treatment after over-zealous challenges, although Villa were level on 24 minutes when Leandro Bacuna curling in a right-foot cross from the left byeline and Lowton planted a well-angled header back across keeper Matt Ingram and inside the near post.

Three minutes later Weimann, who had been badly winded by Charles Dunne's crude challenge, went down again and was clearly in pain as he was replaced by Graham Burke.

The home side regained the lead in the 32nd- minute, Leon Johnson heading home from close range after Matt Spring's left-wing corner had been flicked across the goalmouth.

Grealish was close to levelling things up almost immediately, meeting Lowton's cross with a clever near-post flick which was only marginally too high.

The visitors eventually drew level for a second time in the 52nd minute, Westwood sending a 20-yard free-kick past Wycombe's defensive wall and into the bottom corner.

On the hour mark we had the unusual sight of every Villa player except sub Burke leaving the pitch and being replaced by a totally different team for the remainder of the game. That meant a first senior outing for another youngster, Janoi Donacien.

New keeper Jed Steer soon made his mark with an excellent save, fisting the ball away from Jo Kuffour's fierce drive but otherwise there were few chances.

Villa's best effort in the closing stages was an 84th-minute Jordan Bowery header which went over after Nathan Baker had nodded Gary Gardner's corner across the face of goal.

It was Bowery's final contribution, the striker limping off injured a minute later.

Wycombe: Ingram (Horlock 79), McCoy (Arnold 71), Dunne, Stewart (Fletcher 79), Johnson (Hause HT), Cowan-Hall, Lewis, Spring (Kewley-Graham 71), Wood (Kuffour 57), Pittman (Kretzschmar 57), Morgan (Morias 79).

Villa: Guzan; Lowton, Vlaar, Clark, Luna; El Ahmadi, Westwood; Carruthers, Bacuna, Grealish; Weimann (Burke 27).

Villa (from 60 mins): Steer; Donacien, Herd, Baker, Webb; Gardner, Delph, Sylla, Gardner, Delph; Burke, Johnson.

[SoccerHQ]

After watching the game, I think we definitely need a quality centre back. I can only recall Wycombe having one corner in the first half and yep they scored from it.

Let's see what we're like when Okore is playing again. As a general rule none of Lambert's previous sides could defend well either.

To those who went, does Luna look better than Bennett at LB?

[Clampy]

Not long got back. It was'nt the greatest game ever but freindlies never are. No-one really stood out that much. Not sure what all that spilling onto the pitch after our 2nd goal was all about.

Nice little ground though, you walk though an industrial estate type road and end up at a ground surrounded by hills and trees, which was nice. Oh and it was a bit warm.

[spk]

Great day out,beer tent was a nice touch,wycombe fans friendly enough.shame about the football...should be giving league 2 teams a spanking.

[Legion]

[frank]

To those who went, does Luna look better than Bennett at LB?

Luna's supposed to be good going forward, but since we haven't really attacked in the 2 games I've seen him in it's difficult to judge. Defensively there's not much in it.

[ADVILLAFAN]

Have to say I thought we looked a lot stronger defensively with Baker at centre-back, rather than Clark. Their number 9 won everything in the air.

We were light up front, with no Benteke, Weimann (after the injury), Gabby, Helenius or Bent.