Fulham v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[Monty]

I think we've all calmed down enough to appreciate the positives, especially for me a real coming-of-age type performance from wee Barry. So good and calm on the ball, seems to think two steps ahead of everyone else, willing to try things, technically very sound and, for all the worries about his size, probably won the ball in tackles and interceptions as much as any other player on the pitch today. Really very promising indeed.

[Lambert and Payne]

We're 13th in the league. 3 points away from relegation and 3 points away from a European place. We'll be fine.

This is by far the best post iv read all day, too many people getting overly worried, Fulham arent an easy team to beat especially at the cottage. A win over Blackpool and we go up the league and get a good confidence in for the Man United game, They themselves havent started well by their standards and this is a good chance for us, not the best chance we've had but lets stay positive eh?

As for Delfouneso, i just realised he's only 19 i thought he was older, i do think he's been overhyped and being martin's pet project wouldnt have helped too much. Lets hope he gets a goal in at Blackpool and gets some confidence, this is where he shows us wether he's going to make it in a Villa shirt. Good luck Fonz you have my full backing..

[Yossarian]

I blame MON

[Karl Bridges]

So much anger and frustration on here, only read the first few pages and gave up. Lets take the positives out of this, youth team forced to play because of injuries and sounded like we played very well. I have to admit i was very nervous about today and i thought we'd lose which isnt something i feel alot..
How did the Fonz play? I diddnt get to watch or listen. Is he as overrated as thought? What was the positives out of this?

Some positives in his play, but also negatives. For a big lad I don't think he competes well enough in the air, and should have done better with a few chances. Hopefully experience and coaching will improve him. The jury's out for me though

He was up against a giant today though. Hangeland was winning pretty much everything in the air. Much to our cost.

[Ger Regan]

He was up against a giant today though. Hangeland was winning pretty much everything in the air. Much to our cost.

I agree he would be second best against Hangeland, but there was quite a few times he seemed to jump away from the ball, even when he should have won it.....

[andrew08]

We'll be ok. The late goal was a kick in the tads but we'll get that back on another day.

[Top Cat]

I shit myself...The BBC website was showing Fulham 2-1 

If you dont put your chances away...You will get punished !

Me too - I thought they'd scored twice in the last minute.

[Rigadon]

How many points did we have this time last season?

22, if i've worked it out right.

Nah, apprarently it was 18 points which means we're only 5 points from what we had this stage this time last season. Get a grip ppl.

Just to put in into perspective, check out this link which shows the table after 11 games played last season http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/premier-league/2009-2010/table/2009-11-04

Can we pls stop over reacting now? Look at spurs, look at liverpool, look at Everton... even look at small heath. As you can see Everton only had 12 points this time last season and look where they finished. Look at how many points both spurs and liverpool had and now look at how many points they have so far this season. small heath only had 11 points this time last season and finished 9th.

All worth bearing in mind.

But we've become very adept at not winning. With the injuries we have we really need to pick up points where we can. Fulham weren't at the races today but we let them back in it -as we have at various other times v different opposition this season.

This is part of the problem when you settle though, as in fans saying this season is a write off and even GH saying to his mind we are a team that finishes 7th-12th. Eventually that seeps through to the players. Are we really performing below expectations? No, it's alright. We can afford to throw a few wins away - this season is a write off and it's OK to finish 7th-12th.

It really isn't. For one thing it makes it that much harder to keep our best players and attract others to push us on.

I agree with most of that. 

I think the future is fairly bright with the display today - Clarke, Bannan and Albrighton were all brilliant.   But unless we start scoring some goals we are going to finish lower than mid table (no chance of relegation).  That needs sorting out now and not next summer.  Finishing lower mid table will mean opening ourselves up to that wanker in north London and similar types.  We have to lose this 'well we lost Martin O Neill 5 days before the season' bollocks.  The fact he fucked off when he did does not excuse our players needing 6 or 7 chance to score a goal.   

On a positive note, Albrighton's goal today was brilliant and his first touch was (cliche alert) worth the admission fee.

[dave.woodhall]

Can someone even sadder than me please work out the least number of players we've had missing in any game since Ged took over?

[ronshirt]

A lot of sweary angst on here. I hope when we've all got over the disappointment we can see the positives of deserving to win an away game in the Premier League with basically our youth team.

Agreed.

[Jimbo]

It's at least 25. If you remember, at one stage, all our players were injured and we had to field 11 sacks of builders' sand against Newcastle.

[ChrissyPrice]

Agree with those who said the positives outweighted the negatives. And some lovely football was played.
We were much better when Clark came on for NRC to partner Bannon who I thought was excellent.
But we need strikers.

[Chris Smith]

Whatever the positives of today's game - and there were a few, including performances from wee Barry, Albrighton, Clark, etc. - there's something fundamentally wrong with us conceding so many late goals. It's a state of mind, and we seem utterly powerless to do anything to change it, whereas Man Utd showed again that they have quite the opposite psychological make up. Sadly, it's one of the great constants in football, but there has to be a way to disrupt it. 

That would be the Manu that let a 3-1 lead slip in injury time the other week.

[Jimbo]

Whatever the positives of today's game - and there were a few, including performances from wee Barry, Albrighton, Clark, etc. - there's something fundamentally wrong with us conceding so many late goals. It's a state of mind, and we seem utterly powerless to do anything to change it, whereas Man Utd showed again that they have quite the opposite psychological make up. Sadly, it's one of the great constants in football, but there has to be a way to disrupt it. 

That would be the Manu that let a 3-1 lead slip in injury time the other week.

No, a different one.

[Shrek]

And the same man u team that conceded late  at fulham