Aston Villa v Blackpool Post-Match Thread

[pablopicasso_10]

it was their reserves against half of our youth team..

we had several key players missing too, and our central midfield was made up of a rookie player making his second start, a rookie central defender, and a winger... up top we had a 19 year old support striker playing the lone role...

so its not like we werent missing players too, and ours arent through choice... not ideal..

but, while we didnt perform anywhere near like we can, even with 4 youngsters in the side, and 8 in the squad in total, and while blackpool played well, worked hard and caused us problems, it was only down to piss poor officiating that the result was not more weighed heavily in our favour...

delfouneso's header was disallowed for having the audacity to jump higher than his opponent, and marc albrighton was fouled as clear as day on the penalty box line and nothing given at all... two big decisions given the wrong way that could have cost us...

thats not to say we were totally blameless... the defending for their goals was absolutely comical... the second in particular... richard dunne really needs to pull his socks up and lay off the pies... as for warnock, how he can continue to get in the side despite being absolute dross for months now, is beyond me.. no, wait, we have no one else, so thats the reason... awful defending at times that will get punished by better sides...

onto a positive note, the young lads did well again, and delfouneso's goals were very well taken... thought again, that while not being amazing, he showed glimpses of his ability in the unfamiliar lone role.. he still tended to lean towards his natural game of dropping deep and drifting wide when he didnt have the ball, and with a partner up front, that movement will be invaluable, but at the moment, in his current lone role, he needs to stay up top a little more and hold it... on a few occasions he pulled players away with a run, but when the ball was put into the box, or an opportunity arose to put one in, there was no one there... with a partner, he would have created the space for someone else to have a shot, or been given the ball to run with himself, however, without, his intelligent movement just looks like he is running away from the danger area... its all about learning to adapt his game, and at 19 years old, playing a very difficult unfamiliar role, i thought he did well without really looking too comfortable... but there was some good chasing down, he got into some good positions, and he looked more comfortable in the lone role than he did against fulham... without piss poor refereeing, he would have scored two goals as well, so all in all, a good night for the lad...

[Brend'Watkins]

I was surprised with the intensity Blackpool played in the first half, they were well worth their goal.  We had the measure of them in the 2nd half but should have been well ahead by the time they equalised.  A very sloppy goal from our point of view. 

Glad to see we have discovered our ability to score from corners again.  We should have had more goals on the night from these as it was the one area Blackpool were poor at defending.

[Concrete John]

Strange game in that we deserved to win it on the balance of play and chances created, yet could count ourselves lucky we did as we were sloppy and unprofessional in holding the lead.  Given the inexperience of some of the players that's somewhat understandable, but still needs Gezza to hand out a few rollickings and put it right. 

Despite scoring, I thought Delfouneso was poorish in his all round contribution.  Asking a young striker to play on his own upfront can cause this, but I can't escape the feeling he'd be better in a 4-4-2.

The win was needed and the game showed both our strengths and areas for improvement.

MY biggest gripe was that when Gabby game on he looked hungry and was chasing things down, which was in starl contrast to Ireland.       

[pauliewalnuts]

Who had money on the Hare scoring then? Admit it some of you must have!

I had Harewood first scorer and 2-1 to us at 22/1, which obviously didn't come in, but I did fancy Harewood to score.

[Lucky Eddie]

I've never been so furious at a football match as I was last night when Villa casually observed Blackpool set up their second goal - I completely lost it and to those around me I'd like to apologise for my language.

[TimTheVillain]

Did anyone hear Holloway on 5Live going off on one when the reporter just touched on the fact that Mick McCarthy got fined for fielding a weakened team last season?  Bizarre.

I quite like Blackpool (the team, not the town) and what they've achieved but he comes across as a right prick at times.

A 'right prick' in your eyes, an 'extroverted, say it as it is, football needs these types of guys' in many others' eyes.

[barrysleftfoot]

    FWIW.....my views.

    Could'nt believe how bad our passing from defence was last night.LYoung and Collins in th 1st half were dreadful.
Somebody has to tell Collins in partic that hes not Beckenbauer, and hes not partic good at pinpoint 50yd passes.Keepit short and accurate.

   Why, when playing a young sleight 19 yr old up front on his own, do we insist on hoofingit up, just to give the ball away.

   Too pedestrian in the 1st half, too much imho for Bannan and Clark to do.We give the ball away too cheapley,  and did'nt retain possession well enough.

   On thepositive side,Barry Bannan, although not a good game, sometimes produced moments of realtop quality.Like to see him play with Gabby, his sharp eye for a pass, and Gabbys pace could cause even the best defences trouble.

   Fonz i thought played well, for me probably  MOM, long way to go, but his movement and touch is very good.

   Albrighton/AYoung/Downing, all played ok to me, no more no less.Need to finish better, Albrighton another open goal missed, Ashley sometimes takesthe wrong option, and Downingneeds to show a bit more desire.

  We gave 2 goals away last night who did'nt lookasif they would score.Slack marking for the 1st,  pure panic for the 2nd.I fear for sat tbh.

[PaulTheVillan]

Not the best performance, but I'm glad we got the 3 points.

Thought Bannan was very good. Clark was Ok, not as good as he was v Birmingham or Fulham IMO.

Still very undecided about Delfouneso. He took his goals well (one ruled out too) but other than that I wasn't overly impressed. Maybe he'll work better in a 4-4-2 when he can be more of the poacher and not the target man. Maybe I should reserve judgement until then.

Really starting to worry that Ireland isn't going to work out.
I really hope sooner or later it'll work for him as we all know he can be a class act.

Warnock is starting to worry me.

[damon loves JT]

I've never been so furious at a football match as I was last night when Villa casually observed Blackpool set up their second goal - I completely lost it and to those around me I'd like to apologise for my language.

Apology accepted old boy

[Oscar Arce]

As others have said, three points is welcome but.....
We were a minute from getting booed off and the Mail's first 'Villa in Crisis' headline under Houllier.
We are joint sixth.
We've got eight first teamers out injured.
Warnock is awful, just what is wrong with him ?
Ditto Dunne.
Delfonousou's goal was AOK.
LYoung, Albrighton, Bannan (in parts) , Clark, AYoung and Fonz did very well.
You could have drove a truck through our defence at times.
Fonz taken off too early, we lost impetus straight after.

[jembob]

A really entertaining game.

I'm surprised at some of the stick that Fonz is getting here. It was his second start last night, he was the target man for our useless long ball game and I think he did OK. I've always thought that once he gets a couple of goals and finds his confidence he'll do very well. He's still only 19!
Bannan looked pretty good but there were a few instances where he was muscled off the ball and that will be his major challenge playing at this level.
Great to see Gabby back and I think he'll flourish with the sort of service that Bannan and Ireland can provide. Ireland needs to understand his role in the team which he clearly doesn't at the moment but he will come good once things click for him.

Considering that Blackpool played their reserves last night I was very impressed with their movement. Holloway is clearly an excellent coach to be able to make changes on that scale but still produce a team performance like that. I thought in the first half that they would not be able to sustain that level of effort for the whole game and so it proved to be. A number of our players could have learned a couple of things from them last night i.e. make a simple pass and then move into space to get it back. They are too gung ho though and will get punished for that as teams work out how to handle them.

Nice to see Bannan applauded off by the Blackpool fans too - he obviously mad a good impression there last season.

The ref was shit.

[Tony Boucher]

Glad of the 3 points against a team that caused us far more problems than Chelsea - they were relentlessly attacking & fair play to them.

We weren't great, but 3 of our front 6 were reserve/youth teamers (not counting Abrighton), one of which is a central defender - so I'm prepared to give a bit of slack.

To all those that poured out of the ground after 87 minutes:   
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

[Pete3206]

I've never been so furious at a football match as I was last night when Villa casually observed Blackpool set up their second goal - I completely lost it and to those around me I'd like to apologise for my language.

Good job we won then.

[alanclare]

I've mentioned this on another thread, but am I right in my belief that the horrid Paul McGrath chant was absent from the repertoire last night?

[itbrvilla]

I've mentioned this on another thread, but am I right in my belief that the horrid Paul McGrath chant was absent from the repertoire last night?

As was almost everything else!!