Something special Going on

[hawkeye]

Despite the injurys, the departure of our previous manager at an inconveniant time, the Bobby Mac period and some worrying performances. Was today the day that we come to believe that the future is very bright. Houlier bringing experience and a new way of playing, a great support team in Cowans and Mcalister, the obvious talent from our youth accademy and our younger players comiting thier future to the club. I am not expecting too much from this season except some exciting football and the creation of a base to move forward but after todays performance i am feeling more excited about The Villa than i have for a very long time

[gervilla]

Well for a season that I was ready to write off when MON  spat the dummy out and buggered off and since then has seen so many points chucked away from winning positions it aint looking soo bad. We have an injury list the like I havn't seen for many years, and week after week new kids are being introduced to the first team and excelling. There IS alot to be pleased with at Villa this season, so far.
If we could just manage to se games out when we are winning we would be flying.
Bright future indeed.

[olaftab]

I think this is covered in the "Is  Houlier doing the right things" thread.

[bertlambshank]

I think this is covered in the "Is  Houlier doing the right things" thread.

And Dave's thread about injuries.

[avfcpg]

Sod it, we deserve another thread about this !!

I'd like to think so but lets see if they can string a few performances like that together. Need to take that into the next game....throw in a fit Gabby & Reo, Ireland finding some form, Clark, Cueller getting fit, Heskey back, plus a few new signings and it suddenly looks good.

Sadly I think the perfomances of Bannan, Clark even Hogg probably means we may be seeing Petrov out of the equation. As solid and hardworking as he is, these guys just can add more to the team.

Being as many were getting very worried, isn't it nice for it to be tuned on it's head...for now.

[usav]

Well for a season that I was ready to write off when MON  spat the dummy out and buggered off and since then has seen so many points chucked away from winning positions it aint looking soo bad.

I decided to add them up......

Stoke (1) - they probably deserved a draw, so I would say we threw away 1, not 2.
Spurs (1) - same, a win would have been fortunate, but certainly didn't deserve to lose.
Fulham (2) - definite 2 thrown away here.
United (2) - as above.

That would give us an extra 6 points and the same as Arsenal in third.

I think the future looks pretty bright.

[KevinGage]

I think the good things we've heard about the youth and academy players for years actually has a degree of credibility for a change.

We're all capable of it, talking young players up when the first team or certain key individuals are off the pace. "Throw the kids in!"  Ignoring the fact that the kids are rarely better.

We build them up to ridiculous levels and then can't understand why they end up at the Olbiyun or lower.

This current lot do look like they could back the trend, a few of them anyway.

Thing is, will GH persist with them when he has a full quota of players to pick from again (nevermind when he signs his own) ?

Time will tell I guess.

It concerns me that he brought Dunne back straight from injury even after Carlos had played well, so he might adhere to the MON philosophy of picking players on reputation over form. If that's that's the case it might be harder for some of the kids to stay in the side.

[Dave]

Well for a season that I was ready to write off when MON  spat the dummy out and buggered off and since then has seen so many points chucked away from winning positions it aint looking soo bad.

I decided to add them up......

Stoke (1) - they probably deserved a draw, so I would say we threw away 1, not 2.
Spurs (1) - same, a win would have been fortunate, but certainly didn't deserve to lose.
Fulham (2) - definite 2 thrown away here.
United (2) - as above.

That would give us an extra 6 points and the same as Arsenal in third.

I think the future looks pretty bright.

Every team has those though. A Blackpool, Everton or Wolves fan could argue just as easily that we took two points more than we might otherwise have done from their respective games.

[Somniloquism]

Although I agree with your point and throw Everton in their as well as a match where we got more then maybe deserved, USAV is actually talking about matches when we actually took the lead first and not ones with last minute goals so those matches you mentioned don't count in this instance.

[MonsXI]

Well for a season that I was ready to write off when MON  spat the dummy out and buggered off and since then has seen so many points chucked away from winning positions it aint looking soo bad.

I decided to add them up......

Stoke (1) - they probably deserved a draw, so I would say we threw away 1, not 2.
Spurs (1) - same, a win would have been fortunate, but certainly didn't deserve to lose.
Fulham (2) - definite 2 thrown away here.
United (2) - as above.

That would give us an extra 6 points and the same as Arsenal in third.

I think the future looks pretty bright.

Sunderland at least a point?

[usav]

Yes, thank you, I missed that one.

[willywombat]

Yep, I reckon you've nailed it Hawkeye

[JD]

Totally agree as well. I was getting pissed off last season, now I'm proud of the team again. Dave Woodhall summed it up in the prematch when he said the result wasn't relevant but how Villa played was. Today was the first time for ages I've seen us play against Manure with no fear at all for a very long time.

[Fergal]

Well for a season that I was ready to write off when MON  spat the dummy out and buggered off and since then has seen so many points chucked away from winning positions it aint looking soo bad.

Well according to my calculations we only need to win another couple of games and we will win the prem...
Seriously, things are starting to look a bit better than when MoN Fecked off because he realised that he had made a bollox of the squad.

I decided to add them up......

Stoke (1) - they probably deserved a draw, so I would say we threw away 1, not 2.
Spurs (1) - same, a win would have been fortunate, but certainly didn't deserve to lose.
Fulham (2) - definite 2 thrown away here.
United (2) - as above.

That would give us an extra 6 points and the same as Arsenal in third.

I think the future looks pretty bright.

Sunderland at least a point?

[eastie]

we will only improve from here -great confidence for thr lads to take the game to utd like that and with injuries healing and new signings we have the makings of really exciting times ahead.

so pleased to have a manager who can adjust tactics and use his squad and substitutions , we need to shift out the deadwood like sidwell, davies, carew, and add 3 or 4 top quality players, but the youngstars like clark, bannan and albrighton really could be huge players in our future.