Blackburn Rovers v Aston Villa Pre-Match Thread

[tom jennings IV]

Very concerned about this one, unfortunately I think we'll outplay them and draw.

[Darth Villa]

We'll dick em.

[Matt Collins]

Are we assuming albrighton is fit?

[pedro25]

Hope so otherwise I guess Bannan out wide and Hogg and Clark in the middle.  Clark and Gabby give us some strength through the spine, I think we'll do alright and win 2-1, Youngy with both, Diouf for them.

[pedro25]

El Hadji.

[alanclare]

Pirès comes on as sub after half time to replace A Young.

[pedro25]

I certainly think he'll play in Young's position off the striker when he does and will allow us to rest one of Young, Downing and Albrighton at times.  However I imagine it will be Albrighton more often than not to begin with as he's not as experience as Ash and Downing at preserving his intensity and energy for the full 90.  Don't know what it says about Ireland though, I suppose he's Barry's back up until NRC/Petrov/Delph return/ Jan comes around and then I dont know what.

[Damo70]

They aren't much of a side but Allardyce makes them hard to beat. At the moment I can always see us scoring but conceding as well. If we can improve our ball retention from the last couple of games I can see us doing them 2-1 or 3-1.

[mozza]

Injury worries for the centre of defence appear to be un-founded -

Rovers players will be physically stronger especially in midfield but
provided to get the ball down and play it on the grass I can see
a long overdue away win Gabby to grab the winner in a 3-2

[eamonn]

They aren't much of a side but Allardyce makes them hard to beat. At the moment I can always see us scoring but conceding as well. If we can improve our ball retention from the last couple of games I can see us doing them 2-1 or 3-1.

Careful, it's only 3 games ago that we were going through our longest goal drought since the spring of '92 (apparently).

[Holtenderinthesky]

Are we assuming albrighton is fit?

Why are we assuming?  Is he injured?  When did this happen?

Anyway, 2-1 to us.

[PaulTheVillan]

Pirès comes on as sub after half time to replace A Young.

How about start Pires?

Young is a good player, but he winds me up so much with his diving and being ball greedy and wasteful.

[pedro25]

Albrighton pulled out of the under 21s injured but no news since.

[VillaAlways]

Albrighton pulled out of the under 21s injured but no news since.

I thought he was just "rested"

[Bosco81]

According to the BBC, Blackburn are the worst 2nd half team in the league, with our record for letting late goals in, I'll go for 0-0 half time, 3-3 full time.