Wigan Athletic v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[PeterWithe]

For me Downing just about shades being our best player this season but tonight he was generally poor in possession, made some bad decisions in good areas and looked completely out of sorts. That said he still made a couple of fantastic passes.

A bad at the office for him, it happens to us all.

[ozzjim]

I am with Paulie. Downing until recently has been our best player, and seemed to have found the drive to perform consistently over a game that was lacking last season. In the past couple of games though for me he has been like the Downing of last season. Primarily because he is not on the left!

[PeterWithe]

I'm just glad GH didn't sub him, there were plenty of people just acheing to give a cheer when his number was held up and I dont think he would have coped particularly well with that.

[WALTERS WARRIORS]

My only problem with Downing is where he is playing (not his fault). Only one thing he "really" done wrong was not play in Bent. Ash work rate was fantastic. Makoun cultured first touch and can seriously jump for a little en. Kept the ball flowing and was always available. Baker looked better and more comfortable  when being attacked than Clarke and dealt well with Nzogbia. If not for a lucky deflection, would of made it a rather steady win ..........

[villajk]

Just back, very ordinary the first half, excellent start to the second with some of the best football I have seen from us this season. But last twenty same old Villa, we drop deeper and deeper, keep giving them the ball and have to defend cross after cross after cross.

A good win but we do make hard work of it.

Pluses - Makoun was neat and tidy but bloody small, Dunne and Collins excellent, Young imaginative, NRC was very strong and Bents movement was far superior to Saturday, Cracking turn out by our fans, 4k for a Tuesday night relegation tussle is very good indeed.

Minusus - My least warm coat appears to be a lucky omen at away games.

I thought the first half started lively then fell back to 'ordinary'.  Second half was good for the first 20/25 minutes but we let them score and then it was backs to the wall time   -  again.

At least we are now not conceding last minute goals.

Makoun was much smaller than I expected.  He had good first touches on the ball.  I think he'll do well.

Please keep wearing that least warm coat.

It's very tiring being the co-driver on the way home, having to make sure the driver doesn't fall asleep.

[littlevillain]

can't believe all the downing haters on here again. Just finished watching the game for the second time tonight and downing was instrumental in most positive moves we made and also in my opinion worked as hard as anyone? In my opinion he's been arguably our best performer this season and still gets slaughtered.  Another holte end scapegoat?

Is it possible for people to say a player had a bad game without accusing them of making him a scapegoat?

Maybe they just disagree with you?

I think he's been one of our best players this season, but was poor tonight. Am I scapegoating him?
[/quote  yes, yes and yes.

[bertlambshank]

For me Downing just about shades being our best player this season but tonight he was generally poor in possession, made some bad decisions in good areas and looked completely out of sorts. That said he still made a couple of fantastic passes.

A bad at the office for him, it happens to us all.

I still don't get it.  There are a lot of posters on here whose eyes my eyes typically agree with who have proclaimed Downing to have been shit tonight.  I'm going to watch again later in the week, as I said previously when watching on my todd with no other opinion to influence, I thought he had an excellent first half with the only blot being his failure to square for Bent when he should have done.  Then I logged on to the match thread at half time and everyone was flobbing greenies at him, I must have been watching the game from a completely different angle.

Just watched the game back again,the defender show's him inside every single time.Young should of been playing out wide and Downing in the middle.He is too limited to play out wide.

[CorkVilla]

Does anybody have a link to highlights of the match?

[DB85 Yardley]

Delighted with the win tonight, thought we'd battled well and played some good stuff.  3 points is what counts.

Thought Bent was fairly anonymous but still looked dangerous on occasions, he is exactly what we need.

Got to agree with some of the Downing reactions on here, I know he was playing out of position but he really has the talent to take teams apart (such as Man U 2nd half) so when he dithers or doesn't seem to get in the game, it's just hugely frustrating.

Don't want to end on a low though, some really positive stuff - hopefully the Cup game on saturday gives us another chance to gain some confidence, as seen from the Sheffield United game the other week.

[WALTERS WARRIORS]

Does anybody have a link to highlights of the match?

Go onto matchhighlights.com
Cannot paste the link for some reason ........

[Percy McCarthy]

GH really needs to cut out the panicking last 20 mins in our game if we're to compete for Europe again.

Was it really that different under MON though? I'm thinking 4-1 to 4-4 at Spurs and plenty of other games when we just sat back and conceded late. Just seems to be a club trait really.

That's just anecdotal evidence Soccer. In fact, for quite a while under MON we were the top team in the country for holding onto winning positions. Now we are the worst. So no, it wasn't the same, it was about as different as could be.

[ROBBO]

Having finally watched the replay thought NRC played really well but was knackered the last fifteen and needed subbing.

[*shellac*]

"You won't win anything with kids."

Tell that to Baker.

Great three points.  Bring on...er...whoever!

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Having finally watched the replay thought NRC played really well but was knackered the last fifteen and needed subbing.

48 passes/46 completed. His passing has greatly improved this season.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

I thought my strawberry was going to give out in the last 10 minutes, nervy stuff.
Up until their goal we were pretty much cruising.
Good defending and lots of hard work throughout the team.
Whipping boy Downing did okay but it's worth remembering, that like Gabby, he's playing an unfamiliar role.

Wigan are down, without a doubt, 1 win in 11 and no quality, bar N'Zogbia.

Special mention to Nathan Baker who did very well.

I'll now be greedy and expect
Blackburn WIN
Manure DRAW
Fulham WIN

Presume Heskey will take the Bent role on Saturday.