Wigan Athletic v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[alanclare]

Downing continues to disappoint me. Towards the end of last season I thought what a promising player he had turned out to be once he had recovered from his injury. I don't know whether it's a question of where in the formation he plays or whether the it's a problem within the player himself, but he seems to have become strangely indecisive and unsuited to quick one-touch play.

[koreanmeatballs]

That Baker lad is quite big, fairly impressed with him.

Downing, my mate has a theory on him. If his first touch (or first significant touch) in a game is good and he uses the ball well then he will have a good game. If it's shit he usually plays shit for the rest of the game. Keep an eye out for it.

With this Baker though, what the hell has gone on with Warnock that we play two young centre halves in front of him. His form was bad but surely he can still get a place on the bench. I have read the rumours that he hates it here but surely that isn't a feeling that has suddenly come about n the past month if so why wasn't he dropped before?

[BILL DE VALL]

Another interesting line up last might-I don't think any of us predicted that-suce a change from you.know.who
another debut in a season of debuts-and it went well for the lad against n'zogbia

Gabby still on the left-in the 12th min I thought I could see a tactical reason why-
Bent pulled his marker infield allowing gabby to run into the space created-Ahh maybe that's the reason!
But i also saw that gabby cannot cross a ball with his left foot
Downing can, but he spent most of the game on the right or infield

I was surprised GH didn't take Bent off for Emile in the 70th min to hold the ball up/provide extra height at set pieces
I suppose we will try bent and heskey upfront in a 442 next,but you never know!

[Simon Ward]

A win is all that was required and we got it! Need to keep this little run going however to build up the confidence of the team even more. Good to see Gabby on the score sheet at last.

[fredm]

A curates egg performance IMO.  I don't think I have ever seen a side so lacking in confidence and being frightened, nay terrified, of us during the first 15 minutes as Wigan were.  But instead of going for the jugular and putting the game to bed we let them play their way back into the match, so that if their finishing had been better we might have been regretting things.

The second half we came out, got at them and bingo we are 2 - 0 up.  Then again instead of going at them whilst they are down and getting the 3rd to kill them off, we start fannying around culminating with Ashley trying a nice little flick in the middle of the field which ends with them scoring.

That leads to 10 minutes of vitual mayhem with us playing like London Irish and trying to find touch as far down field as we can everytime we get the ball.

There were some good performances, the back four again did well and espcially Baker on debut.  The midfield was ok, with NRC putting in a good performance and TM2 not bad in the first half and Stiliyan the same in the second.

It was the three middle attackers who I am most frustrated with.  Ashley, Downing and Gabby are all senior players, with international experience.  With the base the others were giving them, they should have taken the game by the scruff of the neck and dominated proceedings.  Instead we had what others have described, flashes of good play by each of them but none of it sustained for any length of time so that we put sufficient amounts of pressure on their goal.  They really do do my head in!

I can maybe see why Downing and Gabby are played "the wrong way round" but surely swapping them during the game will mix things up a bit and give the defence something to think about.  Ashley should be looking to take the ball off the defence far more and running at their defence to make them commit.  On the few occasions he did this, he looked great.  To me it was far too infrequent and if he is thinking of moving on to a so called top team then he will have to up his work rate if he wants to succeed.

As said, overall a fairly comfortable win but it could have been so much better and the goal difference could have been improved.  Will be interesting to see the line up on Saturday, will he take the cup seriously?  Will he give others a run out?  Suppose we shall find out at 12.30 on Saturday.

[mozza]

Second successive win - 3 points - played well in parts and poorly in others

Early impression of Makoun - tidy, sees a pass early and won't give ball away,
makes wee Barry look like 'Hulk' in comparison, will need half dozen matches
to settle, similar to Berson (remember him) but will be more successful -

Obvious again that Gabby on left wing isn't working despite him scoring,
would prefer him to partner DazB ?

Ok Wigan's consolation goal took wicked deflection but we pushed the panic
button and didn't look like securng the win that we deserved-

Excellent away following - well done everyone who made the trip         

[villa1]

Thought Downing did fine
He should have squared that ball to Bent though for a tap in

It looled like he tried to, but with his left instead of his right, and miss hit it.

[usav]

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.

Because he is passing it to people within 10 yards of him.  Keep it simple.

[Chris Smith]

The big thing for me from last night was how quickly Ash and Bent have struck up an understanding. Very exciting for the future.

[villa1]

Friedel kept it level in the first half with a fantastic save. Baker did well on his debut. Makoun needs feeding up. He look comfortable in possession and looked to play forward, through the middle. Gabby's out of position and not playing well because of it. It's a pity we seemed to be looking to play Bent in 'over the top' on quite a few occasions, rather than on the floor.

Downing. Again, he wasn't poor but he wasn't good either. He was just, 'ok'. There was actually a period in the second half where he'd got the beating of their full back every time but we failed to make the most of it and it stopped. Tackling. I had a discussion with the bloke in front about this, as he bottled a tackle on the edge of their box. If he'd put his foot in, he may have had a lucky break, he'd have been in on goal. The chap in front said he could have also been out for another period with an injury. I could accept what he said if it was a head on 50 50 with their centre half but this was nothing like that.

Traffic on the way to the ground was horrendous.
Great turn out by our fans.
Ran out of pies at half time!
Small bar for 4k fans!
Championship ground. Didn't like it.

Funniest moment of the night:another bloke in front being told off by his mate for singing with his mouth full.

[darren woolley]

I'm pleased with the win we could have got more if we would have taken our chances bit worrying near the end but a win is a win onwards and upwards.