the person with the banner, thanks for setting the upbeat tone for the day!

[Dave Cooper please]

I'm on holiday thank the lord

Never a truer word.

[ozzjim]

Lol..


Anyhow. Two things suprised me Sat. First was the non selection of Pires from the start, as he was in fairness a massive reason we beat Blackburn as he kept finding people in space and kept us going forward. Indeed, I would start him in place of Makoun at home against Newcastle and Wigan as I think he will create more and is adapted to the prem.

Second was the non selection of Delph at left back to start, as he was also excellent against Blackburn.

I think both decisions put us on the back foot, but as has been said the Makoun header was a golden chance, and the Young one second half so the chances were there. The issue is we need Bent on the end of a few to get us going at the moment.

[rutski]

And a reference to the infamous O'Leary f bomb to underscore it.

Bollocks is right.

I'd advocate a re-introduction of the word filter for that little gem, as anyone still clinging to it is clearly unimaginative enough to come up with alternatives by themselves.

did someone down there mention the f word, well how dare he! Lets stone him! we have been labelled with it once, lets not get albelled again!
As i said in previous post kg, can you tell me what slight advantage the booing, barracking and the banner gave our team the weekend! None! my wolves mates were pissing themselves at us, what a damn embarrasment!

[paulcomben]

Don't get too excited. BBC MOTD2 still put our match highlights on last, so must not regard the game nor the result nor the boos as newsworthy. They also failed to compare & contrast Liverpool's penalty for a foul outside the box with our free kick for the foul on Bent inside.

[adrenachrome]

And a reference to the infamous O'Leary f bomb to underscore it.

Bollocks is right.

I'd advocate a re-introduction of the word filter for that little gem, as anyone still clinging to it is clearly unimaginative enough to come up with alternatives by themselves.

did someone down there mention the f word, well how dare he! Lets stone him! we have been labelled with it once, lets not get albelled again!
As i said in previous post kg, can you tell me what slight advantage the booing, barracking and the banner gave our team the weekend! None! my wolves mates were pissing themselves at us, what a damn embarrasment!

The booing! And the barracking! And the Banner!
And the bombast!
The bastards!
The treachery! The traitors! The turpitude!
The fucking banner!
Ban all banners!

And the exclamation marks!
The fucking exclamation marks!

The humanity!

[spartacuss]

The banner was a downer.  I took a nephew of mine who was a Villa Park 'first-timer'.  He couldn't quite believe that the last time Villa graced the pitch we won 4 - 1 and the team - potentially - could have faced someone's encrusted sheet by way of a welcome to the match starting.

Yes I know about Man. City and Bolton, but my nephew thought that whatever people feel about GH, fans should get behind the team from the beginning until the team 'proved' worthy of criticism (which they did!) and grumbles, but not booing...    Naive youngster? Maybe.  Likelihood of him visiting VP again?  The jury is still out.

As for myself and the relegation struggle?  Once the the team is on the pitch, I tend to take the Malcolm Tucker attitude to fans determined to be resolutely negative from the start: GTFI or FTFO!

[E I Adio]

Gérard Houllier admitted he has never faced hostility like the one flung at him at Villa Park on Saturday. It was the kind of atmosphere present at Anfield during Wolves' 1-0 win against Liverpool in January. A defeat too far for Roy Hodgson. Only for Villa, there's no legend waiting in the wings, and precious little time.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Is it bollocks spot on. So it wasn't the fault of the forty clap a week players but those of us in the stands? The ones who part with their hard to come by cash week after week and are rewarded with a display as gutless as that?

Tripe, if they are big enough to demand wages comparible with the most successful players in the world then they are big enough to listen to us complain when they turn in a perfomance lacking in any sort of desire whatsoever.

Sam Smith never blamed the fans, PW, just mentioned about leaving the booing and abuse until full time. It seems to have become the norm to boo the team off at half time if we're a goal behind now, even if we as was the case on Saturday, were the better team. Yes the players earn a fortune but even so, with so many kids in the team, you'd hope we could get behind the team during the game, even if we don't support the manager. I agree with his point about how between now and the end of the season we really need to get behind the team. The other 8 teams fans are more used to relegation battles and will be encouraging theirs teams to the max. I fear the hatred for Houllier will become the greater issue which is a great shame as nobody is bigger than the club's survival and the fact he'll be gone in the summer.

Is it a coincidence we're never come back to win a game this season having gone a goal down in the league?

Maybe Leighton could do a new banner, "We're not fickle, we just never liked you".

[Billy Walker]

Is it bollocks spot on. So it wasn't the fault of the forty clap a week players but those of us in the stands? The ones who part with their hard to come by cash week after week and are rewarded with a display as gutless as that?

Tripe, if they are big enough to demand wages comparible with the most successful players in the world then they are big enough to listen to us complain when they turn in a perfomance lacking in any sort of desire whatsoever.

Sam Smith never blamed the fans, PW, just mentioned about leaving the booing and abuse until full time. It seems to have become the norm to boo the team off at half time if we're a goal behind now, even if we as was the case on Saturday, were the better team. Yes the players earn a fortune but even so, with so many kids in the team, you'd hope we could get behind the team during the game, even if we don't support the manager. I agree with his point about how between now and the end of the season we really need to get behind the team. The other 8 teams fans are more used to relegation battles and will be encouraging theirs teams to the max. I fear the hatred for Houllier will become the greater issue which is a great shame as nobody is bigger than the club's survival and the fact he'll be gone in the summer.

Is it a coincidence we're never come back to win a game this season having gone a goal down in the league?

Maybe Leighton could do a new banner, "We're not fickle, we just never liked you".

Peter, did you hear Alan Wright on Talksport today talk about the Villa Park crowd and how it can affect players - especially the young ones?  These people are human despite the wages.

Wrighty went on to say that when Villa Park got behind the team it was like playing with two extra players.   We have to get behind the team for every single kick of every single match between now and the end of the season.  Moaning, poison, jeering and bollocking our lads for the slightest mistake will contribute to us to underperforming. 

[KevinGage]

And a reference to the infamous O'Leary f bomb to underscore it.

Bollocks is right.

I'd advocate a re-introduction of the word filter for that little gem, as anyone still clinging to it is clearly unimaginative enough to come up with alternatives by themselves.

did someone down there mention the f word, well how dare he! Lets stone him! we have been labelled with it once, lets not get albelled again!
As i said in previous post kg, can you tell me what slight advantage the booing, barracking and the banner gave our team the weekend! None! my wolves mates were pissing themselves at us, what a damn embarrasment!

You mentioned that you live in the Blackcountry earlier in the thread.

You've now mentioned the reaction of your Wolves mates, so these things are important to you. They colour your judgement.  Sadly they're not to me. Harsh, but there it is.

What's more important than any scorn you felt from your Wolves mates is that we stay in this division. Under this manager I -and an increasing amount of others- feel that may not be the case.  To your mates no doubt it will be open season if we go down too.

In all the games I've ever attended at VP few started at such a meandering pace as Saturday's chronic lack of effort - but got a bit better with a few rousing songs. What normally occurs is some bright opening play (or bright play at any time for that matter) gets the crowd going. Not necessarily goals, but fight, endeavour or a smart interchange of play, something to get the fans off their seats.

Blaming paying spectators is wide of the mark IMO. I can't think of any other sport or industry that would attempt it. But don't let that stop you invoking the wise words of that noble sage O'dreary, wailing against the 'treacherous bastards' and all the rest of it.

[adrenachrome]

Is it bollocks spot on. So it wasn't the fault of the forty clap a week players but those of us in the stands? The ones who part with their hard to come by cash week after week and are rewarded with a display as gutless as that?

Tripe, if they are big enough to demand wages comparible with the most successful players in the world then they are big enough to listen to us complain when they turn in a perfomance lacking in any sort of desire whatsoever.

Sam Smith never blamed the fans, PW, just mentioned about leaving the booing and abuse until full time. It seems to have become the norm to boo the team off at half time if we're a goal behind now, even if we as was the case on Saturday, were the better team. Yes the players earn a fortune but even so, with so many kids in the team, you'd hope we could get behind the team during the game, even if we don't support the manager. I agree with his point about how between now and the end of the season we really need to get behind the team. The other 8 teams fans are more used to relegation battles and will be encouraging theirs teams to the max. I fear the hatred for Houllier will become the greater issue which is a great shame as nobody is bigger than the club's survival and the fact he'll be gone in the summer.

Is it a coincidence we're never come back to win a game this season having gone a goal down in the league?

Maybe Leighton could do a new banner, "We're not fickle, we just never liked you".

Peter, did you hear Alan Wright on Talksport today talk about the Villa Park crowd and how it can affect players - especially the young ones?  These people are human despite the wages.

Wrighty went on to say that when Villa Park got behind the team it was like playing with two extra players.   We have to get behind the team for every single kick of every single match between now and the end of the season.  Moaning, poison, jeering and bollocking our lads for the slightest mistake will contribute to us to underperforming. 

If all it takes to turn the Holte End into a "moaning, poison, jeering and bollocking" rabble is one dolt with a crappy banner then I would not hold out much hope for an improvement in this area any time soon. In the old days, a big fight would have broken out and the support would have been louder thereafter, galvanized by the excitement. I am not condoning that sort of behaviour, but I do not see why this banner "set the tone for the day" or "sucked out the atmosphere". Are we football fans or fucking flower arrangers?

I predict that there will be a closing of ranks for the Newcastle game and a hostile atmosphere with plenty of vociferous support for the team.   

[taylorsworkrate]

There was a smattering of applause when it got took down.

It was like a morgue in the north stand especially with tannoy not working, what was the minutes silence for ?

Small matter of about 10,000 people dying a week ago.

[WikiVilla]

And it was impeccably observed, well done both sets of fans

[Rip Van We Go Again]

And it was impeccably observed, well done both sets of fans

Not so sure about that.
Could hear a lot of chattering and laughing coming from the Wolves fans and from our lot in the North stand.

[Clampy]

  but as has been said the Makoun header was a golden chance, and the Young one second half so the chances were there. 

If we're going to stay up, i think we're going to have to do a whole lot fucking better than create two chances at home against a relegation rival.