Everton v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[eamonn]

How often have we seen in the past a ref sending a player off, taking dogs abuse for it and then evening things up with another red card. It's a curious industry that thinks making one mistake can only be corrected by making another.

Yeah, I feared as much when we went in front.
When the radio said there was a penalty at Goodison with seven minutes left I felt like throwing the laptop out the window.

[N'ZMAV]

1 point above the relegation zone this time yesterday, 2 points above it at the moment. Progress. Slowly but surely.

[alanclare]

What has happened to all the Wallies who wanted Friedel's head on a platter only a short time ago?

[peter w]

I was trying to stay positive even id we had have lost as they were on a food run and losing at Goodison is no disgrace. But with other scores and conceding so late its difficult not to see it as another wasted opportunity and dropped points rather than a good one. One which I would have taken at the start of the game.

[l_mckay]

would of took a draw before the game,shame about the penalty late on! Newcastle is a massive game!!

[Greg N'Ash]

got to view the game in isolation really. Anything at Goodison is a decent result wherever you are in the league. with the bottom half of the league so tight and teams moving up 3 or 4 places after a win its easy to get a distorted view. we may just be very glad of this point come May

[willywombat]

Come on now, a point at Goodison is usually acceptable, let's accentuate the positives and take it into the Newcastle game and give them a big serve of whup ass

[olaftab]

Yesterday the team can not be blamed for losing points from a winning position. It was never a penalty and the ref got conned. As someone said in positional terms we look worse after the games but we are actually 100% better points wise as we are 2  above drop zone rather than 1. I honestly think another 4/5 would be enough.

[Ad@m]

Yesterday the team can not be blamed for losing points from a winning position. It was never a penalty and the ref got conned. As someone said in positional terms we look worse after the games but we are actually 100% better points wise as we are 2  above drop zone rather than 1. I honestly think another 4/5 would be enough.

That's sort of irrelevant though - we're not aiming for a set points total, we're aiming to be above at least three other teams by the end of the season.  The more teams that move above us the less likely that's going to happen.

[TopDeck113]

I'd have taken the point yesterday morning, so not too disappointed.  Their non-goal was probably over the line, their penalty was probably a dive.  Swings and roundabouts - and in fact I'd rather is was that way round: I wouldn't have fancied us going after a second equalizer.

Downing was excellent and good to see Bent get a couple.  We need a return from him of at least a goal every other game between now and the end of the season.  Walker had the poorest game I've seen from him in a Villa shirt.

Away support excellent.  That now needs to be replicated at Villa Park between how and the end of the season.  We still need three wins, and the home games against Newcastle, Stoke and Wigan are where we can get them.

[andyh]

the last 7 games won 1  drawn 3 lost 3 = 6 points

anny one think that form will keep us up

This is what worries me the most.
Even knowing we are deep in the shit, we do not appear to be improving. This summary does not even tell the whole story. 6 points from 21 - mainly against teams that are in around us.
Too many other clubs are showing some form and ability to get out of it.

http://www.premierleague.com/page/FormGuide

Bloody hell, I am really starting to fear the worst.

[darren woolley]

I must admit i was disappointed to come away with only a single point i thought three would have been what we should have had Baines clearly dived to win there penalty so we were cheated out of three points.   

[OzVilla]

If we beat Newcastle this will have been a good point, if we lose it'll have been another two points dropped from a winning position.

What's not in question is that we showed a good deal more fight than we did against Wolves, which afterwards I did wonder where our next point was coming from - that in itself in a welcome improvement - massive game next week, and then the week after, and week after, hopefully we'll hasve done enough to be safe by then.

This is so tireing though - 2am finish last night and another 45 minutes of getting over the game mentally means i'm absolutley knackered today - I just want us to make ourselves safe so I can stop worrying about the bastards into the early hours each weekend.  Our season is usually over by this point.  Quire frankly, I'm exhausted.

[WikiVilla]

Time to drop Makoun for Stan and drop Friedel too
Bents goals should just keep us up

[OzVilla]

Well i'm not sure i'd want to drop Freidel at this point of the season.

Our defence has looked confused enough already this season.  I don't think introducing another keeper whose command of the back four has always looked questionable would be a particularly bright move right now.

If we've stuck with Houllier this far into the season, he should damn well stick with Freidel too.