Aston Villa v Newcastle United Post-Match Thread

[Olneythelonely]

Gabby was one of our better players today. BCV is a div.

[PaulTheVillan]

I thought Gabby did well today.

I thought he was good, worked very hard. Couple of times I think he was a bit greedy & could have played Bent in, but they've only played a couple of games together upfront.

[andyh]

A win !!!!!!!!!!!!
That will do for now.
Gabby was very poor first half, and very good for 25 mins in the second.
I though Luke Young was excellent throughout, his namesake wasn't.
Onto West Ham, priority no:1  - JUST DON'T LOSE.

[eric woolban woolban]

After a shaky first twenty minutes I thought Collins' then played exceptionally well and probably deserved MOTM.

[TimTheVillain]

3 points - get in I say !

[Simba]

Petrov Man of Match for me (no short hand- gotta watch the Mother complex on here). The defence seems happier with him holding and anyway he sweats the shirt into the correct Claret colour and not the Barcelona Red.

Gabby is giving out a very frustrated body language.

The truth is however, we are not actually very good are we and could have blown it. Loved the Barton chant "You'll never play for England" and the corner claim from Brad which got the biggest cheer. Shows how nervous we all were.

Still, points are what matter and we fought. What happened to the "bells are ringing..."?

[peter w]

Overall poor but understandably so. Thought Collins was great apart from the odd lapse. I'm getting more concerned about Walker though and think Cuellar should replace him. Not sure what Makoun offers either. Anyway, job done.

[ozzjim]

Why do we keep playing Agbonlahor? He is absolutely shit and i've always said so. Zero technical ability, no footballing brain and has fuck all apart from a bit of pace. He's a nice enough lad and a Villa fan, but if he wasn't nobody would rate him.  He's piss poor.

It's been a bad season for him, not helped by Houllier's bizarre and mentalist decision to play him on the wing.
He's still a good striker and I still think there is a future for him at Villa.

He has played down the middle in the last 2 though, and rarely looked a threat. I though he did great for the team today, but with a bit more quality would have put Bent in 5 or 6 times. Bent has great movement, and we need a forward to play with him that can pick him out. When we do he will be devastating.

Overall I thought we did really well today and on 70 minutes 3-0 would not have been flattering, we stratched them so much, but the final ball was always just off, or the ball just didn't fall right. Had Bent been given the pen and the goal he also scored, we would have cruised in comfortably.

Not read the thread, but I though all 3 changes were the right ones coming off, but I would have had Heskey on for Gabby simply as we needed legs. Pires made sense to keep the ball, but we had to get it first, and shite, that old man can't fecking tackle a dinner, let alone a player!

Shame Barton got up after Dunne did him. A lot were saying Collins was MOM, but Petrov was for me, thought he was immense both in midfield and as a leader. Really stepped up. So did big Brad. 3 more wins please Villa.

Great weekend though. AND - good result last week in retrospect. 4 points from 2 games. Keep it up.

[CJ]

Well a win is a win is 3 points which we desperately needed. Was fully expecting Noocasel to nick a point at the end - they offered practically nothing all game until the last 10 minutes when they piled everyone forward and launched balls at our box and Friedel had to make a couple of decent saves. Was praying for a second goal for us to feel more comfortable.

Dunne and Collins looked sound again. Luke Young was my man of the match - made some great overlapping runs down the left. Walker made the same mistake as he did at Eevrton but got away with it this time. Thought Downing was OK.  Ash was busy as usual.  Petrov was solid.  Still not convinced about Makoun (where was Delph today?). Gabby worked hard and but for a poor second touch would maybe have scored.  Bent didn't get any real service but when he had that chance he took it well - haven't seen any replays yet, but was he really offside?  The not-given penalty would have been soft - minimal touch and looking for it. Bringing Pires on was totally bizarre when we had better options on the bench.

Thought the 'Bells are Ringing' anthem was a resounding flop.  The bells at the start of the second half sounded like something at a funeral. They also sounded exactly like the opening track on Black Sabbath's first album - some Tony Iommi power chords would have sounded great!

[john e]

as some one who has constantly backed Houllier, that was rubbish,
 apart from the result which as others have said, was the only thing that mattered
maybe it was the pressure telling, but i couldnt even pick a MOM as there was no one who stood out, with everyone doing at least something worthwhile during the game, but we had no style and no shape or confidence.

might have been different had Bents goal stood, or we got a pen, but thank goodness we held on this time.

Gabby is just not a footballer, probably the worst technically i've seen for a long time at Villa, just canot see why he gets in before Albrighton,
Ashley has been flattering to decieve all season, i never thought i'd say this, but i'm not to bothered about losing him anymore

we need a shake up, i hope GH is man enough and good enough to do it, because todays performance was torture,

i will say this only because we won today,
but i've been losing a bit of faith in Houllier, his subs, his team formations,
next season he will have to improve dramatically for me, performance wise and results wise

[PaulTheVillan]

I said to my old man, are they playing some Sabbath?

The 'anthem' was Djemba DJemba.

[SoccerHQ]

On the contrary, I thought it was a very underwhelming performance today. Important win but not one that feels me with much confidence going into next season if he's still here.

Stan was very good today, my MOTM.  Makoun after a decent start has gone off the boil which is a big worry, gave the ball away so often.

newcastle were dire but could've easily nicked a point at the end.

[PaulMcGrathsNo5Shirt]

Strange is the difference in opinion between the tv watchers and the match go-ers.

The comments about Friedal I find baffling, i don't think he done anythink of note that you wouldn't expect your keeper to do, maybe his recent performances being so questionable haven't helped.
Walker I thought was steady, maybe Luke needs to go RB and Clark come in at LB and he needs to come out of the team for a while. He'd be a very positive sub if we needed more attacking momentum
Luke Young was steady Edddie
Collins, i though (goal aside) he was poor in the first half, getting dragged out of position all of the time, second helf i thought he was much better
Dunne, steady
Downing - fine going forward, still has bollocks the size of a hamster when the need comes to make a challenge
Ash - infuriating. So much ability, so much desire to keep falling over
Petrov - Best game in a Villa shirt for a long while. Amazing what being dropped does eh?
Makoun - Clearly has ability, and needs time but we don't have it at the moment. He needs leaving out
Gabby - I thought he worked hard, but didn't really seem to knwo where to run orf go
Bent - Poor service to him, and lets be honest, he ain't ever really going to create anything for himself. I think a Bent/Gabby front two sounds lethal, but i just can't see them gelling.
Bent - does what he does, very little!

[Blackcountry Villa]

Gabby Agbonlahor is easily one of the worst technical players i've ever seen. If he was one of our better players today it just shows how shit we are. He couldn't beat a traffic cone and because he's got no footballing brain his final ball and decision making are shocking.

[The Situation]

Think people are being a lil' harsh on Makoun. Thought he did well today.