Are There Similarities to 1986-87?

[Chris Smith]

Not only have we not performed anywhere near as badly as we did that season we haven't plumbed the depths of Newcastle away just over 12 months ago.

[kippaxvilla2]

Not only have we not performed anywhere near as badly as we did that season we haven't plumbed the depths of Newcastle away just over 12 months ago.

I sense it's not far away though.

Why are they so pasionless against bigger teams in particular.

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

Docherty , Mcneill and mcleish -relegation maybe ?

Wihout Tommy Docherty where would we have been today?
His first season woke Villa up from the doldrums. Admittedly it went wrong but it still got people interested in the club again, in no small way.

Agree 100% about The Doc. His first 6 months at the club were absolutely vital. Crowds were down to 13,000 and within weeks we had over 40,000 for a league game and nearly 60,000 for a cup game. The Doc also brought in Rioch, Hamilton and McMahon. Although we got relegated the following season after a horrendous start, those players stayed with us under Vic Crowe to promote us back out the 3rd division onwards towards ultimate glory 10 years later.

Docherty lifted us from the doldrums at a time when we had lost our way.
He is exactly the sort of character we need today.

Remember when we appointed him. Thought we were well and truly back in the big time, and he said some great things about us, the supporters.
He made 16 year old Jimmy Brown captain. Now that takes bollocks!

[Chris Smith]

Not only have we not performed anywhere near as badly as we did that season we haven't plumbed the depths of Newcastle away just over 12 months ago.

I sense it's not far away though.

Why are they so pasionless against bigger teams in particular.

Confidence, or the lack of it, would be my guess.

There is nothing to suggest we're going to get hammered by a mid table side which, is what the Newcastle game was, we've show a much better attitude in those games.

[Steve kirk]

This squad is much better than in 86/87, I went to a lot of games that season and we were extremely poor, this side has much more quality and should be doing so much better, that season we started with Turner who got sacked in the September then Mc Neil took over started with a 3 3 draw at Anfield but it was a false dawn, no similarities for me other than feeling worried all season.       

[pauliewalnuts]

86/7 I actually thought we'd go down after the first game of the season.

We've a long way to go till things get that bad.

[kippaxvilla2]

But that squad started with Steve Hodge, Martin Keown, Paul Elliott, Tony Dorigo, Mark Walters who were all highly rated players.  I only think 4 of the present 1-11 are any good.  Bent, Gabby, Given and Dunne.

[Exeter 77]

I was thinking about this and this season has a few similarities to O'Neill's first season 2006-07. Unbeaten in the first 9 games we went on a run of two wins in 20 before finishing with 9 unbeaten. We have done the first part, may be in the process of matching the middle bit but with our end=of-season games I really can't see us doing the last bit.

[Damo70]

From Jan 2nd to March 17th we have a run of ten games with just the Man City game looking daunting. Add a couple of new faces into the mix and things could be looking a lot brighter. Obviously if we could try not to lose all three games between now and Jan 2nd that would be helpful.

[Archbishop Herbert Cockthrottle]

Another similarity with 1986 is that the Krankies were in the papers.

[Damo70]

Another similarity with 1986 is that the Krankies were in the papers.

I'm glad you brought that up. 'The Krankies - We Were Swingers' is my favourite news headline of the year.