Aston Villa 1 Tottenham 1 - Mat Kendrick's big match verdict
By Mat KendrickMay 7 2012Comments (
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Alex McLeish making his way to the dugout
ALEX McLeish is relieved...
But until that sentence also includes the words ‘of’, ‘his’ and ‘duties’, few of the Villa Park faithful will relax, given the uncontrollable, unprecedented and unrelenting clamour for his departure.
Villa are virtually safe, McLeish less so, despite the defiant, yet dignified, manner in which the manager vowed to fight on after somehow salvaging Villa’s Premier League status.
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Let’s not pretend otherwise, the man forced to keep his head down in the dugout and clap nervously as he was again jeered out of the stadium yesterday is not in charge of this football club.
It is apathy, anger and annoyance that reign supreme at Villa Park these days. And while McLeish is not entirely the problem, neither is he the solution.
When a Villa boss cannot join an, understandably subdued lap of appreciation for fear of being abused by fans, how can he possibly face another two seasons of probable hostility?
Decisions, decisions. Indeed, the time has come for decision-making as decisive as referee Lee Probert’s yesterday with the Gloucestershire official getting the game’s three big calls spot on, Villa’s non penalty, Spurs’ blatant penalty and Danny Rose’s deserved sending-off.
Probert rightly ruled Younes Kaboul’s shoulder barge on Emile Heskey was not a foul when the goal-shy striker dallied too long over a shot from Stephen Ireland’s slick through-ball, following a sloppy Kyle Walker pass, on 12 minutes.
It came amidst a bright start from Villa whose approach play was encouraging, even if their failure to get bodies in the box somewhat undermined their efforts.
Eventually, Ciaran Clark, previously lacking options from good positions, decided to buy a lottery ticket and well and truly won the raffle with a 30-yarder which deflected off William Gallas, over Brad Friedel and into the net on 35 minutes.
Tottenham threatened through Emmanuel Adebayor, Luka Modric, Gareth Bale and Walker – with that rollcall alone highlighting the disparity between the big boys and paucity of McLeish’s claret and blue resources.
But Villa do possess a top class keeper with Shay Given again proving his worth with a wonderful first-half save to divert a Bale bullet destined for the top corner before the Welsh winger headed wide Rafael Van der Vaart’s cross.
After the break, Probert was precise again with a straight red card for Rose after the defender’s own momentum, and a slight push from Charles N’Zogbia, sent him clattering at full pelt into Alan Hutton’s shin near the touchline.
The former Spurs right-back has his own hard man reputation, which he lived up to when he got to his feet and limped away with a slight shin problem, with most of the crowd expecting him to be stretchered off with a broken leg.
Remarkably, rather than Villa capitalising on the numerical advantage, from the 49th minute onwards it seemed as if they were the ones who were a man short.
For most of the second half, the claret and blues wobbled more than Harry Redknapp’s jowls, especially when Richard Dunne took leave of his senses and chopped down Sandro in the box on the hour mark.
The Spurs midfielder was moving away from goal, just inside the penalty area and, with Villa still set with 10 men behind the ball following a half-cleared corner, was going nowhere.
Until, that is, a rash and needless tackle from Dunne sent him tumbling to the ground and Adebayor calmly sent Given the wrong way from the spot to level the scores.
Cue panic. With nervy Villa clearances sliced into the sky and errant passes finding the opposition, Redknapp’s Champions League chasers piled on the pressure.
Heskey hobbled off, as Heskey does. Weimann came on, but from his only opportunity, a race onto N’Zogbia’s incisive pass, collided with Friedel and soon limped away himself. Nathan Delfouneso was the next and only remaining cab off the rank, but his scoring satnav is as faulty as the rest of the fleet.
Dunne tried to make amends for his penalty concession by nodding wide N’Zogbia’s flag kick – that’s 374 unconverted corners for Villa in the Premier League now with not a single goal scored from that method this season.
It must be some kind of record.
In fact it was a day – and a season – for breaking records as Villa’s deficiencies begin to sound like a broken record.
Failure to beat Spurs condemned the club to their lowest ever tally of home wins in a season – four. Failure to beat Spurs condemned the club to their lowest Premier League points tally – 41 or less. Failure to beat Spurs condemned the club to the Premier League’s joint highest number of draws – 16. Drawing, drawing Villa were always going to do it by instalments, point by point.
With a little help from their friends – or foes – as Albion’s James Morrison staked as strong a claim as any to be Villa’s player of the year.
Now, unless Bolton score at the goal-a-minute strike-rate they achieved briefly at Villa Park to win at Stoke by something like 17-0 on Sunday, Villa live to fight another day in the top flight.
The Premier League is an elite club Villa are desperate to stay in – not that surviving on the penultimate weekend is an achievement worth celebrating down Broad Street for.
Yet, after the embarrassing ‘Gatecrasher-gate’ episode a week ago, it was another unwanted member of the Villa Park party who once again became the centre of attention amidst sorry scenes at last orders yesterday.
It wasn’t as venomous or as volatile as the hostility which followed the crushing defeat to Bolton 12 days earlier. But loud chants of ‘‘Sack McLeish My Lord’’ resounded around the ground and banners proclaiming ‘‘Football with Eck, is uglier than Shrek’’ accompanied McLeish’s latest trudge to the tunnel.
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