Aston Villa v Fulham Post-Match Thread

[mattjpa]

P.s. Nice to meet Darren Woolley while I was chatting to Dave W before the game. Also met a couple of others but in the excitement of actually winning a game i've forgotten who they were. And as usual, I was far too lazy to walk to the church to see Legion. Sorry mate.

Is that legion outside the church? I expected him to be older. Tried to hawk me an old edition In a cut price deal  the scamp...

[nigel]

I didn't understand wht N'Zogbia was subbed and Weimann came on.
I didn't understand why he replaced Herd with Bannan. Herd after all was our best player.
I didn't understand why Gardner was brought on with 1 minute to go.

Than Bannan found the ball on the right steadied him self turned twisted and found Gardner who took 1 step to his left and sent a cracking shot but straight at the keeper who failed to hold and and Weimann pounced and scored.

I didn't understand why those 3 were on the pitch but than again I am not a football manager paid £2M a year.

CN'Z was the logical choice to go off for Weimann. Keep MA on right Gabby to the left, where he seems to play better & Weimann centre. It worked, so 'He did know what he was doing' after all.
It's Herds 2nd game after a long time out, I felt he was looking tired when he came off. Incidently, CH was my MotM.
Gardner was bought on to fire that shot in, simple, a substitution masterstroke if you ask me :-)

Except that didn't happen Ireland went wide left and Albrighton went right with Gabby and Weimann up front

Ireland seemed to be in a free roll, he was popping up everywhere.

[mattjpa]

Ireland was my motm. Finally seeing a real player, well done son

[Lobsterboy]

1. 3 points
2. A clean sheet
3. A last minute winner

That'll do for me!

[Californian Villain]

Villa fans had booed Alex McLeish when the manager replaced Charles N'Zogbia with Weimann after 73 minutes.

But McLeish had the last laugh as Weimann headed home from close range after a shot from another substitute, Gary Gardner, had been parried by Mark Schwarzer.

[Summers]

I think it's unfair to imply the fans didn't want Weimann on.. they just wanted Albrighton off instead of N'Zo.. which is, you know, fair enough.

[Witton Warrior]

I was pretty worried at half time as we seemed devoid of a cutting edge in thier penalty area - we had several situations with players not knowing what to do with the ball on the edge of the area after great approacj work. Midfield was tremendous first half as well. We had been talking up Ireland on the way to the match and he didn't disappoint.

Full credit to the young 'uns they shone - Chris Herd especially.

Thought the reaction to the N'zog substitution was quite interesting - a mumur of discontent, booing and then a roar of applause as people tried to spur on the players. The "don't know..." chant was quite muted?

Generally the atmosphere was pretty positive I thought. Decent football will do that!

My lad wanted to go at 80 inutes but I kept saying we can win this - we haven't had a last minute goal for ages - just felt right today - and what a reception for a scrambled goal - who says we don't want the Villa to win?

PS - Fulham are dull though I do like their "Only one 'F' in Fulham" song

[ozzjim]

Can't over-emphasise what a good finisher I think Bent is. His first goal at Arsenal last season, and his one this year, were right out of the top drawer. Obviously I really rate Gabby too. Had to give the pre-amble because I'm now going to say that regardless of their different strengths, Gabby makes us a better team who get more points. As a Villa fan, that's all that matters to me.

I would totally disagree, based on last season where Bent played basically in a very similar formation and we went on a very good run, and he score a lot of goals. I would always prefer to carry the threat with my forward than have the workrate, that realistically can come from other areas. The way the 3 behind Gabby got us into good areas today, I would bet a decent wedge that we would have gone in at half time a couple of Bent goals to the good. Simply because he gives them a ball when putting it in, not simply hides behind the defender hoping it finds him.

What I will agree with is that it is one or the other at the moment.

[Dan England]

Well done Weimann.

Rescued us big time there. Gardner needs more playing time, and so does Weimann.

Collins & Cuellar should be our first choice centrebacks. We've looked much better without Dunne in there.

Bang on summary.

[Jimmy Smash]

Bossed most of  the game today for long periods. I was really happy with the Weimann goal. Is it me or does anyone else get the same feeling as when Yorker got 2 goals at the start of his career with Villa against Liverpool on the last game of the season? It was 2 goals out of nothing and really gave Yorke a boost. hope this does the same for Weimann

[UK Redsox]

P.s. Nice to meet Darren Woolley while I was chatting to Dave W before the game. Also met a couple of others but in the excitement of actually winning a game i've forgotten who they were. And as usual, I was far too lazy to walk to the church to see Legion. Sorry mate.

Is that legion outside the church? I expected him to be older. Tried to hawk me an old edition In a cut price deal  the scamp...

Yes that was Leeg by the church, along with one half of his normal security protection team.

I assume that Mr Shin was being a lazy sod and didn't make the walk.

I was very impressed by Legion's selling of back issues. However, he missed a trick by being honest about it "not being the programme" when some bloke asked for 4 copies.

[Matt C]

Thank McGrath for that. Great for Weimann, proper poacher goal. Overall we just about deserved it and the feeling of utter relief when it went in was shared between fans and players. Nice moment.

My last game for a long while so glad to go out on a win. I'll miss B6.

[PeterWithesShin]

I assume that Mr Shin was being a lazy sod and didn't make the walk.

I got as far as Dave W, saw how far away the church looked and decided to set up base camp by Dave.

[Pete3206]

Happy tonight. Don't care how we won, it's 3 very welcome points

[caster troy]

Massive win, all week I've been predicting a defeat but as we walked in the ground I changed my mind to 1-0, something told me we'd get a bit of luck today. I think we look a lot better with Cuellar, Ireland and N'Zogbia in the team.

Also there's nothing better than seeing the academy kids do well in the 1st team so that goal was a great moment not just because it secured 3 points. Haven't seen much of Weimann but he reminds me a bit of Hernandez at Man United, lethal finisher who may not always be the best option over 90 mins but could potentially score a lot of important goals for us.