Aston Villa v Stoke City Post-Match Thread

[adrenachrome]

Well wonderful.  Got there 20 minutes late after forgetting it was Bank Hols and the M6 would be a nightmare.  Must admit I nearly turned around at Stafford.  However we arrived to watch a fairly turgid 1st half enlivened by the Weimann goal.  Second half was just an exercise in how to raise your blood pressure and I thought I did alright to last until the 76th minute before losing it entirely.  A combination of Stoke, Tiny Penis, Mike Dean and our complete and utter inability to pass the ball to one another and the utter cluelessness of McLeish not knowing how to chnage the game and get more impetus into our attack meant I spent the last 15 minutes swearing loudly at everything.

Given - Shotstopper, yes.  All round Goalkeeper, no. - 6
Hutton - and I thought Cuellars distribution was bad, why is Lichaj moved to make way for this clown - 4
Collins - gave everything but for a bloke his size still getting outmuscled and not winning headers - 6.5
Baker - showed his inexperience several times in the 2nd half but manning up - 6.5
Lichaj - played well if a bit impetuous - 6.5
Bannan - ran around to good effect but out of position, was doing OK until he got subbed - 6.5
Herd - gave everything for the cause, but has the subtlety of a charging rhino - 6.5
Ireland - i felt he ran the game first half, never overly hurried and a lovely weighted ball for Weimanns opener, got stuck in second half - 7
Warnock - seemed to me to be filling a space rather than contributing anything majorly worthwhile - 6
Weimann - MOM - ran his balls off and an exquisite goal - 7
Agbonlahor - oh dear, out of sorts, out of form, not awake, reactive not proactive, not a captains performance - 4

Gardner - out of position until moved central when he looked more comfortable - 5
NZogbia - Not enough time
Heskey - not enough time

McLeish - 1 - clueless.  I realise he's got some injury issues currently but to continue playing players out of position and expecting anything other than what we got today is utter clueless negativity.  It was crying out to change it to 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 in the second half and go for the jugular and 3 points but natural caution and handing the impetus to the opposition took over again and we end up with a point.  I've given him a chance but he's got to go at the end of the season.

I can't quite imagine what another season of what I've witnessed in this one is going to do to my sanity but I suppose thats what its all about.

Shouting, swearing and indeed primal screaming are all justified in these most dismal of times for the psyche of the addicted Villa fan and should be assiduously practiced to avoid psychosomatic  disorders.

I am reminded of the plangent wail of Roland Orzabal of the late unlamented Tears for Fears:

Shout! Shout!
Let it all out
These are the things I can do without
McSheesh, I'm talking to you
Fuck off!

[Villafirst]

It's so frustrating when you look at all these draws from winning positions: QPR away, Sunderland away, Everton home, Blackburn away, Liverpool away and now Stoke at home. That's 12 points given away to late goals in particular, even half that amount would put us on 41 points and safe from the drop. It's the old McLeish negative sitting back tactics that have prevailed. Get rid of him now and put Sid and Kevin Mac in charge for the last 6 games - I still think we're in deep trouble: there will be some surprise results where teams in danger of the drop will pull off shock results against teams with nothing to play for.

[Matt Collins]

Phil Dowd made the worst decision in the history of the game in the cup final a couple of years ago

the worst ever??!

[Percy McCarthy]

IMO yes, because he quite clearly based his decision on how long had gone in the game.

 In fact, he actually made up a rule so as not to antagonise Fergie, and therefore blight his own career because he didn't want to spoil his chances of reffing future Man Utd games.

 Absolutely sickening to see Aston Villa used in this way, and I'm still not over it, as you can tell. :-(

[olaftab]

Phil Dowd made the worst decision in the history of the game in the cup final a couple of years ago, but Mike Dean is the worst referee who ever drew breath.

Amazingly, both of them give the impression that they think they're fucking ace.

Officials are heavily influenced by players and managers who have a go at them. Fergie is the master and some manure players and Terry etc have done this regularly.
Yesterday Huth spent the entire match mouthing off Dean and the Linesmen. I have no doubt Dean was not prepared to suffer his wrath by calling a foul as he should have done.
By the way where was he when the free kick came over. He is not in the camera shot. Obviously stood in the centre circle and left Stoke to do their tricks!

[PaulWinch again]

The kids did alright, but they'd be so much better under a proper manager. Ireland is our only creative spark and Weimann's goal was magnificent. Other than that though we were terribly poor against a horrible Stoke side.
Lerner needs to realise if he wants to increase the club's revenue he needs to get rid of the manager. Fans are not turning up because we are terrible to watch, not because the manager came from Blose. Nothing will change under Mcleish and the longer we continue with him, it just compounds the disaster.

[Mazrim]

It's not just match-going fans, which actually (unfortunately) make little difference in revenue terms when compared to TV and sponsorship money, but interest in Villa in general will fall which will hit commercial revenue hard. From the half million people who buy Villa merchandise to the next sponsorship deals we will be looking for.
If Villa are considered dull and irrelevant then no major companies will invest in us and fans are less inclined to spend money on/at the club.

They must know the feelshit factor at the club at the moment. They have to do something about it.


As for Stoke, they make me fucking sick. I hate them. More than any other team in this league I hate them.
They waste 15 minutes a game wiping a ball and taking throw ins. It's like they've found some cheat code to football. They're trolls. We're no entertainers at the moment I know but the day those cheating, playacting, dirty bastards and their aged chav twat manager fuck off out of this league the better.

[luke25]

Nothing sums up our club more at the moment than a quiet half empty Holte End.

[Brian Taylor]

Draws and worse are not the stuff to put bums on seats..not that a true Villa fan will sit through a game.
Come on Randy stop playing us for mugs!

[villasjf]

When Rory DeLap is old and grey with his grandkids on his knees and they ask.  "what did you do when you were younger Grandad"? 

He will tell them.."I threw a football for a living, I was very good at it as I could throw it far from anywhere beyond the half way line.  My boss loved me, he loved me so much he had a towel sewn into my shirt.  He paid me thousands and thousands of old English pounds to throw the ball week in week out.  We had a plan you see.  The plan was to run the ball into the other team's half and to get a throw in, I wasn't involved in this but the throw in was where I came in..  I was the main focus of the team and very important to the team.  I would throw it high and fast to allow the other players to pull and push and barge an knock the opposition without the useless officials noticing anything because the ball was so high in the air you see, aye, we were a canny lot in those days"

"Grandad, why do you keep saying your shoulders are fucked".

If there was a Like button i would press it now.

[Pete3206]

I'm depressed. What a miserable afternoon that was.

[Concrete John]

I thought we tried to pass it, but lacked any penetration, although Weimann's goal was obviosuly class.  2nd half was harder, which many will put down to McLeish tactics, and the ineviatable happened after a build up of set pieces.  People will blame the manager for this, yet if things were going better we'd be blaming the ref for that fact it wasn't a free kick and Collins was fouled by Huth.

It was a good test for the kids, especially Lichaj and Baker, who need to get uesd to teams like Stoke if they are to have a good Premier League career.

Gabby was poor and I felt sorry for Gardner as he looked lost at left midfield.   Hutton had a decent first half and awful 2nd.  Also thought Bannan did little for us, but again he was out of position on the right.

1-1 was predictable, but it's another point towards safety and a good bit of progression for the kids.

[Monty]

Kendrick in the Mail:

"Stoke’s style is not pretty – but neither is Villa’s much of the time – and at least Pulis’ men have a clear and effective plan.

For Villa it was a top-flight worst 21st concession from a setpiece this season and the former defender in the dugout must take ultimate responsibility for such a damning statistic, as well as a record of just one home win in five months, pre-dating the current injury crisis."

I don't know if that's the first time I've seen the manager criticised, even as mildly as that, by a journalist (other than the Guardian pod just sighing with sadness when Villa are brought up). Could it be that even the goodwill towards McLeish the man from the press is turning in acknowledgement of poor results and football?

[PaulWinch again]

Kendrick in the Mail:

"Stoke’s style is not pretty – but neither is Villa’s much of the time – and at least Pulis’ men have a clear and effective plan.

For Villa it was a top-flight worst 21st concession from a setpiece this season and the former defender in the dugout must take ultimate responsibility for such a damning statistic, as well as a record of just one home win in five months, pre-dating the current injury crisis."

I don't know if that's the first time I've seen the manager criticised, even as mildly as that, by a journalist (other than the Guardian pod just sighing with sadness when Villa are brought up). Could it be that even the goodwill towards McLeish the man from the press is turning in acknowledgement of poor results and football?

If only, but the only people that matter on that front are Lerner and the board.

[Ads]

The game that broke my spirit.

I am an eternal optimist and few can match me for a genuine belief that we’ll be alright and that “we’ll smash these [insert one of the other 19 clubs] twats”, but I despair of our club and the direction in which we’ve sunk and continue to sink.