Aston Villa v Bolton Wanderers Post-Match Thread

[pauliewalnuts]

Regarding the "Villa are ours, fuck off McLeish" chant, they started with about four minutes to go. And to be fair I joined in, out of pure frustration. I know it wasn't big or clever and it sure wouldn't have helped the team. But by then I felt the game was lost. I couldn't see us getting back into it. The momentum had gone.

The thing that surprised me was that the chants hadn't started sooner.

The game was over the minute Bolton scored their second goal.

I actually think McLeish has had a pretty easy ride from the fans so far - Houllier got it worse last season.

[montague]

Millwall away anyone?

Or Stevenage?

[mrfuse]

I can't add anything that hasn't already been said. The reality is we're a poor team with an awful manager. That was a Championship team out there tonight and that's exactly where we're heading. The argument about injuries doesn't stack up -  this clown managed to accrue 15 points from the first 13 games when we had a full squad and a relatively easy start, and he's managed to stick to his career average of a point a game ever since.

And yes, I was among the 90% chanting 'fuck off McLeish, the Villa is ours' - with 5 minutes to go the frustration of an entire season was just too much to keep in any longer.

Totally agree

[hulkamania]

James Nursey has twweted "Lerner was at the game and is still backing Big Eck". I'moff to weep into my pillow

[Nev]

Lerner was there tonight according to tweets I've read. let's hope he makes a positive decision tomorrow and doesn't hide away.

[phantom limb]

Good grief that was a fucking pathetic couple of minutes conceding those two goals. I was actually so angry by the end of the game I could barely speak. I'm quite sure that we're going down now, can't see us getting another point let alone winning another game.

I was hoping that he would have been sacked by the time I got home. It's got to the stage where I don't think I want to even watch our last three games. Shittest manager in the league, tempered with some players who clearly don't give a fuck either.

[Irish villain]

A couple of things, it's hard to say how you'd fare in the championship without knowing exactly what you've got to work with but my

Don't worry mate we won't be in the championship.

I wish I was as confident as you. Please tell me you know something I don't

[1_Pablo_Angel]

Taking Heskey off when he was getting joy out of their defenders to put Gabby on and then go long ball

Those of you saying that the McLeish out chants don't help the players.  Don't talk shit.  They are fucking crap anyway and were 2-1 down before it started.

I already explained this to a girl on the train that wanted McLeish shot. Heskey was INJURED. He bottled a fifty fifty, got whinged at by the Holte (including me, thought he was just being a tumbling bear as per...) and stopped moving for 60 seconds whilst clutching his leg before his substitution.

As for the last bit. How does the score at the time necessarily reflect the impact of a negative group atmosphere on the same players during a different period of the match? (p.s. sorry to talk shit)

[Nii Lamptey]

I'm not sure we'd be better off sacking him now really. I'm really not. How capable is kMac at this level? The only real evidence is a dirty great 6 nil defeat at Newcastle.

Really?! HOW could KMac and Sid do any worse? With a little bit of instruction to the players instead of blindly shoving them out onto the pitch, we'd be more than capable of clawing the couple of points we need for survival.

Watching him on the touchline, all he reminds me of is a rabbit staring down the headlights of a speeding truck. Utterly clueless. Put the bloody tea lady in charge - I don't care who, but not him!

[OzVilla]

Yeah, the best time to made your thoughts known, as a collective crowd, is when the manager and players have walked off the pitch, and when the cameras have stopped rolling...hang on.

How about when the whistle goes? While all cameras are still on the pitch, but any negativity won't affect the result of the game?

Explain what's wrong with that? Or is logically flawed sarcasm all you have to defend that shit tonight.?

They've been booed off the pitch more times than I can remember this season.

Ideally, people would just stop buying tickets. I know it's not that popular, but attendances are already at around 32-33k every week, if they dropped to below 30,000, maybe it'd send a message.

There's been no prolonged, directed chanting at Mcleish post match that I've seen. I've missed about 5 home games this year though. A general boo when the whistle goes isn't the same as 30,000 people singing 'Fuck off Mcleish, the Villa is ours'  . Yet there's no reason why this couldn't be done at full time instead.

It simply cant help the players, during the game that's all that matters. I've lived darn sarf for most of my life, and some of Portsmouth's relegation escapology has been unbelievable to witness. (Not this season obviously). Point is it really does show the difference that a crowd can make to a football team, even a crap one. I also spent half an hour yesterday explaining to a Manchester United supporting nurse why Villa fans aren't all negative and definitely aren't fickle!!1

I really don't think you can have a go at the support.  We've won once at home since November (an injury time goalkeeping error) and this is the first major pop at AML there's been - after 85 minites in the penultimate home match of the season while losing to a relegation contender. 

I think there's been remarkable restraint considering.

[Chris Harte]

James Nursey has twweted "Lerner was at the game and is still backing Big Eck". I'moff to weep into my pillow

Its a big fucking late taking an interest now.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

That being said, having 90% of the ground singing 'FUCK MCLEISH' with 5 minutes of normal time to go had me totally aghast. Fucking idiocy of the highest order. You want to send a message to Randy, fine, do it on the whistle. During the game try to bear in mind that half our team are children, for whom Alex McLeish is their managerial introduction to senior football. However crap he is, he is their main motivation for the rest of tonight and our remaining games this season. That kind of negativity with time left, for us to score a potentially vital goal, made me fucking sick and wonder if hey, maybe the media are right, our fans are a bunch of wankers?

Sorry I disagree 100%. This is exactly what the old directors used to say in 1968 when fans would turns their backs on the game and chant `The board must go`. The club right now is rotten to the core with inept management and an absent owner. This is much more than simply a poor run of results.

[garyfouroaks]

Just back from the game after a much neeed beer.

We are now well in a relegation battle.

I was against the appointment of McLeish, not because of the Blues connection, but because I knew, like many, what he would do to the side. He looks like a relegation specialist.

This could get messy.

[Clampy]

I'm not sure we'd be better off sacking him now really. I'm really not. How capable is kMac at this level? The only real evidence is a dirty great 6 nil defeat at Newcastle.

In fairness we won the 2 games either side of that defeat (West Ham and Everton) and those 6 points played a big part in keeping us up last year, although we did go out of the Europa under him.

[Irish villain]

James Nursey has twweted "Lerner was at the game and is still backing Big Eck". I'moff to weep into my pillow

He's obviously an idiot. Unless 'Avoiding Relegation', even if by goal difference, was in the job speck.

Deadly Doug please show him how it's done.