Aston Villa Reserves/Academy games & information

[Percy McCarthy]

Just land in Northumberland and follow the traffic.

[Dante Lavelli]

Villa U21 3-0 up versus Stoke.  Villa’s team looks quite strong with Herd, Licaj, Gardner all playing.

Has this U21 league replaced the Reserves league?

[PeterWithesShin]

FT - Villa 3-0 Stoke (Drennan 48, Johnson 58, Barton 78)

VILLA: Siegrist, Lichaj, Herd, Williams, Stevens, Barton, Gardner, Johnson, Cameron, Grealish, Drennan. Subs: Devine, Barrett, Donacien, Graham, Ward.

[bertlambshank]

Can season ticket holders get in for these games?

[Larry Duff]

The game was played at Bodymore so anyone can go.  They played it at the back so its quite a long walk round to it.

I only watched the last 40 minutes.  Donacian played at right back and did very well.  I think Devine is looking very good this season and can't be far away from a place in the first team squad.  We played some very good football with DJ and Grealish looking very confident.
Gary Gardner came off with a knee injury that caused some concern but he seemed to have good movement in it so should be ok.
I'm not sure Stoke were up to much in all honesty.

[dave.woodhall]

I've seen Devine a couple of times this season and he's looked good. What about Grealish and Drennan?

[Larry Duff]

They both played well. Drennan's movement is very good. I know he is scoring for fun at the moment but it is his finishing that lets him down a bit.
Grealish was excellent. Fantastic run and pass for Bartons goal.  I have seen him three times this season and he is playing that free role behind the striker as opposed to last season where he mostly played as a winger.

DJ looks a real talent as well.  I didn't think much of him three seasons ago but he gets better every time I see him play.

[not3bad]

http://www2.premierleague.com/en-gb/news/news/Barclays-U21-premier-league-220812.html

[Percy McCarthy]

I thought Devine looked a couple of years ago. Has he been injured?

[OCD]

He had passport problems didn't he?

[dave.woodhall]

He had passport problems didn't he?

That's Janoi Donacien. Devine had some injuries last season.

[Larry Duff]

Danny Devine had a bad knee injury which kept him from playing all last season.  Although it happened at the end of his YTS the club still offered him a Pro contract showing that they think he is a good bet for the future.

Donacian had passport problems.  I am unsure about him but he is developing well and played well at right back in the second half today.

We tend to beleave what we read in the press about things we haven't seen.   I have just read that report from premierleague.com and they stated that Seigrist joined us in the summer.  I swear it was Jack Grealish that set up Barton for the third goal while they get him confused with Donacien.  Then Sky Sports News are reporting Chris Herd played the full 90 minutes.  He didn't play in the last 40 minutes that I watched.
I wonder what else they get wrong.

[OCD]

Just read the match report on the OS. Herd came off at half time and if its on the official site, I don't know where Sky are getting their info from.

It was interesting to read that Lambert was involved in the half time team talk. Being as its at Bodymoor Heath its not surprising that he was there but I imagine most managers would leave it to whoever is in charge of the development team (Gordon Cowans?). Whatever he said must have been effective going by the timings of the goals. It will be interesting to see if any of this next batch of kids get fast tracked.

[dcdavecollett]

Devine looked one of the best players when a much-weakened team (I don't know why) lost to Sporting last week in the NextGen. He seems to be less impulsive than he used to be. I much prefer him to Williams who. to my eye, isn't going to make it.

[rjp]

We're away at PSV in the Nextgen but there's nothing on the OS.  The best I've been able to find is the Nextgen Twitter feed.  Anyone got anything better?

It's roughly 60 minutes in and we're 0-1 down.

TEAM NEWS: Aston Villa XI vs. PSV - Watkins, Barton, Cameron, Ward, Bateman, Devine, Melvin, Carruthers, Drennan, Grealish, Graham