Southampton v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[Ian.]

This will happen, but I'm not worrying. This is a long season and we will have ups and downs that's for sure.

Move on and learn from it.

[brian green]

I wish I could agree but we on here are by age and nature more level headed and balanced in our views.   It only needs a few of the more stupid and hotheaded to start booing and the atmosphere at VP could sour very quickly.   I have seen it happen too many times to believe that that all Villa fans are patient reasonable people.

The sort to whom I refer are those who booed Luke Moore when he came on last week.

[andrew08]

Just back. How bizarre was that? Undoubtedly we deserved to lose but up until they equalised I thought we were in control and thought it was going to be one of those easy 2 or 3 nil way wins. IIRC their first goal was their first decent shot and from where I was I thought Brad should have got a stronger hand on it. The second went through his legs and the third deflected in when going miles wide.

We defended too deep at 1-1 and they were passing round us. All interesting stuff but I felt it was a deserved but a bit of a flukey defeat.

[djbone]

My second game of the season, the first  being Everton, think I need to stop going..

As others have said, pretty comfortable first half - although the lack of decent chances was worrying and the hoofing to Benteke surprising. Ireland definitely stitched things together for us, and didn't think bannan did too bad either.

Missing the first 5 mins of the 2nd half (that Saints Ale was worth it) we immediately noticed the difference in the midfield, and without us controlling the match so much the defence became more exposed. Lichaj tried to make up for it by charging up the line and got caught out far too often, leaving bannan as then last man with predictable results, though even then the centre halves should have dealt with things far better. From then on in the inexperience really showed, although the incoherent shape when Gabby and Bennett came on didn't help.

Great support in the first half, in a packed out away end. Decent stadium too. Still looking forward to the rest of the season.

[hawkeye]

I wish I could agree but we on here are by age and nature more level headed and balanced in our views.   It only needs a few of the more stupid and hotheaded to start booing and the atmosphere at VP could sour very quickly.   I have seen it happen too many times to believe that that all Villa fans are patient reasonable people.

The sort to whom I refer are those who booed Luke Moore when he came on last week.[/quoteThose that booed Luke Moore are scum bags

[onje_villa]

A real depressing day but we're all obviously bang behind Lambert and the young players which is refreshing from the last few seasons.

One thing, please please Paul can we get back to the passing game. Don't think I can cope with watching too many more hoofball McLeish games like today!

[mr woo]

The only way I can cope with results like that is to apply total honesty.   That display was as bad, if not worse than anything from TSM's Hall of Shame.  To clutch the comfort blanket of "work in progress" requires evidence of progress.   Last week we took three steps forward.   This week we took four steps backwards.   That is not a work in progress it is a work in regression.

The worst thing about that horrible result today is that Paul Lambert has to win the fans all over again.

He has to address the mental fragility of the team.   Can he?  Will he?   I am not sure.

Of course he will. Because he will go out to WIN the the next game, instead of negatively avoiding defeat like McLeish.

And by doing that, he will eradicate the aura of inferiority that prevents confidence growing.

It IS a work in progress.
We HAVE had to start again.
We WONT win every game.

To judge a project (football or otherwise) on a weekly basis is is likely to be blinkered, skewed and ultimately premature.

Appreciate where our club stands in the scheme of things and we are currently below where we should be, but I'm positive we are well on the way back to where we belong.*




*probably about 6th

[SamTheMouse]

A real depressing day but we're all obviously bang behind Lambert and the young players which is refreshing from the last few seasons.

One thing, please please Paul can we get back to the passing game. Don't think I can cope with watching too many more hoofball McLeish games like today!

This, this and this. Today was a shite day at the office.We will have more of these this season, so we'd all better get used to 'em. But we will also have much better days, and it's important to remember that. It's a leaning curve, but I reckon this manager has a shitload more grey matter between the ears than the last one, he will change things as he goes along, and I'm bang behind him. We all should be. Things will improve, in time.

[OzVilla]

Quite a crash back down to earth that one but as has been said it'll be the way this season pans out I think.  There are still players in that side that ideally i wouldn't have anywhere near the first team, ones that cost us big money too.  It'll take time.

Typically the only football supporter in the whole company i work at is............. a Southampton fan!

[silhillvilla]

Just back, poor performance we simply didn't get going. We took an undeserved lead via a flukey goal really. I'd say this, I think we will bounce back and beat WBA. It's going to be a season of ups and downs of extremes I think. Rome was not built in a day

[Dave Cooper please]

The thing is, I know that Plumbutt will learn a lot from this defeat and will find a way to correct the mistakes.
I can see us being very up and down until the second half of the season really, then the consistency will come, especially if
he is allowed a bit of cash to fill in the places where he thinks we are weak.
Worrying capitulation in the second half but we'll win as many as we lose from now on in I reckon, even against the better sides.

[phantom limb]

The thing that's pissed me off the most is Southampton's manager going on about this game being "the start of their season".

They played Man U, Man City, (Wigan, cough cough don't mention that one) and Arsenal and he acted as if they didn't have a chance in these games so why bother, but here's Villa coming up so we'll start to try when we play them. Obviously it didn't help that we decided to be utterly bollocks in the second half, but still.

If there was any justice in the world we would have beaten them 15-0 to shove it right up his crevice. Unfortunately there is no justice in the world today...it is a cold, dead place and therefore I'm sure he will be erroneously hailed as some kind of oratory genius in the papers tomorrow. Personally I hope they get relegated, along with everyone else apart from us.

[clash city rocker]

At the game and if i had't seen the same thing so many times throughout the years i might get depressed. However i must confess that the last 30 mins. in particular was piss poor. You go 1-0 up then perform like that. Why ?

[lukey27]

Defensively we look fragile. Thought at least two of the goals came about because of poor fullback play, postionally. Lichaj is very one footed and he was comfortably our worst player, but Lowton also got caught up the pitch too often. We're clearly light of genuine quality and it's going to be a bit of a rollercoaster.

On this evidence we're going to lose a lot of away games this season. Brett Holman seems to run around a lot, but his anoynimity in the second half summed us up as a team. We capitultated.

[levico]

Well there you have it. Lawro on MOTD is concerned about Villa. He describes us as a team of ordinary players and says that any club who don't replace their quality players will struggle.

On today's performance, not sure you can argue with that.