Aston Villa v West Brom Post-Match Thread

[preston28]

The record of TSM no longer bothers me. I'm looking to the future.

I was only clarifying myf's post. You can make what you want out of stats. It's the teams performance & effort on the pitch that is most important to me.

I thought our performance and effort were great today.

Indeed.

[London Villan]

You can't fault our energy and commitment at the moment. Something that has been missing over the past couple of years. We also played some good football in parts. I just hope we get enough points on the board before Christmas to make sure we aren't struggling towards the run-in and the lack of Premiership experience may cost us.

[saunders_heroes]

Doubt if many will agree with me but I thought we looked like a Championship side grinding out a plucky draw against a superior PL side.

Glad we got a point but I'm concerned about this squad. And Delphi - just shocking IMO.

You are Radio WM and I claim my prize.

It's all doom and gloom with the Villa at WM. You should have heard them celebrate when the Baggie goal went in.

[dave.woodhall]

Doubt if many will agree with me but I thought we looked like a Championship side grinding out a plucky draw against a superior PL side.

Glad we got a point but I'm concerned about this squad. And Delphi - just shocking IMO.

You are Radio WM and I claim my prize.

It's all doom and gloom with the Villa at WM. You should have heard them celebrate when the Baggie goal went in.

On the way home I heard their roving reporter telling some Stripeds they had world-class support and deserved to win.

[London Villan]

I gave up listening to the post match stuff because of the work experience kids interviewing "footy fans" after the "big match" to ask who was "top dogs". It gets more and more cringeworthy.

[saunders_heroes]

Doubt if many will agree with me but I thought we looked like a Championship side grinding out a plucky draw against a superior PL side.

Glad we got a point but I'm concerned about this squad. And Delphi - just shocking IMO.

You are Radio WM and I claim my prize.

It's all doom and gloom with the Villa at WM. You should have heard them celebrate when the Baggie goal went in.

On the way home I heard their roving reporter telling some Stripeds they had world-class support and deserved to win.

Yeah I heard that prat as well. I think there's some kind of "positive discrimination" going on at WM to employ as many yam yams on that station as possible.

[Louzie0]

Outside the West Midlands though, Villa are still world beaters and Baggies still pretenders for a season until they go back down again. Just saying. from my informal interviews with people in the pub I am in (in Wanstead).

[KRS]

I was watching the game on TV with a stripey-filth supporting mate...we both agreed that Villa should have won the game and Baggies should be grateful for the draw. We bossed the game and outplayed Baggies in the first half and should have created more chances and scored to take advantage of the possession (at one point we were over 70% possession). I felt the 2nd half was quite evenly matched with both teams taking control and we could have taken all 3pts in the last 10 minutes.

Villa fans should be disappointed by the result but not the performance; Baggies fans should be very happy with the draw.

[saunders_heroes]

I was watching the game on TV with a stripey-filth supporting mate...we both agreed that Villa should have won the game and Baggies should be grateful for the draw. We bossed the game and outplayed Baggies in the first half and should have created more chances and scored to take advantage of the possession (at one point we were over 70% possession). I felt the 2nd half was quite evenly matched with both teams taking control and we could have taken all 3pts in the last 10 minutes.

Villa fans should be disappointed by the result but not the performance; Baggies fans should be very happy with the draw.

That's how I saw it.

[robbo1874]

Delph is lightweight, I'd go with Bannan next match and Bent for Benteke. We are still learning...

I thought Delph was decent. Bannan was good when he came on, no question, and his set piece and wider delivery is a threat. But We played 442 at times and I think we'll struggle if we ask Bannan to partner KEA from the off in that system

Delph was always going to struggle after picking up an early booking.
Agreed.  The biggest worry with Delph is that he disappears in games.  I haven't seen him have a whole good game.  He looks decent in patches.  Same with a few of our players actually - their age maybe. 

Bannan looked good when he came on but like you say, I don't fancy him in a midfield duo. 

[Ad@m]

Don't know if this has been mentioned elsewhere but can someone point out to me how Long was allowed to stand in an off-side position at every goal kick or clearance from the keeper, then run into an on-side position and challenge for the ball.  Surely he should have been flagged as being off-side?

I thought it was just me that spotted that. He was offside for every goal kick, and was never flagged even when the ball went straight to him, which it did on many occasions. Has there been a change of rules or something?

Nope, you've never been offside from a goalkick.

Sadly, Clarke appeared to think you could and so didn't mark Long for a single goal kick.

[saunders_heroes]

Don't know if this has been mentioned elsewhere but can someone point out to me how Long was allowed to stand in an off-side position at every goal kick or clearance from the keeper, then run into an on-side position and challenge for the ball.  Surely he should have been flagged as being off-side?

I thought it was just me that spotted that. He was offside for every goal kick, and was never flagged even when the ball went straight to him, which it did on many occasions. Has there been a change of rules or something?

Nope, you've never been offside from a goalkick.

Sadly, Clarke appeared to think you could and so didn't mark Long for a single goal kick.

You live and learn...

[Lizz]

Oh Bollocks. Colin Murray looks like he's at the Black Country Museum.

[pauliewalnuts]

To me, it is pretty obvious that we're making progress. Slowly, maybe too slowly, but the progress is definitely there. We're starting to hold onto the ball far more, we finally seem to understand that holding on to it and using it properly is the way to play the game these days. 

We had just short of 60 percent possession over the match, something I doubt we ever did with any frequency under MON, GH or AM.  Look at how hard we work to get the ball back when we don't have it. I can't remember the last time we did that.

Results have been iffy, but you have to see the wider picture. The results will get better, much better, but we are starting what is going to be a long process of improvement. It won't be easy, we'll have some mental results (look at the last seven days for an idea of this), and plenty of downs as well as ups, but we just have to keep our nerve.

it won't be easy, we'll have spells like today after they scored where they outplayed us, but we just need not to panic and keep our heads. The pain will be worth it in the end.

[London Villan]

The fans are going to play a big part in this. We need to stay with and get behind the team and manager all season.