Aston Villa v West Brom Post-Match Thread

[PeterWithesShin]

Indeed. Due to cost i'll probably miss the Manure and Arsenal games unless prices drop down a bit. I was thinking i'd be swerving today as well until I grabbed a £12 ticket in L5 earlier in the week. Not easy going to games when money is tight.

[Pat McMahon]

Quick Jar McGrath: spot on. Even if he didn't want to swing his left, Vlaar could have poked it out for a corner with his right. Your namesake would have back-heeled it to the half-way line of course.

QJM, Percy, having played in defence all my life, filling in at centre half on occasions, I have scored a few own goals from that position!

When running to your own goal like that there is a string chance you will actually score an own goal if it comes off the toe of your left foot. If you can get your instep on it then you have a fighting chance of clearing for a corner. My guess is that Vlaar feared he would only get his toe on it or could not change his stride pattern in time to use his left foot and so tried to sweep it away with his right. It was a great ball in from the right - Lowton's position and reading of the line was awful though.

[VillaAlways]

It's weird this season, the Lower Holte has been full for every game, but our attendances have been pretty poor. It's almost like there's been a mass migration from the side stands into the Holte or something.

£295 season tickets behind the goal in the  Holte, that's why it's full

[Mister E]

First half, we were excellent and should have been at least 1 goal to the good.
Second half, the oppo exposed us down our left flank and between our centre-halves (note how Southampton, and then Ballotelli and then Long have managed to exploit the gaps between Vlaar and Clarkey).
Our 'out' ball - the full backs - was ineffectual yesterday because of the lack of runs ahead of the FB: Bennett passed back to the centre-back almost every time he had the ball because of poor movement ahead of him.

We certainly deserved our point and possibly all three. But we need to get more movement in our game and more incision up front. Also, the CB need to tighten up.

I'd add that I think we've been really watchable for most of this season, and we will continue to improve, I think.
Pride is flowing back into the club ...

[TimTheVillain]

I thought we played some lovely stuff at times ... a dramatically different Villa to last season's shyte ...

More clinical in taking chances and we would have won by 2 goals yesterday ..,

I'm FAR more happy than this time last season :)

[PaulTheVillan]

Thought it was a decent game of football, end to end at times.

Thought not starting Bent was a mistake, so glad he came off the bench to score.

Benteke needs to sit a few games out. Again he couldn't score from a couple of yards.

[john e]

i like the way the team is shaping up and the way we are playing football,
 still room for loads of improvement which is the really exciting thing

not convinced about Benteke, he's still very young but has a piss poor touch which puts me of him,
 its probably been said before but if Heskey had the exact same game as him last night he would have been heavily criticized, obviously its different circumstances with Benteke as he still has so much to prove, but the signs arnt great for me to be honest

[Matt Collins]

I don't think it's the space between centre backs that is the problem as much as the space between full backs and centre backs, especially on the left hand side

Clark is however getting tougher which is good. One reason do the problem is the relative lack of protection from midfield. Kea was good yday but isn't really a screener. And because we're narrow in midfield our full backs can be exposed

I thought the midfield worked well yday from an attacking sense tho. Holman was excellent for the second home game running. I think he loves the crowd. Let hope he can do that again next weekend

And signs that n'zogbia is sparking into life a bit? I thought he looked a threat yday. Especially receiving it and turning

[midnite]

Thought we played well. I was most impressed with (the first half especially) the way we never seemed to panic on the ball. There were times the back four would win the ball back and pass themselves out of trouble, keeping their nice little triangle shape and moving the ball. It wasn't that long ago it would have been hoofed away by either Collins or dune only for the opposition to set up another attack.

I was disappointed with Benteke. His touch was woeful. Could have and should have layed the ball of to gabby for potentially out first goal in the first half. When N'Zogbia and Bent came on I though we were much, much better up front. There was so much more movement and we looked like scoring again. N'Zogbia looked lively, running at the baggies and causing trouble.

Delph also looked lively I thought. He just needs to cut out the silly challenges... How many times does he do this?? It's crazy!! But e was starting to show glimpse of why we bought him.

All in all, not a bad performance at all I thought. Massive improvement from Everton (I missed the Swansea game) and almost unrecognisable from last season.

We've got a long way to go but we've also come along way too.

[MarkM]

Sitting right next to the filth in the upper Witton you really got to see them at close quarters.

When they scored they were literally foaming at the mouth, spit and flem flying everywhere!

I needed a wash when I got home

[N'ZMAV]

Lack of width costs us at times. Especially leaving the full backs wide open. I'd probably go Holman right wing and 'Zogbia left wing next time with Bannan and KEA in the middle. Bent and Gabby up top.

[damon loves JT]

I don't think I can remember a post-match thread with such a wide spectrum of opinions.

I didn't see the game, I was pacing nervously round central London, stopping every 45 seconds to refresh the match thread on my phone. I guess if nothing else we didn't follow a good performance with a stinker.

[Brend'Watkins]

A very good game, Albion are a good side and the fact we matched them and more for most of it shows we are going in the right direction.  I would reintroduce Dunne when he is fully fit as we need to shore up that defence, we look a bit all over the place at times, his experience would help.

[Concrete John]

A draw was probably the fairest result.

Where I think we could have won the game is our attacking midfield players, who seemed to struggle with the final ball yesterday.  The WBA defenders did well at times, but ultimately we had enough of the play in that first half to have got a goal or two, but actual attempts seemed limited as we weren't supplying the strikers enough in the box.  A bit of better movement from Bent may have made a difference, but he did his job when we were toiling a little after going a goal down.

Defensively we have to tighten up if we're going to do anything special this season.  I think the defence that started yesterday will become Lambert's first choice back 4.  There's three young players and three new to the club, so my hope and expectation is that we'll improve at the back as they settle in.   

[JJ-AV]

Bit worried about Vlaar and Clark.