Lambert in or out? Poll reset with majority 'in', 7th May

[villan from luton]

I just want to get through this season and reckon we can kick on. Benteke has been a brilliant signing, Westwood superb, Vlaar good for the money, Lowton is good and will get better, Bennett needs to learn but will be ok IMHO. Sylla shows potential, imagine if we had a  bit more money to give him. Even bringing Guzan back, brilliant decision and was big enough to give him a go.

On top of that he's got the crowd behind the team and he's fucked off those that didn't care.

I think he's going to be our best manager for a long time.

I agree with you Lee B

[Risso]

And long may it continue.

[ozzjim]

And had Zamora been given offside, or Samba had a free kick given for having both arms on Benteke as he jumped for the header, they could not have been. Indeed had the ref been our Friend and not theirs it could have been much more comfortable. Ditto vs Southampton for the frankly scandalous penalty and the Wigan one today giving them everything we might be 3-4 points clear now. As such, none of that has gone our way, so Guzan doing what he is there for, saving the ball, I don't see as lucky - I see it as the importance of having a good keeper. We have an influence on that and it worked on Sat. Said it for a while now, but Lambert is the unluckiest manager I can remember. Even the games we win have moments of terrible luck in them.

[peter w]

The worry is that the last time we were winning plaudits we went on a horrible run. Our season has been up and down, mostly down, so this season has told us there's a bad run around the corner. Its if we can get enough points before then.

[ozzjim]

I agree Peter, although the runs have often been caused by a very decent team giving us a pasting. Hopefully United will be in the beach when we play them, and Gerard will be buggered playing for England so unable to be world beating at VP. Suarez can get injured for Uruguay too would be nice. I do think we can get at Liverpool at the back, Agger and Skrtl are both just thugs with very limited ability. Johnson has a mistake in him or two. That Coutinho could hurt us though.

[Dave]

Ditto vs Southampton for the frankly scandalous penalty and the Wigan one today giving them everything we might be 3-4 points clear now.

We are three points clear now.

[pauliewalnuts]

Well yes but West Ham are only 3 points in front of us now, we're on the up and they're on the decline.

We've just played the bottom two teams, one of whom could have been 4-0 up at half time!

But were not, and we won

Exactly, I can think of loads of occasions where we didn't get anything like the reward we deserved from matches this season, so if we lived a bit dangerously against QPR, then big fucking deal, we were due a bit of luck at some point.

[Dave]

And as has been said on another thread, I saw no luck yesterday.

I saw a great goalkeeper doing what he is supposed to do and good strikers doing what they are supposed to do. What's lucky about that?

[pauliewalnuts]

And as has been said on another thread, I saw no luck yesterday.

I saw a great goalkeeper doing what he is supposed to do and good strikers doing what they are supposed to do. What's lucky about that?

Well, I agree, just for those implying we were in some way lucky not to have conceded six hundred goals against Reading / QPR / whoever.

We've won two matches back to back for the first time in almost two years, but some people always have to look for the "but...".

[OCD]

People can say 'it was only QPR' if they want but it was a QPR that had won 2 games back-to-back. Unlike a mid-table team they are desperate and threw absolutely everything at us in their desperation.

[villan from luton]

Have to say the support for the team has been brilliant, think most know Lambert is doing a decent job in difficult circumstances

[PeterWithesShin]

Well yes but West Ham are only 3 points in front of us now, we're on the up and they're on the decline.

We've just played the bottom two teams, one of whom could have been 4-0 up at half time!

We've just taken more points in the last 5 games than you were saying a month ago that we'd get for the remainder of the  season. You can be wrong you know, just like you were about Benteke 

[not3bad]

People can say 'it was only QPR' if they want but it was a QPR that had won 2 games back-to-back. Unlike a mid-table team they are desperate and threw absolutely everything at us in their desperation.

We've won two hard relegation 6 pointers after going behind.  There is nothing "only" about that to me.

[KevinGage]

Despite some mental shit this season, I actually feel the club is more united than it has been in some.

A lot of that is down to the manager, from the word go he's been banging on about the support we get.

It might mean fuck all, but it's nice to hear that someone appreciates us.

Yes, yes it is. 

I am not as sold on him as others appear to be, there would be so much I would need to gloss over and forget from this season for that to happen. 

But he hasn't gone down the route of taking pot shots at the fans, as per O'Leary.   Even McLeish was coming out with pish like 'Just because Aston Villa won a European Cup in 1982 doesn't give them a divine right to finish in the top 10' towards the end.

Exactly, I can think of loads of occasions where we didn't get anything like the reward we deserved from matches this season, so if we lived a bit dangerously against QPR, then big fucking deal, we were due a bit of luck at some point.

The win was absolutely crucial,  it was achieved.

Yesterday, a decent performance but a loss wouldn't really have cut it. 

Also of importance was the way we have bounced back from a goal down - in two games in a  row now.  Yes, it might have been against the two worst teams in the division.  But this team is learning on the job, and they now know that mentally -as a group- they can do it, and what it feels like. Whereas before, we might have a bright period of play then a goal would go in against us and that would be that.

As we've seen, shipping late goals and losing a few games on the bounce can be a habit. Hopefully we're picking up some more positive habits.

As for luck, QPR seemed to have the more clear cut chances first half, but we bossed the second.  The overall shots on targets from both sides was similar, and we had something like a 60/40 split of possession.  If Jugface feels a sense of injustice (ha!) and his sycophant friends in the media buy into that, then fuck 'em.

[pauliewalnuts]

People can say 'it was only QPR' if they want but it was a QPR that had won 2 games back-to-back. Unlike a mid-table team they are desperate and threw absolutely everything at us in their desperation.

And not only that, we had to show the strength of character to come back from a goal behind, just like we did last week.