Bradford City v Aston Villa Pre-Match Thread

[Simon Ward]

win the toss, drop a seamer, play two spinners and bat first.....



UTV
The Doc

You are Geoffrey Boycott and I claim my £10!

[bertlambshank]

We are 4/6 with Bet Fred.Lump on.

[Boz]

Whatever midfield we put out it should be better than anything they can offer so I'm not too concerned about this area.  In any case, Delph had his best game for us against Norwich in the last round and that form will certainly be good enough against a team 3 tiers lower.

As long as he doesn't get sent off for a rash tackle 

[eastie]

Anyone know who the ref is?

[bertlambshank]

Slaphead.

[Hookeysmith]

You know when we play the mancs or 'The Mighty Reds YNWA' or Chelski etc and we moan that their fans on forums treat us like we are nobodies and we get all upprty about it............................

I would hope we give them the credit they deserve because for all our comments the Arsenal team man for man on the night was stronger than the one we put out - its our mentality that needs to be bang on

Would love to put it to bed first game but think it could well be a frantic affair - if you were their Manager you would say to go at us as our confidence is shot at present

We need to score first and hopefully early to settle our selves

[eastie]

Slaphead.

Webb?

[bertlambshank]

Slaphead.

Webb?

Yep.

[Matt C]

3-1 Villa. First step to Wembley.

Please, please, please

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Destroy them? We are Aston Villa. You know we could just as easily stuff this up.

Absolutely. That's why I said we really need to match them in midfield and fight for every ball. Part of the reason they beat Arsenal was down to their collective determination and effort. Valley Parade will be electric tomorrow night and the thought of going a goal down scares me as you just don't know how this team will react. I fancy us more to get a result up there than I do at Villa Park should we need to pull back a couple of goals.

I just hope Lambert lets the players know they're in for a fight without scaring them to death. There'll be no room for passengers tomorrow but stick to what we're good at and we'll punish them.

[Billy Walker]

I think Bradford's poor form since the last round is down to nothing more than, I suspect, their players mentally switching off from league football.  A bit like our own drop in form when we got to the Final in '94, my guess is that the Bradford players are totally focused on this game.

I watched Mansfield v Liverpool yesterday and I thought Liverpool were incredibly lucky to get away with a win.  Bradford are better than Mansfield and will have twenty thousand behind them roaring them on in their biggest match in years.  This will be incredibly tough - and the first ever semi-final appearance for a lot of our lads, too. The team will have to play with maturity and they will have to be ultra professional.  People expecting us to thrash Bradford are, in my opinion, putting way too much pressure on our team. This season we have  performed best as underdogs - shouting our mouths off about the difference in our league positions etc. and giving it the big un is a classic recipe for egg-on-face.

[paul_e]

I'd say this kind of game is well suited to the side we now are, with lots of players who've made the step up but have played at a similar level to Bradford.  People like Lowton, Westwood, Bowery can all point to the time they were playing at that level and what to expect, and a lot of the youngsters have played for lower league sides effectively as well.  We need to just take the heat out of it and let the quality be the difference.

[eastie]

In a one off cup game bradford have a chance of an upset but there is no way a team from the lowest league should beat a premier side over two legs and I can't see it happening .

We are a far better side and I'm sure lambert will have the attitude spot on .

[pauliewalnuts]

Given our propensity to concede early goals, I am going for Bradford to be winning at HT and us at FT, at 25/1.

That won for me on Saturday, and I can see the same thing happening tomorrow - usual frailty, but against a lower league side we'll eventually have too much for.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I understand what you're saying Billy but reading the Bradford forums, they really have been poor recently and their fans are just resigned to enjoying the pay day. The poor form has been put down to losing key players and the manager changing their formation.

Don't get me wrong, they'll make us work for the full 90 minutes. Interesting comment from one of their fans about the Arsenal game and tomorrow:

Arsenal were pansies and the ground was icy, hard and the temperature dropped to -3, I was more than hopeful before kick off. This is different I don't see us having any chance over 2 legs, not unless it drops to-3 and Benteke is as wanky as Gervinho and Villa have several bottlers, like Arsenal did. I can't see it, they might not be as technically gifted but Lamberts team will have balls to go with superior ability, Arsenal's attitude was wrong, wrong, wrong, I don't think Villa's will be. I am hoping for a close game and the tie still alive for the 2nd leg.