Bradford City v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[kippaxvilla2]

As far as Villa cup shockers goes, this is right up there with the worst of them.

The romantic in me says, remember Tranmere 94?

The realist in me tells me that I actually don't think the current team has what it takes to raise it's game and stage the sort of come back.

Plus Lambert isn't fit to lace Big Ron's boots.

Anyone hear his interview after the game on Sky?  'Well they certainly know they're in a game now.' Totally inspiring stuff.  Also, I don't wish to be rude but sometimes I listen to him and have genuine difficulty understanding what he is saying.  Could that be an issue in the dressing room as well, especially in 'rant' mode.

[eamonn]

Do you know the bit I hate at the moment? It's when you wake up in the morning, dreading work and then you remember the fucking score line from the day/night before.  And it's happening a lot lately.

What I hate about nights like this is knowing, just knowing, that the headline on the news report that I'll wake up to in the morning will be a hysterical retread of Villa's latest debacle.

Trouble is, we're not big news anymore. Even the press won't be surprised by this and the only reason it'll make the back page is because it was the only match played on the evening.

The only time we are first on MOTD or near the front in The Sun's Goals pullout is because we've just played Utd, City, L'pool or Chelski. It's no longer off our own merit. Next year will be worse.

Re MOTD - See our last league game at Swansea. First on.
Re Sun's Goals Pullout - I can live with not making headline news in that shit-rag

[Apyadg]

As far as Villa cup shockers goes, this is right up there with the worst of them.

The romantic in me says, remember Tranmere 94?

The realist in me tells me that I actually don't think the current team has what it takes to raise it's game and stage the sort of come back.

Plus Lambert isn't fit to lace Big Ron's boots.

Anyone hear his interview after the game on Sky?  'Well they certainly know they're in a game now.' Totally inspiring stuff.  Also, I don't wish to be rude but sometimes I listen to him and have genuine difficulty understanding what he is saying.  Could that be an issue in the dressing room as well, especially in 'rant' mode.

After many complaints from players about finding it difficult to understand him, Lambert's half-time and post-match interaction with the squad involves him walking in to the changing room wearing a sandwich board which has "we go again" printed on it.

[curiousorange]

I bring you a straw to clutch onto, come on, join me.

Opta: 'Aston Villa have progressed through 8 of their previous 13 League Cup semi-finals despite only winning 2 out of 13 first legs.'

Funnily enough I was just thinking that Villa never do League Cup semis the easy way - they're always heart-in-mouth affairs. In 94, we have the obvious mentalism of the Tranmere game. 96, the precious away goals at Highbury. Even against Bolton and Leicester the games were crazy.

One thing's for certain: If we pull this bastard thing out of the fire, it'll make the Blackburn semi sound like a prayer meeting. I went to work the day after the second leg of that with a completely ruptured voicebox.

[black pearl of inchicore]

We Need a Martin Laursen type character.

[dl9]

I don't think that our defenders are necessarily bad players as individuals, but they don't have any collective organisation or a leader. There are lots of examples of getting pulled out of position, and of last ditch challenges; there is a general lack of control and composure. Baker's sliding challenge half way through the second half was exhilerating, but was symptomatic of a general lack of control. As young players they would of course benefit from the steady presence of someone like Petrov in front of them. Bennett and Lowton both seem decent going forward, but Bennett in particular gets caught in possession a lot. Going forward we made a decent number of opportunities without exerting the kind of controlled pressure that you might expect playing a team from three divisions below.

There doesn't seem to be a plan, but intuitively it feels more that the guys on the pitch are not experienced enough to be able to carry out a plan, rather than there not being one at all.

All too often this season I see posts from the optimistic who when we have suffered yet another defeat will refer back to a good pass that was made or a particular run that looked promising. The irony being that we've always been soundly beaten. Just like the scene in Dumb & Dumber where Jim Carey asks the girl what the chances are of him and her getting together

"One in a thousand" he asks.

"More like one in a million" she replies

"So you're saying there's still a chance....."

Needless to say she fucks off with someone else.....and we're going down after a probable day out at Wembley getting spanked after we've scraped past division 4 Bradford.

Football's overrated anyway, it's all about women's gymnastics I say.......

[olaftab]

Well Lambert's not a dead man walking but he's in the cell having the final rites read. Outplayed and outfought by a load of arse. A lot of people unfortunately had already booked  tickets for the final in their minds, as had probably Lerner so he's really going to pull something out the hat in the 2nd leg or he's history.

Rest assured PL will still be in charge when we go down.

WE ARE NOT GOING FUCKING DOWN.

Is it possible go down without fucking?

[SoccerHQ]

I don't find him difficult to understand especially as every other sentence seems to be go again!

Thick scouse accents like Carraghers I find more difficult to understand.

[The Laughing Policeman]

Drama queens the lot of you. We're Aston Villa we don't do things the easy way.

[bertlambshank]

Drama queens the lot of you. We're Aston Villa we don't do things the easy way.

You got that right.

[curiousorange]

Do you know the bit I hate at the moment? It's when you wake up in the morning, dreading work and then you remember the fucking score line from the day/night before.  And it's happening a lot lately.

What I hate about nights like this is knowing, just knowing, that the headline on the news report that I'll wake up to in the morning will be a hysterical retread of Villa's latest debacle.

Trouble is, we're not big news anymore. Even the press won't be surprised by this and the only reason it'll make the back page is because it was the only match played on the evening.

The only time we are first on MOTD or near the front in The Sun's Goals pullout is because we've just played Utd, City, L'pool or Chelski. It's no longer off our own merit. Next year will be worse.

Re MOTD - See our last league game at Swansea. First on.
Re Sun's Goals Pullout - I can live with not making headline news in that shit-rag

I'm going to try and avoid the BBC bulletin at all costs tomorrow. If it means I have to sacrifice my slight lie-in, so be it. I'll also be taking my ebook reader to work so I'm not tempted to look at any football news sites. Then the only thing I have to concern me is my Blues boss, who hasn't been seen at all today but will obviously need to set up some kind of urgent crisis meeting with only me in attendance.

[danlanza]

Well Lambert's not a dead man walking but he's in the cell having the final rites read. Outplayed and outfought by a load of arse. A lot of people unfortunately had already booked  tickets for the final in their minds, as had probably Lerner so he's really going to pull something out the hat in the 2nd leg or he's history.

Rest assured PL will still be in charge when we go down.

WE ARE NOT GOING FUCKING DOWN.

Is it possible go down without fucking?

That should read " It is possible to go down without fucking" surely ?

[silhillvilla]

More concerned with Saturday to be honest than the 2nd leg. Really an expensive day out in North London to see us get smashed by Chelsea. I really don't need that.

[kippaxvilla2]

Latest Norman Cook release.

We pick ourselves up right about now and go again brother, right about now, we pick ourselves up right about now, we pick ourselves up and go again, pickpickpickpickpickpick right about now we pick ourselves up and go again, right about now, we pick ourselves up and go again go again go again gain gain gain.

[dl9]

More concerned with Saturday to be honest than the 2nd leg. Really an expensive day out in North London to see us get smashed by Chelsea. I really don't need that.

But we'll be there all the same eh.....