Bradford City v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[damon loves JT]

poor taste after my previous post damon!

Yes, possibly. To be honest if I saw somebody holding a lighter in the air at a stadium I'd assume I'd stumbled into a Bon Jovi concert by mistake

[VillaAlways]

I think if we lose to Southampon on Saturday, it'll be similar to the Bolton match for TSM when it became clear that things were never, ever going to work.

Genuinely or wishful thinking?

I don't want him to get sacked, to do so now would be nuts for a lot of reasons, but then again, if we lost badly to Southampton, we would have a sequence of results which a manager deserves to get the sack for.

If that makes sense.

Perfect sense.I don't think Wolves wanted to sack MM but it just came to a point where they had no choice but to.

[nick harper]

I think if we lose to Southampon on Saturday, it'll be similar to the Bolton match for TSM when it became clear that things were never, ever going to work.

Genuinely or wishful thinking?

I don't want him to get sacked, to do so now would be nuts for a lot of reasons, but then again, if we lost badly to Southampton, we would have a sequence of results which a manager deserves to get the sack for.

If that makes sense.

Lerner and Faulkner must be pondering what to do if we lose to Southampton and then Albion. Unthinkable but a distinct possibility at the moment.

I can't help but think that there is a sense of panic in the corridors of VP today that will mean some funds will be released but if they haven't been considering options for the last few weeks it is extremely difficult to prise players away from clubs when they know you've become desperate.

[Villafirst]

There's no room for sentiment in Football, it's a results business and PL will be out by the end of January in my opinion. I'd much rather have Harry Redknapp in charge!

[nick harper]

I'm struggling to recall a Villa player who looks quite so uninterested and uncommitted as N'Zogbia.

Stephen Ireland? In fairness to Zog he looks busy when he's near the ball. The blind alleys he runs down are the main thing that annoys me about him.

Had me on the edge of my sofa every time he had the ball last night because he takes players on and opens up space - that's the type of player he is, frustrating at times but creates opportunities. No-one else in the squad can do what he does.

[myf]

Last night was a horrifying vision of what life could be like in the Championship next year.

[Steve R]

The first bit of advice I'd give to Lambert right now is to stop calling O'Neill.

I am really puzzled by last night. There must be something of a siege mentality setting in at VP.

Lambert seemed to pick 7 players for one half of the pitch and 4 for the other, with the main means of joining the two together being a big boot of the ball in the general direction of Benteke.

It makes no sense at all. It's a waste of Benteke's talent and is probably the one tactic most easily dealt with by a div 4 outfit.

Add in the fact that several players put in less than sparkling performances meant that we really were asking for it.

Bennett was identified as a weak point? No doubt if he had still been playing for Boro - 2 divs above Bradford - he'd have been identified as the stronger point and they would have attacked down the right.

It should not have mattered. Events over xmas really has knocked the stuffing out of the team and the manager. We need leadership from the touchline as well as on the pitch.

Lambert is not that stupid, even the bad players are not that bad.

Who was it talking a while back about a sports psychologist?

[damon loves JT]

Who was it talking a while back about a sports psychologist?

It was my dad. But think we're past the stage of therapy, I think counselling would be more appropriate

[onje_villa]

I can't believe how many are calling for Lambert to go. Had Benteke taken any of the numerous early chances, it'd have been a different game entirely. So they scored and we caved, that's football, we all know it. It happens. We're in a shite run but sacking yet another manager won't solve that.

Totally agree.

So we were subject to a "giant killing" performance, we're not the first and won't be the last, and the tie's not over yet.

If we had someone to put the early chances away, the fans would be posting a different set of messages.

Our defensive frailties are there for all to see, and it's up to PL and his henchmen to do something about it, as well as improve our strikers ability to put the ball in the net.

Yes, as an isolated game it happens, move on. But this is just the latest in a long line of humiliations.
I'm not saying anything more than that but the fans aren't upset because of this one-off game

[Drummond]

There always has to be a pointy at which the trigger gets pulled, however, I'd feel for Lambert if the owner feels it has to be this season.

I do wonder if we will have to go through what we went through in the early 70's in order to become a force again. Only this time it will be harder.

[PeterWithe]

Elements of our support was a disgrace last night, fighting amongst themselves, (saw at least 2 fights), and if you were the bloke in block E row f seat 127, you are the most disgusting fan i have ever met, non stop vitriol (effing and C'ing) at our players from the very first to the last whistle.
i can appreciate some frustration, but this is out of order!

They had to close the Queens pub because of, alleged, trouble.

That was on the WMP twitter feed but wasn't actually true. I made the mistake of going in there, the lot in there were pretty excitable and the local Police decided to make the landlord close and walk everyone to the ground an hour before kick off. There was no actual trouble in there though.

[rutski]

The first bit of advice I'd give to Lambert right now is to stop calling O'Neill.

I am really puzzled by last night. There must be something of a siege mentality setting in at VP.

Lambert seemed to pick 7 players for one half of the pitch and 4 for the other, with the main means of joining the two together being a big boot of the ball in the general direction of Benteke.

It makes no sense at all. It's a waste of Benteke's talent and is probably the one tactic most easily dealt with by a div 4 outfit.

Add in the fact that several players put in less than sparkling performances meant that we really were asking for it.

Bennett was identified as a weak point? No doubt if he had still been playing for Boro - 2 divs above Bradford - he'd have been identified as the stronger point and they would have attacked down the right.

It should not have mattered. Events over xmas really has knocked the stuffing out of the team and the manager. We need leadership from the touchline as well as on the pitch.

Lambert is not that stupid, even the bad players are not that bad.

Who was it talking a while back about a sports psychologist?

the one point about lumping it forward last night is correct but i dont believe the fans help as when we have posession on the deck because of recent results there is a demand to get it forward quickly. noticed this starting at the wigan match and has got stronger every game.
we do need to take the lead, going one down seems to knock the stuffing out of us and confidence in the game plan dissipates quickly. this is where the couple of experienced players are needed to get all to calm down and do things as per game plan.

[Pete3206]

Those having a go at the fans can get knotted. The vast majority were well behaved, supported their team throughout and had little reward for shelling out their hard earned for that dog's breakfast of a performance. The focus is always on the minority of idiots.

can get knotted can we john? how about the idiot standing behind me with the lit lighter taunting the home fans, defend him, i dare ya!
as i said in my original post, there are elements of our fans who are a disgrace. if that guy had been caught on camera do you think the headline would have been 'an aston villa fan taunts bradford fans over the fire'? or do you think it would have been' villa fans taunt bradford fans over fire'! we would all get tarred with the same brush. so whatever the ticket price, performance of the team waste of afternoon off work whatever, defend this idiot!

Fair enough Rutski, but most fans were OK in my book. These fuckers you mention don't deserve the time of day and I certainly wouldn't defend them.

[Walmley_Villa]

Elements of our support was a disgrace last night, fighting amongst themselves, (saw at least 2 fights), and if you were the bloke in block E row f seat 127, you are the most disgusting fan i have ever met, non stop vitriol (effing and C'ing) at our players from the very first to the last whistle.
i can appreciate some frustration, but this is out of order!

They had to close the Queens pub because of, alleged, trouble.

That was on the WMP twitter feed but wasn't actually true. I made the mistake of going in there, the lot in there were pretty excitable and the local Police decided to make the landlord close and walk everyone to the ground an hour before kick off. There was no actual trouble in there though.

According to the Bradford press there were 'known' Villa hooligans in there and a Bradford fan was headbutted when he tried to enter the pub?

http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/10147936.Bradford_City_fan_claims_he_was_headbutted_ahead_of_Aston_Villa_clash/?ref=mr

[PeterWithe]

He was just by us and had come in to sort out the row with our lot from what I could make out. There was a bit of verbals.

It wasn't a pleasant atmosphere in there and we left but there wasn't trouble and there must have been 40 police in and around the pub.