Millwall v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[lennythekad]

Just saw this on Twitter

Ron vlaar appealed to the away fans for support and was booed with chants of 'fuck off villa' from villa fans , peak

Phil, I definitely never heard that chant. A fair amount of booing and angry comments at the end but I never heard that chant.

Doesn't mean it didn't happen of course.

I saw that so differently.  I thought Vlaar was sympathising with the fans and in his way apologising to them.

There had been a few chants on f**k off from some fans at the players before he came over to us.

That was my take on it too, Pauline.
I think the other players were too ashamed to even look in our direction, except for Bennett who clapped us fleetingly.

[brian green]

Come on lads.   Keep it up.   We will get through this day and this thread one way or another.   Gallows humour, you can't beat it when facing the drop.

[danno]

Felicity Kendall was awesome at the back.

She had her knockers as well.

but she fought back with a classic rearguard action.

[Steve R]

The worst midfield I can recall is the one which had Barry Hole in it.   Perhaps some other old timer can add the others.    Was one Phil Woosnam?   I think his awfulness came later.   Ron Wylie was crap also.

Hole joined early in 68, pre Docherty by a few months. Woosnam, who once shared 40 goals in a season with Big Tone, had long since departed for NASL.

The central midfielders of the time that I recall were the likes of Hole, Ferguson, Mitchinson, Park, Deakin and Broadbent.

The situation we are in now is not unlike Docherty's start to his season two. Defence all over the place, young players (Rioch, Hamilton, McMahon) looking nothing like the players we thought we had bought at the start of the season.

They weren't bad players, pretty good in fact as it later turned out.  Docherty was not a bad manager either for that matter. It just wasn't working and looked abysmal.

[steamer]

"He is up he is down he is in the Rose and crown, Barry Hole, Barry Hole, he shot, he missed he must be fucking pissed, Barry Hole, Barry Hole"
After being punished by the club for drinking before a match.

[Martyn Smith]

Multiple choice question:

You are an Aston Villa midfielder, in the Millwall half in what looks like a promising attacking position. Do you:

1. Send the ball over to a forward in a wide position outside the penalty area, in the hope that he'll be able to get a cross into Darren Bent

2. Launch the ball directly into the area yourself in the hope that Darren will be able to get his head on it and at least make the opposition defence do a bit of work

3. Pass the ball sideways and slightly backwards to another midfielder, who will do the same, with the whole team repeating the exercise about another 27 times until the ball is safely back with Shay Given. Who will then hoof it out for a throw-in to the opposition...

4. Do 3 all game except when it's about two minutes from the end when you realise you've got a game which could have already been won to save, decide to give 2 a go, by which time it is too late...

[eastie]

Felicity Kendall was awesome at the back.

She had her knockers as well.

but she fought back with a classic rearguard action.

True but much better when playing with one in the hole.

[olaftab]

There really has to be an end to this "get behind the lads" and "get behind the kids" and "get behind the manager" nonsense.  The players and the manager and the support staff are all professionals.   They are not children.   They are not part timers.   They are not amateurs or volunteers giving up their free time to make it possible for some young men to enjoy a game of football.  They are professionals and they are very well paid.   They live in fabulous homes, they drive fabulous cars, the have exciting lifestyles of travel, glamour, money and celebrity.

The words and intent of this post are brilliant. A real cold  summing up of our club's employees and expectation is that somehow they should be delivering like any other corporate organisation. However reality of football and performance of footballers on the pitch every Saturday requires a bit more than mechanical industrial machine approach. It requires capability combined with passion. Passion both within the players on the pitch and the supporters in the stand. Good crowds and passionate support can change the course of a match and the result. However enough capability is a must. The enough is that which allows you to compete. We are a little short  of that so not able to compete therefore  it is important that supporters help by filling the gap as much  as possible.  A few clubs, say manu, have got close to combining capability with industrial efficiency but not many and manu  still require their supporters to urge them on at occasions. So most do rely  on audience participation to lesser or greater degree.Therefore, IMO, dismissing crowd effect is bunkum.

[LeeB]

Felicity Kendall was awesome at the back.

She had her knockers as well.

but she fought back with a classic rearguard action.

True but much better when playing with one in the hole.

She didn't mind getting dirty, either.

[onje_villa]

There really has to be an end to this "get behind the lads" and "get behind the kids" and "get behind the manager" nonsense.  The players and the manager and the support staff are all professionals.   They are not children.   They are not part timers.   They are not amateurs or volunteers giving up their free time to make it possible for some young men to enjoy a game of football.  They are professionals and they are very well paid.   They live in fabulous homes, they drive fabulous cars, the have exciting lifestyles of travel, glamour, money and celebrity.

The fans, like me and my sons, squeeze our income, make sacrifices, infuriate our spouses, manipulate our work commitments, travel hundreds and thousands of miles at our own expense, endure fatigue and sleep deprivation, get ripped off  (bottle of warm beer 500ml at £3.60 at Millwall last night), get treated like aliens intent on destroying the planet (ditto Millwall last night), endure uneducated mumbling of meaningless cliches or total silence when we need information, get snarled at by coppers with hate in their eyes while the opposition fans throw bottles at our players on the pitch, endure ridicule and mockery from other so called football watchers (I will not call them fans because they are not) and give up the chances to do other more rewarding and pleasurable things with our lives -ALL OF THIS in order to support the lifestyle of a goalkeeper on more money for a week than most of the supporters earn in two years, who cannot even keep goal kicks in the field of play and whose answer to repeatedly kicking the ball into touch and conceding possession is to hold up the palms of his hands and then proceed to do the same thing five minutes later.   And players who clearly do not care if we lose, who lack fight, who lack technique, who lack self discipline, who lack composure, who lack mental strength, who lack love of their club, who lack team spirit, who lack pride, who will not communicate with each other, who will not or cannot be coached into the elimination of glaring errors in their individual and collective organization on the field, with a manager who makes Alex McLeish looks competent - all of whom as I write this are yawning and stretching themselves and wondering how they are going to spend some money today and which nightclubs they are going to grace tonight.

You ask me to "get behind" that stinking mess?

Anybody who does "get behind" the disgraceful shambles which is Aston Villa FC, and not demand a complete and total reality check from the very top of the club down, is, in my opinion as culpable and as guilty and as weak minded as the owner, the CEO, the manager and the squad. 

The club needs to be purged but it is only going to happen when we are on the brink of relegation to League 1 and guess when that day comes who the people in power on bloated salaries at Villa Park will turn to for the inspiration to rebuild the club?   You've got it.   The fans.

Excellent.

[#dontgiveashit]

Bradford and now f--king Millward. Stop making excuses for this shower of sh-t. Owner, manager, players and too many fans who live on past glory all of which happened before most of these players we even born. It's cr-p. it's all cr-p and tossers who make excuses for it are bell ends. What sort of tosser brings in Mcleish? What sort of tosser can't see what's so obvious to any dipsh-t with half a brain? Sunday league only for me now...f--k this...

[eastie]

Felicity Kendall was awesome at the back.

She had her knockers as well.

but she fought back with a classic rearguard action.

True but much better when playing with one in the hole.

She didn't mind getting dirty, either.

Always prone to letting a sloppy one in at the back though.

[Malandro]

any chance of the newcastle thread to be started?

[Chico Hamilton III]

There really has to be an end to this "get behind the lads" and "get behind the kids" and "get behind the manager" nonsense.  The players and the manager and the support staff are all professionals.   They are not children.   They are not part timers.   They are not amateurs or volunteers giving up their free time to make it possible for some young men to enjoy a game of football.  They are professionals and they are very well paid.   They live in fabulous homes, they drive fabulous cars, the have exciting lifestyles of travel, glamour, money and celebrity.

The words and intent of this post are brilliant. A real cold  summing up of our club's employees and expectation is that somehow they should be delivering like any other corporate organisation. However reality of football and performance of footballers on the pitch every Saturday requires a bit more than mechanical industrial machine approach. It requires capability combined with passion. Passion both within the players on the pitch and the supporters in the stand. Good crowds and passionate support can change the course of a match and the result. However enough capability is a must. The enough is that which allows you to compete. We are a little short  of that so not able to compete therefore  it is important that supporters help by filling the gap as much  as possible.  A few clubs, say manu, have got close to combining capability with industrial efficiency but not many and manu  still require their supporters to urge them on at occasions. So most do rely  on audience participation to lesser or greater degree.Therefore, IMO, dismissing crowd effect is bunkum.

I wonder how passionate you were feeling on 90 minutes yesterday? The players deserved every bit of stick they took last night. As someone said in another thread, the fans have met their side of the bargain by turning up week after week in large numbers only to have their noses rubbed in it by lambert and his bunch of couldn't give a shit merchants. They need someone who can tell them what's expected of villa players. If lambert can't do that then the fans will. They're pro footballers not an under 12 side.

[olaftab]

Give them all the stick they deserve after the game but support them before and during.