Relegation?

[silhillvilla]

I've never been to Leyton Orient so that would be a positive

I have.... it was shit. Went with a Walsall supporting pal, took a while to find a decent pub and the cup of tea I had a half time was served by a toothless cockney harriden and had a film of what I can think was lard atop it. It was like a scene from Oliver Twist mixed with a space age stand with flats above it at one end with people sitting on their balconies watching the game for free, whilst i'd paid to sit a seat made of balsa wood and got a splinter in my arse!u

Be very careful what you wish for

Oh that's lovely

[Boz]

Even since times under Gérard Houllier and Alex McLeish came to the forefront I was convinced that we were not going to get relegated. Even last season under Paul Lambert I just knew we were going to be safe. This season, though, I am no longer quite so sure. Please prove me wrong.

Lambert does not inspire confidence, his after match comments are always the same old cliches and the players comments on the OS follow the same format after each defeat.

Relegation looks a possibility as we sink lower. Perhaps there was a complacency when we were 10th/11th even though not many points off the drop zone, but we're now getting closer each game.

It seems that Lambert is unable to put out a team who are consistent for 90 minutes, they can be good enought to win a game as the first half on Sunday and be absolute crap the next 45 minutes. What does Lambert do at half time, his tactics and strategy are poor and obviously Pardew was able to spot Villa's shortcomings to get his team on top after half time.

Lambert just doesn't seem to have the ability to raise his players. He's bought strikers and now Benteke has stopped scoring we have no one capable of sneaking a goal.

Definately shouldn't have a new contract.

[Clampy]

If there's one thing that does worry me slightly is our inability to put together winning run. West Ham looked in a bit of a mess up until they played us. Since then they've overtaken us and are looking upwards instead of down.

Our result against the Stripeyfilth should have given us the confidence to go on and pick up a few points. Since we beat them, we've lost 3 out of 4. Winning one game every now and again is not good enough really. We don't capitalise on decent results and until we do, we're always going to be down the bottom half of the table.

[PaulWinch again]

Let's face it the club and some fans were pretty complacent when we were in 11th in January and essentially said we didn't need to address very obvious areas of weakness as we were midtable. Unfortunately that was naive at best and probably negligent at worst. We may have been 11th but we were never comfortable and now it's become clear we were nowhere near safe it's too late to address our issues. Let's just hope we scrape by.

[Dave Clark Five]

Why would anyone want 19 games like the Newcastle away one?

You can't have been at the Millwall game, otherwise you would have understood the point.

It wasn't the match itself; that will be what it will be, but the cup final it was for the Mickey Mouse outfit we were playing and all the nonsense that surrounded it. As a copper told me during the 45 minute post match lock in "Millwall are out because they want to take a pop at the big club".

23 games of having our kick offs moved incessantly for a Friday night game or a Saturday morning kick off, to go to grim little backwaters where every local Stone Island moron wants to take a pop at us, because one of the biggest clubs in the land is gracing his lulled and dumbfounded town.

That is before we get to the financial catastrophe relegation would bring.

I don't think we will be relegated and I don't even think it will be close. There is not a convincing argument that suggests Fulham, Sunderland, West Brom etc will change habbits of a season or more, but anybody who thinks relegation wouldn't be so bad is truly and spectacularly wrong.

Go back to the pre-match thread for that game and anyone who warned of it being grim was accused of bed-wetting. It was exactly as I expected upon arrival. You can always spot the fans of non-Premier, or recently promoted to the premier, teams. They still wear silk scarves tied to their wrists. Seriously they do still sing songs like 'we hate Nottingham Forest...', 'we'll see you all outside' etc. it is like a time warp down there. Grimsby away was an example of it. Those who want to experience the aggro of old, it still lurks below. Ads is right. Even if a lot of it is just chavs, it ruins the day out. You can't go in a pub without being mithered by idiots. Locked in after games.

[levico]

All the talk about only needing 37 or 38 points to survive - right now I can't even see how we will get 30 points.

i agree

Seriously? You think we will lose at least 10 of our remaining 11 games? Really?

Obviously not, but I am always taken by surprise when we manage to win a match. I think that our incompetence is growing with every match. There's just no belief amongst the players at the moment and I just cant see a revival like last Spring. It will be very very close.

[levico]

We'll beat Norwich and it will lift, until the next defeat!

It cannot continue like this. Money needs to be spent and things have to improve. I cannot stand a fifth season of reading Levico telling us we're going down. Stop giving the depressant oxygen Villa.

Have I said we are going down this season?

I honestly don't know - just like you don't know we will stay up. All I know is, it will be extremely tight.

[mattjpa]

Whether we get relegated this season or not is irrelevant in the long term. As others have said, it will happen eventually unless something drastic changes - we cannot continue to flirt with relegation without eventually getting burned. The worst thing is, I dont think anyone outside of the villa community will even care - we are turgid and a stain on the league at the moment, making up the numbers with no ambition. Nobody wanted lerner and lambert to fail but they have. I think everyone agrees the current set up and philosophy is wrong but what is the best way for a change to come about?

[supertom]

I think our form, 2 wins and a few draws in our last 14 or so, will stay fairly similar till the end of the season. That will be (just about) enough to keep us up. Cardiff will struggle to hit 30 points. Fulham are awful and so are West Brom.

[Ads]

We'll beat Norwich and it will lift, until the next defeat!

It cannot continue like this. Money needs to be spent and things have to improve. I cannot stand a fifth season of reading Levico telling us we're going down. Stop giving the depressant oxygen Villa.

Have I said we are going down this season?

I honestly don't know - just like you don't know we will stay up. All I know is, it will be extremely tight.

Yes. Repeatedly. You don't think we will get to 30 points. That is not calling it as tight.

Its what you say every season and you're consistently wrong.

[Irish villain]

An Arsenal fan at work has just said he can't believe where we are and that we couldn't beat Newcastle. He thought we looked decent against them both games this season.

The games that are haunting us are Fulham away, Palace at home and Stoke away. Even two additional points from that lot and we'd be feeling more comfortable.

[Ads]

We were cheated at Stoke, despite not playing well.

[amfy]

I have been to Deepdale 6-10 times a season for the past 12 years, and seen Preston at 20 different Championship & League One away grounds, & I have never ever seen these 1970s wrist scarf wearing fans you speak of.

Except in Burnley - but not only does that go without saying, we've had to play them in the Prem  anyway!

[Dave Clark Five]

I have been to Deepdale 6-10 times a season for the past 12 years, and seen Preston at 20 different Championship & League One away grounds, & I have never ever seen these 1970s wrist scarf wearing fans you speak of.

Except in Burnley - but not only does that go without saying, we've had to play them in the Prem  anyway!

But do they still sing 'Oh a knock-kneed chicken and a bow-legged hen'?

[Damo70]

Fourth relegation battle in a row. In my thirty five years of watching Villa we have always recovered and had a decent or even very good season after a fight against the drop. The exception being '85-'86 and '86-'87.