Aston Villa v Stoke City post match thread

[andyh]

Oh, I do understand why PWS.
I just think that he has been pretty poor since his breakthrough season, even considering his injuries, and a few very good cameo performances in the last few weeks haven't really convinced my that he can be a regular, consistent (the main thing) performer for us.

[Toronto Villa]

Stoke impressed me - much better than under pulis.

Considering they were without Huth, Adam, Ireland, Walters and Assaidi, you have to give Hughes some credit. Not too much, obviously but he has them playing far better football than under Pulis.

true, but even he couldn't have imagined after 15-20 minutes the game would turn on its head as it did. He didn't even have to do anything. We simply imploded. Lambert didn't see it coming, Hughes didn't see it coming and neither did either set of fans. I was even following a bit of it on the BBC feed and reading what Sir Graham was saying. It was clear that nobody could have seen 1-0 becoming 1-4.

[Steve kirk]

Still struggling to get over yesterday, I told myself not to react to piss taking at work and I am usually pretty good at hiding how I am feeling but a Brummie Red riled me and I verbally kicked the shit out of him, everybody had a laugh and I felt a bit of a prat, need to be stronger when our next embarrassment comes along

[Deano's Mullet]

I work with several Arsenal and one Fulham fan so today was a day I didn't get too much stick, it was more of a mutual feeling-sorry-for-self day.

[Ian.]

I work with 3 Manchester Utd and a Liverpool fan. Of course from Utd it was Rooney's goal is the best goal ever scored and we're going to get stuffed next week, which we probably will. We might be inconsistent in the league but one constant is we get beat by those bastards.

[curiousorange]

I can't bring myself to watch the highlights, but it looked for all the world like Odemwingie used his hand pushing the ball past Guzan as he equalised. Trick of the light?

[olaftab]

Without Albrighton coming off the bench what other "impact" player do we have - Grant Holt?
I know we aren't supposed to laugh at our own players players but...

Grant could be devastating if only he could move 5 metres in less than 10 seconds.

[kippaxvilla2]

I'm still pissed off 30 hours later at the abjectness of it all.

[Clampy]

I'm still pissed off 30 hours later at the abjectness of it all.

It's frustrating for me more than anything. I honestly think there's a decent group of players there. Like I've said a few times, I don't think we're poor, we're just inconsistent.

[adrenachrome]

One of the most worrying aspects is that we collapsed defensively with Vlaar present and fully fit. This was a new and most unwelcome development.

Most of this season, if one of the full backs was skinned early doors by a semi competent wide opposition player and RV was not playing, you could pile in with a massive wager that we would lose to mitigate the inevitable sadness on the horizon. 

[jeowje]

Lower midtable inconsistency just doesn't sit comfortably with the pysche of the Villa fan. We are currently conflicted by hopes that just don't tally with realistic expectations.

[tomd2103]

I'm still pissed off 30 hours later at the abjectness of it all.

It's frustrating for me more than anything. I honestly think there's a decent group of players there. Like I've said a few times, I don't think we're poor, we're just inconsistent.

Totally agree with that.  Also can't remember a Villa team (or any team for that matter) with such fragile confidence.  Whereas we saw the confidence boost that scoring two quick goals gave us against Norwich, we saw just how badly the confidence was dented after conceding two quick goals yesterday.  The game was pretty much over after that second one went in.   

[amfy]

I can't bring myself to watch the highlights, but it looked for all the world like Odemwingie used his hand pushing the ball past Guzan as he equalised. Trick of the light?

Shoulder. One of the worst things about watching the highlights was any semblance of clinging on to the idea that we were partially put on the back foot by an abject refereeing performance, we're shattered. I thought he was giving them a free kick for everything, and giving us nothing, when I watched it back, we were flying into wild tackles, and hurling ourselves to the floor at every opportunity. You did the right thing not bothering with it.

[supertom]

The trouble is, everytime we get anything approaching a good run of form, like two consecutive wins for example, we tend to then have a bad run. I can see us going another 2-3 games without picking up a point and struggling to hit the barn door.

[Ads]

Maybe. I think we will take at least 5 from the next three.