Indefensible home form.

[saunders_heroes]

Is the problem then that we've always been a bit crap? Eureka!

No that's not the case. Whilst fortress Villa Park has never been there not even in the season we won the Championship I can not remember anything as bad as this season. I expect a club the size of ours to win at least 60% of the home games with a few draws and the odd defeat now and then but maximum 3. This season losing games particularly to the likes of Crystal Palace, West Ham, Stoke and now Fulham is NOT acceptable.

We haven't won 60% of home games for a long long time.

Our best home season in the last 10 years was 07/08 when we won 10/19. Even that season we still had 6 defeats so not a million miles off this one.

We've lost 10 home games already this season and it could be more. How anyone can claim the 6 defeats in 07/08 isn't a million miles off this season's record is beyond me. An extra 4 home defeats over a season is an awful stat when you only play 19 games.

[ez]

Having slept on yesterday's latest humiliating surrender (broken sleep) ,I think we as fans have been to passive,Lerner has got away with murder and we either don't go anymore or we sit there,the odd muted boos or leave early.If I remember correctly Liverpool and Manure fans have forcibly demonstrated against their owners in the recent past (both American) it's time for us to do the same FORCIBLY or are we too down trodden to do it?

Agreed. When Ellis was here the fans were never shy to protest but under Lerner there's so much apathy. Fans just sit there and say nothing other than a few muted boos at the final whistle.

It's possibly because Doug was usually at the game. Lerner keeps out of the way.

[caster troy]

Lerner isn't there to direct these 'requests' at, that is a big problem. He's an absentee landlord, our boiler is broken, our basement flooded, our roof leaking and he is thousands of miles away oblivious to the gravity of the situation.

Doug was at every game so he a) felt our pain when things were going wrong and b) was there to hear our calls for a new manager or investment. Lerner has a buffer of Faulkner and Lambert who filter out the fans concerns and tell him about 'progress' where in reality there is none.

[Mazrim]

I was amazed at the crowd yesterday. There were jeers and boos of course, but on the whole they seemed pretty inured to it all. What Villa fans have gone through for the past four seasons has browbeaten them, yet they still turn up in reasonably good numbers. So much for a fickle fan base.

What I also noticed was the lack of hope and resignation to a bleak future. It reminded me of the scene in Orwell's 1984, when Winston is told that, to get a picture of the future, he should imagine a boot stamping on a human face, forever. It's not the first time that image has occurred to me when following the Villa.

To use another literary reference, we're in a footballing catch 22 situation. We need to sack Lambert, but we can't trust our board to replace him adequately. Our manager is incompetent, often incoherent, and his record is - as the thread title states - indefensible. In any other Villa era, he'd have been sacked twice by now. But our disinterested, passive, absentee owner and his clean cut yes man have made three shockingly dreadful appointments already (each time the process was farcical) and we're now perennial relegation strugglers as a direct result of their mismanagement of the club.

The owner and CEO don't know what they're doing, the manager is winging it, and the players are coasting comfortably in a club culture where failure is the norm and there is no expectation to excel. It's a certain recipe for disaster, and that's what we'll all be facing unless this chain of incompetence and failure is broken. Randy Lerner, it's over to you.

Exactly how I see it mate. Excellent post.

[London Villan]

Is the problem then that we've always been a bit crap? Eureka!

No that's not the case. Whilst fortress Villa Park has never been there not even in the season we won the Championship I can not remember anything as bad as this season. I expect a club the size of ours to win at least 60% of the home games with a few draws and the odd defeat now and then but maximum 3. This season losing games particularly to the likes of Crystal Palace, West Ham, Stoke and now Fulham is NOT acceptable.

We haven't won 60% of home games for a long long time.

Our best home season in the last 10 years was 07/08 when we won 10/19. Even that season we still had 6 defeats so not a million miles off this one.

Or looking at it the other way... in 140 years we have never lost 10 games at home... which beats the joint record, matched last year, of 9.

[brian green]

Excellent post Jimbo.   The other parallel with 1984 is that Winston had all his teeth compulsorily  extracted so that he could not bite.   Just how I feel.

[pauliewalnuts]

I was amazed at the crowd yesterday. There were jeers and boos of course, but on the whole they seemed pretty inured to it all. What Villa fans have gone through for the past four seasons has browbeaten them, yet they still turn up in reasonably good numbers. So much for a fickle fan base.

What I also noticed was the lack of hope and resignation to a bleak future. It reminded me of the scene in Orwell's 1984, when Winston is told that, to get a picture of the future, he should imagine a boot stamping on a human face, forever. It's not the first time that image has occurred to me when following the Villa.

To use another literary reference, we're in a footballing catch 22 situation. We need to sack Lambert, but we can't trust our board to replace him adequately. Our manager is incompetent, often incoherent, and his record is - as the thread title states - indefensible. In any other Villa era, he'd have been sacked twice by now. But our disinterested, passive, absentee owner and his clean cut yes man have made three shockingly dreadful appointments already (each time the process was farcical) and we're now perennial relegation strugglers as a direct result of their mismanagement of the club.

The owner and CEO don't know what they're doing, the manager is winging it, and the players are coasting comfortably in a club culture where failure is the norm and there is no expectation to excel. It's a certain recipe for disaster, and that's what we'll all be facing unless this chain of incompetence and failure is broken. Randy Lerner, it's over to you.

Exactly how I see it mate. Excellent post.

Yep, sadly it looks pretty much spot on for me too

[adrenachrome]

I was amazed at the crowd yesterday. There were jeers and boos of course, but on the whole they seemed pretty inured to it all. What Villa fans have gone through for the past four seasons has browbeaten them, yet they still turn up in reasonably good numbers. So much for a fickle fan base.

What I also noticed was the lack of hope and resignation to a bleak future. It reminded me of the scene in Orwell's 1984, when Winston is told that, to get a picture of the future, he should imagine a boot stamping on a human face, forever. It's not the first time that image has occurred to me when following the Villa.

To use another literary reference, we're in a footballing catch 22 situation. We need to sack Lambert, but we can't trust our board to replace him adequately. Our manager is incompetent, often incoherent, and his record is - as the thread title states - indefensible. In any other Villa era, he'd have been sacked twice by now. But our disinterested, passive, absentee owner and his clean cut yes man have made three shockingly dreadful appointments already (each time the process was farcical) and we're now perennial relegation strugglers as a direct result of their mismanagement of the club.

The owner and CEO don't know what they're doing, the manager is winging it, and the players are coasting comfortably in a club culture where failure is the norm and there is no expectation to excel. It's a certain recipe for disaster, and that's what we'll all be facing unless this chain of incompetence and failure is broken. Randy Lerner, it's over to you.

Exactly how I see it mate. Excellent post.

Yep, sadly it looks pretty much spot on for me too

Thirded, and another fine bit of writing from Jimbo.

The factory of sadness, a downward spiral, a slough of despond and now the vision of a boot stamping on a human face, forever.  I think we have moved beyond "Catch 22" to the horrors of "A Clockwork Orange".

[ChicagoLion]

Yes Spot on Jimbo

[Rigadon]

Jimbo nails it. 

[Irish villain]

Spot on Jimbo.

They probably think Villa Park is too good for us now.

Very sad stateo f affairs.

[Chris Harte]

Worst home form in the club's almost-140 year history, if you throw in the home records of Lambert, McCleish and Houiller. Actually Houiller's home form looks positively spectacular in comparison to the other two.

The home support, who turn out in large numbers (our average home gate is still well over 30000) deserve much better than this. Yet yesterday was the first time I've heard any largish scale "we want Lambert out" chanting. A testament to the patience of our club's support.

[olaftab]

On the brighter side despite all the gloom two of our home goals in March are featured in the March GotM on MotD.

[rob_bridge]

I was amazed at the crowd yesterday. There were jeers and boos of course, but on the whole they seemed pretty inured to it all. What Villa fans have gone through for the past four seasons has browbeaten them, yet they still turn up in reasonably good numbers. So much for a fickle fan base.

What I also noticed was the lack of hope and resignation to a bleak future. It reminded me of the scene in Orwell's 1984, when Winston is told that, to get a picture of the future, he should imagine a boot stamping on a human face, forever. It's not the first time that image has occurred to me when following the Villa.

To use another literary reference, we're in a footballing catch 22 situation. We need to sack Lambert, but we can't trust our board to replace him adequately. Our manager is incompetent, often incoherent, and his record is - as the thread title states - indefensible. In any other Villa era, he'd have been sacked twice by now. But our disinterested, passive, absentee owner and his clean cut yes man have made three shockingly dreadful appointments already (each time the process was farcical) and we're now perennial relegation strugglers as a direct result of their mismanagement of the club.

The owner and CEO don't know what they're doing, the manager is winging it, and the players are coasting comfortably in a club culture where failure is the norm and there is no expectation to excel. It's a certain recipe for disaster, and that's what we'll all be facing unless this chain of incompetence and failure is broken. Randy Lerner, it's over to you.

Exactly how I see it mate. Excellent post.

Yep, sadly it looks pretty much spot on for me too

Thirded, and another fine bit of writing from Jimbo.

The factory of sadness, a downward spiral, a slough of despond and now the vision of a boot stamping on a human face, forever.  I think we have moved beyond "Catch 22" to the horrors of "A Clockwork Orange".

Yes Catch 22 was funny, we are in a much darker place.

Great post Jimbo.

[rob_bridge]

Oh and to use the phrase from Clockwork Orange 'Real Horror Show'