Aston Villa v Hull City Post Match Thread

[brontebilly]

Deserved the three points anyway but that was a lot more difficult near the end than it needed to be.

Positives

Solid at the back, Gabby and Weimann were much improved, Grealish had a great cameo, pressing a lot higher up the pitch forced lots of mistakes from the awful Hull back three including for the goal

Negatives

full backs offering no width going forward, midfield disappearing in second half, Sanchez being miles off the pace when he came in, Nzogbia

Steve Bruce's tactics played straight in our hands in the first half. Gas as before the game the commentator was bigging up Davies and Huddlestone for England call ups. Only when they were taken off did they improve

We need more quality to come in over the next 2 days badly

It was difficult for our full backs today due to them playing with wing backs. Ours would always have a man against them and also then leave the middle exposed.

Think we need to get forward more, Weimann in particular will always come infield so there should be room down the flank for our full backs to creep into. Dont think it happened once today. Cissoko doesnt look as if he is comfortable on the ball, preferring the physical exchanges but that makes us a bit predictable going forward.

[Matt Collins]

Only seen the goals and followed on t'web. Very happy with that.

Let's not get over excited. We've not played one of the good teams yet and hull's defending on both goals looked very poor. And to think I thought Dawson might keep our guys quiet!

Tactics clearly worked in the first half. Both goals coming from crowding the central areas and moving out from in (which lambert has been often criticised for). But there's obviously sterner tests to come

Bent is gonna be nowhere once the other guys get fit. Two goals and twice hitting the woodwork sounds like the best 45 minutes of football in a while.

Having a defence that doesn't concede a silly goal or two 30 minutes in is making such a difference

[ozzjim]

I think our full backs were pressed back in the second half but first did ok going forward. I thought Cissokho struggled with the sun in the second half with balls coming across the box.

I think a midfielder and a winger seem the obvious needs to give us more options. Our pressing was outstanding first half, but we need like for like to be able to come on and keep the pace of the game. I reckon Sanchez might take a few games.

Hope we get 2 in tomorrow to consolidate what has been an impressive start to the season.

[N'Zimidy]

Grealish looking promising.

I do like that despite the hatchet job they were doing on him, he didn't seem fazed. He still looked for the ball. He's tougher than he looks. It was clearly planned, should he come on, that they'd muller him a few times to try and unsettle him. He was on no more than 10 seconds before Rosenior clattered him. Delph should have done a little better at the end from Jacks ball too.

He got hit hard by some big bastards in League One. Jack probably thought those Premier League tacklers were right fairies in comparison.

[Smirker]

How many CL qualifying rounds do you play if you finish third?

None.

[aj2k77]

Att: 28,336. I think that's the lowest crowd for years.

fairly shocking to be honest. its not too long ago we were debating expanding Villa Park

Why is it shocking? There has been very little football or entertainment at Villa Park for over 4 years now. If the club are pretty much settling for surviving for the foreseeable future what is there for non die hards to buy in to?

[ez]

Hope Vlaar's injury is minor. I think that rules him out leaving anyway.

[Ian.]

That was much better and I did expect that second half. A big man up front to hold up play would have helped also with Zog tiring (which is expected) didn't help. Overall a really good game, Bent could have wrapped it up, like the other night though his finishing has deserted him.

Please lets get Tom in and maybe another. Well done Villa

[Toronto Villa]

Bruce will be upset at all the fouling of Grealish because in my opinion it took them right off their game. To that point they were well on top and the constant attention to Grealish derailed those intentions. Well done Jack

[Louzie0]

Grealish looking promising.

I do like that despite the hatchet job they were doing on him, he didn't seem fazed. He still looked for the ball. He's tougher than he looks. It was clearly planned, should he come on, that they'd muller him a few times to try and unsettle him. He was on no more than 10 seconds before Rosenior clattered him. Delph should have done a little better at the end from Jacks ball too.

He got hit hard by some big bastards in League One. Jack probably thought those Premier League tacklers were right fairies in comparison.

Got a lot of kudos from the R5 Live commentators for his attitude, resilience and skills.

[sirlordbaltimore]

Pretty excellent first half, fairly worrying last 20

Lets be happy with 3 points

[Archbishop Herbert Cockthrottle]

Thought first half was excellent. Westwood, Hutton impressed. Second half we did the job but we should've been clear by then.

I'm happy.

But not dwarfish.

[dave shelley]

On the Grealish shin pad thing.  He does wear them, he has no choice, it's a safety issue covered in the laws of the game.  All players equipment is checked by the officials before they leave the tunnel and again, if they are named substitutes, before they enter the field of play.  It's the way Grealish wears his socks that gives the illusion he doesn't wear shin pads.

All players have to remove jewellery except for religious reasons in which case the items have to be made safe so that injuries cannot occur to any other player or the wearer himself.  If rings cannot be removed then, they have to be taped up. 

Hope that clears a few things up.  Great win BTW.

[Tom_Mc9?]

Hope Vlaar's injury is minor. I think that rules him out leaving anyway.

To the people saying this, I wouldn't worry: we have Clark and Baker ready if Okore isn't ready back yet.

[Risso]

As I said in the pre-match thread:

2-1 I reckon.  A goal in each half for us, then an 85th minute reply for them to take a few more years off me.

Slightly off on the timings, but other than that pretty spot on!  Including the nervousness at the end.