Aston Villa v Birmingham City - Match Thread

[Havencheese]

Come on Villa. I hope this is a platform for a decent run, TS gets selection right and confidence builds.

[Proposition Joe]

What a difference in the second half.  Much more like it.  Ayew starting to look like a talent, Veretout making it through a full 90, Grealish pulling the strings.  Let's forget the first half ever happened.

No Gabby in the starting XI on Saturday anyone?

[Tucson Villain]

Get in!

[Grande Pablo]

More of a team in the 2nd half - Lescott & Gabby's days could be numbered.

[KKAVFC]

Bet the Bitters & their shitty forum/ Twitter feed are upset with that result, a little bit of payback for siding with the rags

[four fornicholl]

stop your messing around
better think of the villa
time you scored us a goal
creating problems in town
RUDY a message to you rudy

[Taylor]

Are you sure that wasn't Andre who came on half time?

[brontebilly]

What a difference in the second half.  Much more like it.  Ayew starting to look like a talent, Veretout making it through a full 90, Grealish pulling the strings.  Let's forget the first half ever happened.

No Gabby in the starting XI on Saturday anyone?

Shouldnt be in the squad even if fit, same for Lescott when Okore is back

A win is a win and we should have made it a lot more comfortable considering the chances we created in the second half

Credit to Sherwood for making the changes at the break, lets not even get into the tactical clusterfuck in the first half

[ROBBO]

Gabby should be club mascot only and never get near team selection again. He has been a big part of our mediocrity.

[AlexAlexCropley]

Ayew and Grealish exciting, pulsating, cheeky, guileish, classy.That's mah boy (s)

[Rudy65]

Second half:

Clark commanding at CH

Jack, being Jack. Great quality. Glides past his man. Just needs to do it more in the danger areas

Ayew. Quality. Liked his skill and wanting the ball. He does everything Gabby doesnt

Veretout. Looked decent

Would have taken that before the game

UTV

[olaftab]

Well good second half and a well deserved win. Ayew was real eye opener...now we saw what he is capable of. Good decision on subs as he took off the two most useless players and on came the two who changed the game. Clark not a midfielder but much better than Lescott at CB. Also impressed with Veretout when he made some runs but poor passing let him down.

[Ormy Droid]

A massive relief, and there were a lot of positives to take from the second half. You could see Ayew's confidence growing each time he got on the ball. Veretout, although not a major influence, got a full game under his belt, Gabby got injured and is hopefully out of contention for the foreseeable (As Monty posted, we looked such a better team without him).

The negatives? Tim's tactics - hoofball in the first half (though give him his due, he did ditch it, proving that he may not be quite as pig headed as I thought), and the emptying of midfield again, a better team surely would have dominated Westwood and Veretout, plus the usual defensive frailties of Bacuna and Amavi...

But let's not dwell on those too much tonight anyway. Hopefully this is a step forward, Gana will get fit, we'll play three in the middle of the park, a front line consisting of Gil, Grealish, Ayew, or Traore, when fit, would be pretty tasty.

And most importantly we beat the blue nose bastards.