Aston Villa 1 Knuckledraggers crawl back under their stones 0 Post match thread.

[saunders_heroes]

Just watching the highlights again and they only really created one perhaps two decent chances the whole match. We should have wiped the floor with them second half.

[PeterWithesShin]

Considering they "cut us apart" first half, the only times I can remember being worried were the 2 shots on target they had, the freekick down Guzan's throat and the chance that bloke nobody has heard of missed in the second half. Only other thing I can remember is a shot dragged well wide in the first half. Cut us apart my arse. Even though we were crap in the first half they still created virtually nothing.

[pauliewalnuts]

Blues were fucking awful the whole match. The first half we were utterly abysmal. I heard an interview with Sherwood where he implied the first half was all part of a cunning master plan.

Utter bollocks, we made an awful bunch of championship cloggers look better than they were.

Second half infinitely better. Veretout looked hugely improved, Jack was excellent, and Ayew was superb.

Thought the atmosphere was great. Flat for 20 mins in the first half, and even though it was justified, I don't like half time booing, but excellent in the second half.

We have a decent number of technically gifted players. Sherwood needs to get more performances like the second half out of them, and none like the first.

As for Small Heath, what sad twats they and their shitty little club are. All cockahoop because they broke a window n a pub or something. What ******.

[pauliewalnuts]

This is going to rumble on.  I must admit I was cringing when Sherwood said it was the first half tactic.  This was Rowett at the end of the Tom Ross interview.

Tom, Did he actually really say that? (that Vile played bad on purpose)"
TR: "Yeah on my life..."
GR: "F*ck off, Jesus Christ"
TR: "He said that was our tactic..."

Ha ha, fair play, Tim!

Fair play to Rowett, though, he is actually right about that, it was absolute bollocks t suggest that was the plan.

I almost crashed the car when I heard that on the way home.

It was his cunning plan to spend 45 minutes hopelessly lumping the ball long, making a truly third rate parks team look decent and get booed off at the end of it?

Really?

[Drummond]

1st half : Safe
2nd half : phew.

Grealish and Ayew were great when they came on. Clark was infinitely better in defence than midfield. I like Amavi.

[Damo70]

I didn't think you could tell which team were Premier League and which were Championship in the first half, but to be fair we appeared to take the sting out of them for the second half. Good substitutions by Sherwood I thought. Gabby was more of a walking red card than a walking goal threat. I reckon he has lost it, he knows it and is naturally frustrated. I am surprised at the post match criticism of Clark. I thought he had a very good game. The atmosphere wasn't as nasty as I expected given the break since we last played them. They seemed more like happy campers enjoying their big day out. Perhaps the last few years have taken the delusions of grandeur out of them a bit. But the general gist I got from listening to WM whilst driving home from the game is that we could only beat them by one goal so basically it doesn't really count. If you add up their real victories and their moral victories over us we have never actually ever really beat them so tonight just continues their amazing unbeaten run against us.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Too right, Damo. Tonight will go down in their history book.

What a silly, poxy, small time club they are.

[KevinGage]

I thought B-lose did well first half. 

Considering they only had two players in the first team I had heard of before (and three in the squad altogether) there didn't look like a huge gulf between the sides.  More than that, they were happy to play a possession game, and always seemed to have a man over in central midfield.

There weren't many clear cut chances in the first half, and Rowett is on the jazz cigarettes if he thought they tore us apart, but they did look sharper on the counter. We offered nothing, and it looked for all the world that we might have another 03/03/03 to contend with.

Ayew ran around a lot when he came on, but there was very little focus to it all.  I don't recall him going past a player often (or ever) and getting a shot off. An improvement on recent showings, but that wouldn't have been hard.

Young Jack changed the game.  Where previously our passing was pedestrian, constantly playing the obvious ball and then surrendering possession, with him, the ball stuck.  It was a different challenge from that point on for the Rags, and one they ultimately couldn't contend with.

If the Great Unwashed want to claim this as a moral victory, that's fine. Add it to the pile.

For us, we need to find a way of ensuring Grealish, Gil and (when fit) Traore are all in the starting XI. Because there isn't much attacking nous beyond them.

[QuintonVilla]

Where's our friend Savo gone??

Boom Boom Boom let me hear ya say Savo, Savo!

[olaftab]

Re Gabby, I do wonder how much the Sun garbage has affected him. He is human.

He is more likely to be infected rather than affected by the garbage he gets up to!

[olaftab]

Too right, Damo. Tonight will go down in their history book.

What a silly, poxy, small time club they are.

They will talk about those two corners in the last few minutes where we were "forced" to waste  time  for years to come. How they humilated us with that passage in play!

[Lastfootstamper]

I thought B-lose did well first half. 

Considering they only had two players in the first team I had heard of before (and three in the squad altogether) there didn't look like a huge gulf between the sides.  More than that, they were happy to play a possession game, and always seemed to have a man over in central midfield.

There weren't many clear cut chances in the first half, and Rowett is on the jazz cigarettes if he thought they tore us apart, but they did look sharper on the counter. We offered nothing, and it looked for all the world that we might have another 03/03/03 to contend with.

Ayew ran around a lot when he came on, but there was very little focus to it all.  I don't recall him going past a player often (or ever) and getting a shot off. An improvement on recent showings, but that wouldn't have been hard.

Young Jack changed the game.  Where previously our passing was pedestrian, constantly playing the obvious ball and then surrendering possession, with him, the ball stuck.  It was a different challenge from that point on for the Rags, and one they ultimately couldn't contend with.

If the Great Unwashed want to claim this as a moral victory, that's fine. Add it to the pile.

For us, we need to find a way of ensuring Grealish, Gil and (when fit) Traore are all in the starting XI. Because there isn't much attacking nous beyond them.

You mean apart from when he went past a load of theirs, and got a shot off?

[olaftab]

when was the last time you heard a manager (not named Wenger) after a defeat so obsessed with what an opposition (manager or player) did or didn't do?

He is a fan he cares!

[Ian.]

We have some very gifted players on our hands who can be a joy to watch. Ayew looks like he's an exciting talent too. Why set us up for long ball tactics first half I don't know? Why admit we did it on purpose is all very strange indeed.

 Anyway credit where credits due, Lescott was awful so well done for taking him off, Clark was much better there. Jack was excellent, him and Ayew completely upped the tempo and proved playing football is the way forward.

[olaftab]

There looked more than 34k there I thought.

Only 4K Villa with 30K from Druids Heath and surroundings.