Aston Villa v Stoke City - Pre Match Thread

[tony scott]

This is one of those games I think we can and will be pretty upset if we don't, therefore 3:1 can't predict scorers as go on then Westwood direct from a corner

[Des Little]

Villa 4 Stoke 0

Lillis 2
Hepburn-Murphy
Rioch (N)

[darren woolley]

We really need to win this game so I'm going 2-1 Villa.

[Stu82]

A nervous 2-1
Grealish
Richards

[The Left Side]

1-1, these lots always seem to get lucky playing Villa, we will batter them and end up giving a soft goal away in the 89th minute.

[pauliewalnuts]

1-1, these lots always seem to get lucky playing Villa, we will batter them and end up giving a soft goal away in the 89th minute.

Didn't we get our arses thoroughly handed to us in this fixture last year?

[Ron Manager]

I wonder if Adama will start. Mark Hughes has improved Stoke but they are beatable. Sherwood needs a good performance otherwise the grumbling will move up a few notches. We seriously cannot afford to lose playing badly

1-1  Gestede for us and Crouchy for them.

[AVH87]

1-1, these lots always seem to get lucky playing Villa, we will batter them and end up giving a soft goal away in the 89th minute.

Didn't we get our arses thoroughly handed to us in this fixture last year?

That was the year before when they smashed us 4-1. Last year it looked as if it was fizzling out in to a 1-1 draw and then Vlaar f*cked up in the last minute, got sent off and gave away a penalty following his own mistake and we lost 2-1.

[KevinGage]

Desperately need a win here. Seems like Stoke fans are actually up for it for once with 2.5k tickets sold so far, can't ever remember them actually needing both tiers before.

They probably see us as a nice away day. Good ground, easy to get to, big allocation, plenty to do if you stay over, shit team and a good chance of a victory.

Like just about every side in the topflight, then.

There is little merit in the idea of bringing Sam Allthepies in, should we suddenly have a managerial vacancy again in the not too distant.

But one of the pluses might be that opposing sides don't look forward to coming to Villa Park anymore. Problem is, many of our own fans will feel the same way.

[paul richard]

This is a must win, pure and simple.  No more excuses.  No more jam tomorrow.  Time for TS to get his team selection right, time for TS to get his in-game management right, time for the players to set up, take responsibility, cut out the individual errors and play on the front foot.  Villa to win 2-0.

[pauliewalnuts]

1-1, these lots always seem to get lucky playing Villa, we will batter them and end up giving a soft goal away in the 89th minute.

Didn't we get our arses thoroughly handed to us in this fixture last year?

That was the year before when they smashed us 4-1. Last year it looked as if it was fizzling out in to a 1-1 draw and then Vlaar f*cked up in the last minute, got sent off and gave away a penalty following his own mistake and we lost 2-1.

Ah, you're right there.

Isn't it depressing how all the last four or five depressing-as-shit seasons sort of blend together, to produce one single, huge kick-in-the-face?

[paul richard]

This fixture has been a let down for a few seasons now.  Alongside that brace of demoralising defeats sits the memory of that beginning-of-the-end turning point game under MON when we somehow contrived to draw 2-2 against a piss poor Stoke side after leading 2-0 and coasting.  These are the sorts of games that have underpinned our abysmal home record for years now.

[aj2k77]

The 2-2 pretty sent our season in to free fall as well from what I can remember.

[BoskoDjembaSalifou]

Shit. I just realised I'd managed to expunge the bongo cam image from my mind completely, and now you've gone and stuck it back in there. Probably the most cringeworthy thing I've ever seen at a football match. Surely they won't do it again. Will they?

Oh god. I'd managed to forget about that.

[themossman]

And crazy to think 2-2 to stoke felt like a tragedy because Arsenal got the jump on us in the chase for champions league places. How times change.