Aston Villa vs West Ham Boxing Day Pre-Match Thread

[QuintonVilla]

West Ham have sold out their 3000. Fair play to them.

[AVH87]

West Ham have sold out their 3000. Fair play to them.

Looking on the OS, should be a good crowd generally. The Holte and The North are virtually full.

[rob_bridge]

West Ham have sold out their 3000. Fair play to them.

Looking on the OS, should be a good crowd generally. The Holte and The North are virtually full.

I don't think it will be far off 40k. They normally sell out their allocation don't they?

[auntiesledd]

Perhaps my stinking cold has addled me noodle into a strange state of positivity, but I'm actually going for a HOME WIN! 

2:1 to The Villa - after going behind early doors c/o Guzan throwing the ball into his own net.

[Witton Warrior]

Just. Win.

[peter w]

They are there for the takingbut Villa Park is a tricky ground and we never seem to win there. I think I've been there more than any other ground and still can barely remember a victory. We did have a 2-2 earlier in the year I seem to remember. Anyway, because of that, and we don't travel at all well to B6, I'm going for the obligatory 1-3.

[CJ]

Moses, Payet, Sakho and (hopefully) Lanzini out for them, but Andy Carroll may be back. He doesn't score that many (that's jinxed it then) but he's a handful, especially for our defence. If he plays we'll draw, if he doesn't we'll win. I'm going 2-1 to us

[Dave]

West Ham have sold out their 3000. Fair play to them.

Looking on the OS, should be a good crowd generally. The Holte and The North are virtually full.

I don't think it will be far off 40k.

A guy I work with is taking his family of six on a four-hour round trip to the game. Not a single Villa fan amongst them, just fancied a boxing day trip to the football.

Who knows, maybe a rare good performance might bring in a new young supporter or two.

[atomicjam]

2-1 Villa win

[Villafirst]

Hopefully Richards fit for this one. Need him, Okore and Lescott in the mix in defence. Put Adama in for Sinclair who offers very little. Add Gil for Westwood. Need to go for it - single points aren't much use.

[TimTheVillain]

I actually think we'll WIN.

Forgotten the feeling, but, yes - a WIN !

[postal]

Hopefully the rest of the team would have seen the shift that Ayew put in and think that perhaps they could have a go as well

I like sinclair, but Adama deserves a go, "team player" or not. Maybe when they "trip" him, yellow cards might happen, so they have to keep back.

Yep, fantasy land, but I think a win is there, if Villa want it.

[Caribbeanvillan]

3-0

[Mouse Potato]

Looking at oddschecker it's the first time in a while that we are actually the favourites!

[supertom]

A must win. If we can't win a game like this we're well and truly done for. We've got a couple of players in some reasonable form. I think we've got something to build on from the second half at the weekend. We've a reasonable record at VP against them.

2-1 Villa. An absolute arse clencher of a game probably, but we'll scrape it I think. The key then would be how we follow it up and whether we can build on a result.