Aston Villa v Huddersfield Town Post-Match Thread

[willenhall villa]

A few points from tonight.
Great to see our support, two games in a few days and a superb turnout.
Great atmosphere created by both sets of supporters throughout the game.

Fantastic first half and how were we not 3 up after five minutes!
Huddersfield came at us and it seemed also like a cup game for them. We struggled to react to it but still created chances which we should of converted.

The ref had a shocker. The game was to big for him and enjoyed booking every villa tackle.

Gollini showed his quality, especially with the finger tip save low down his left in the second half... and then his Bozzie moment.

I'm liking the way the team are playing but we need a plan b. Adama would of been a great option to throw on and give them something to think about.
Another striker to mix it up a little but God knows who.

A great show of appreciation at the tenth minute by all supporters.

Onwards and upwards!

Agree except why do you and others think Adama would have helped out. Ive seen nothing including Saturdays cameo to suggest he has what it takes particualry when we are defending

Adama: just to give us an out ball down the channels. At the risk on contradicting myself. Green came on and had to defend from the off, but I if adama had come on it would ( hopefully) given a different mind set to there full back.

[Witton Warrior]

Agree with the comments about the midfield - we were over run from the 50th minute but had nobody on the bench to make a difference. Their No 10 was immense and ran the game second half - we don't have a midfielder like that. Forwards need to be clinical and/or give the ball a larruping! Too many underhit final passes for me.

On the positive side we played some great attacking football in the first half which has been absent for years. The best part of the evening was being in a sold-out Holte End on a balmy Summer's night saying goodbye to Dalian - 35k - perform and they will come!

[Mortimer's Bear]

We'll be fine this season.

[Richard E]

Frustrating, because if we had got a second goal when we were well on top then I think Huddersfield would have folded. Over the 90 minutes a draw was a fair result.

There are more positive signs than negative ones and we now seem to be on a more upward trajectory.

I think Ayew is a talented individual but I am not sure that he "works" in the system we are trying to play. I also think Grealish sometimes needs to have the confidence to be a bit more direct. 

[sid1964]

The problem with both Ayew and Grealish is that they both lack real pace

On the ball, they are absolute quality

[cdward]

To put into context our 4 points from 3 games, we are 3 points behind first place in, and 4 points ahead of last place.
With Jedinak signing we shall see improvements. It is still early days, a point is better than none.

[l_mckay]

First half last night was the best I've seen for a long time and unlucky not to score more. After about 10 minutes of the second half we started standing off them and letting them play and you could see the equaliser coming. Frustrating but hopefully signing a couple of experienced players should help.

[oldhill_avfc]

We played well for an hour and then faded (especially midfield) which is a concern. It should have been over by half time; also, if we went 2 up it would've made it possible to pick them off on the break.

Credit to their manager for putting an extra man in midfield in the second half but starting Lolley and not Wells equally seemed poor from him.

RDM didn't manage the second half very well, but the bench didn't have any game changers or any game savers.

They got away with repetitive fouling and were one dimensional but worked hard for it when they looked outclassed in the first half.

Ultimately, Gollini has to accept the responsibility, as when someone is just charging straight at you, the golden rule is to kick it wide or at an angle at the very least. That way even if you hit the player it isn't going to go straight back from whence it came.

About right - although I think there were options on the bench. 

He took the wrong attacking option off - Ayew should have  been replaced by an extra midfielder.

Other thoughts:
Gollini is in danger of being the worst kind of goalie - plays well for 80 minutes but in the other 10, gifts the game to the opposition.
Ayew - what's the point of him? Either he's playing in the wrong position or he's a poor man's N'zog. 

[Richard E]

To put into context our 4 points from 3 games, we are 3 points behind first place in, and 4 points ahead of last place.
With Jedinak signing we shall see improvements. It is still early days, a point is better than none.

We are 3 points better off than we were at this stage last time we got relegated, too.

[Clampy]

I like Ayew a lot but he can be so casual at times. He should have put his foot through the chance he had just before half time.

[Richard E]

I like Ayew a lot but he can be so casual at times. He should have put his foot through the chance he had just before half time.

I agree. Blast the defender into the net along with the ball if necessary.

[themossman]

A few points from tonight.
Great to see our support, two games in a few days and a superb turnout.
Great atmosphere created by both sets of supporters throughout the game.

Fantastic first half and how were we not 3 up after five minutes!
Huddersfield came at us and it seemed also like a cup game for them. We struggled to react to it but still created chances which we should of converted.

The ref had a shocker. The game was to big for him and enjoyed booking every villa tackle.

Gollini showed his quality, especially with the finger tip save low down his left in the second half... and then his Bozzie moment.

I'm liking the way the team are playing but we need a plan b. Adama would of been a great option to throw on and give them something to think about.
Another striker to mix it up a little but God knows who.

A great show of appreciation at the tenth minute by all supporters.

Onwards and upwards!

Agree except why do you and others think Adama would have helped out. Ive seen nothing including Saturdays cameo to suggest he has what it takes particualry when we are defending

Adama: just to give us an out ball down the channels. At the risk on contradicting myself. Green came on and had to defend from the off, but I if adama had come on it would ( hopefully) given a different mind set to there full back.

Agree with that. When you're getting mobbed you can either stiffen things up with play spoilers and extra defenders or hit them with good fast counterattacking to the extent that they have to think about hedging their bets. We didn't have the players on the bench for either option last night and it sadly highlighted Gardner's jack of no trades status.

[JUAN PABLO]

Couple of photos from tonight, first taken by me at HT, second one by someone by someone that knows what they are doing so I copied it from Facebook.

excellent pics  - I love them - tuesday night playing Huddersfield and look at that crowd , Amazing

[chrisw1]

We played very well in the first half, but finishing was woeful.  Gestede and Ayew both missed absolute sitters.  For all his quality, I really think Ayew should have done better, missing with 3-4 chances he is as culpable as anyone for last night.  Gestede worked hard, did some things well but again let us down with his finishing.  McCormack was pretty quiet other than his goal and need more games.

Jack should have had the confidence to shoot rather than pull it back, but generally was absolutely excellent.  Worked his socks off, always wanted the ball and is is looking back to his best.  He could be a massive player for us.

I've seen a lot of criticism of Westwood, but thought in the first half he was very good indeed.  Huddersfield were well organised but Westwood was everywhere linking up play, he never hides and always provides an outlet for team mates under pressure.  Whilst I like the idea of Jedinak I just don't think he will have the quality to play that sort of role and would see him playing in addition to Westwood and Tish or maybe instead of Tish (who I also thought played well but tired).

Bacuna - another much maligned player - also had a good game with some excellent passes and high work rate.

We desperately needed fresh legs in the second half but didn't have the manpower on the bench.  We also lacked pace throughout - an on form Gabby would have been useful in that second half. 


For me saying Huddersfield deserved a point is pretty charitable.  They did have more ball in the second half and we were nervy, but really they didn't create anything other than a scuffed over head kick and a few corners.  Even under pressure we probably had the best chances in the second half - Gestede's double effort and a header that came off our own player - didn't pick up who was involved.

The goal was desperately unlucky - you get away with that 99 times out of 100.

Over all, reasonably positive, but FFS learn to put the ball in the net lads.

[JUAN PABLO]

The problem with both Ayew and Grealish is that they both lack real pace

On the ball, they are absolute quality

yep they are
Ayew , Grealish and Dalian Atkinson would have been an amazing forward line.