Aston Villa v Nottingham Forest Post Match Thread

[Jimbo]

Gollini must have been knackered having to play in two positions at once:



Either that or Dr. Tone has perfected a cloning technique.

Golli the keep.

[cheltenhamlion]

I have to say that Forest were Stoke newly promoted under Pulis levels of horrible when it came to cheating. I have seen his teams with both Stoke and Olbiyun waste time from the start of a game but never so blatantly with people feigning injury.

I counted at least 10 occasions where their players fell down playing dead when nobody was anywhere near them. The referee was shit.

[olaftab]

Haven't seen it mentioned anywhere but thought it was worth mentioning the minute's applause on 23 minutes for the villa fan who lost his battle with cancer aged 24. Have to admit I didn't know what it was about until afterwards

Not many people did around me including myself. Fair play to majority of the supporters for being so aware and a good response from Forest as well.

[seanthevillan]

First time I'd been to Villa Park in a while, and first time for ages when its been sunny. I actually really enjoyed the whole day, so can't complain too much about the result.

The season is long enough for us not to start panicking, and there are signs that some of the players are starting to combine and read each other. So there are some grounds for optimism.

That said, all bar one of the teams in the league will try and do what Forest did this season (I think) - and as others have pointed out they would have been happy at half time as their plan worked well and we'd run out of ideas. Part of that was due to pathetic injury feigning gamesmanship but its up to the ref to be stronger in that situation.

That Forest didn't manage to limit us to a couple of chances (we had loads of clearcut chances - I think everyone would agree on that) suggests we actually broke them down reasonably well, but we're not scoring at key moments and its hurting us. I don't really want to criticise individual players - the blend isn't quite there at the moment, and for the money we've spent we can't really complain too much about having the odd player out. Also Forest had their best striker out, and I think a direct fast striker would cause our defence problems.

Answers? Maybe Di Matteo has to drop one of Grealish/Ayew/McCormack, and I think Westwood and Gardner are too similar in midfield. Agree with another poster about not putting all our hopes on players who aren't in the team - the team shape/formation is just as important. I got the sense that a lot of fans in the ground wanted us to be more direct - to do that we need real wide players/wingers, not Ayew and Grealish on the flanks, but they were our best players yesterday so why not try to build the team around them?

Interesting season coming up then, decent game, stadium looked great, can't wait to go again!

[Tony Erdington]

I have to say that Forest were Stoke newly promoted under Pulis levels of horrible when it came to cheating. I have seen his teams with both Stoke and Olbiyun waste time from the start of a game but never so blatantly with people feigning injury.

I counted at least 10 occasions where their players fell down playing dead when nobody was anywhere near them. The referee was shit.

that is very true,

and when they were losing, did they go down, dying, did they fuck, cloughie would turn in his grave.

[adrenachrome]

I have to say that Forest were Stoke newly promoted under Pulis levels of horrible when it came to cheating. I have seen his teams with both Stoke and Olbiyun waste time from the start of a game but never so blatantly with people feigning injury.

I counted at least 10 occasions where their players fell down playing dead when nobody was anywhere near them. The referee was shit.

that is very true,

and when they were losing, did they go down, dying, did they fuck, cloughie would turn in his grave.

They were going down in pairs as well, and would often jump straight back up when the ref ignored them. It was blatant.

[Chris Smith]

I have to say that Forest were Stoke newly promoted under Pulis levels of horrible when it came to cheating. I have seen his teams with both Stoke and Olbiyun waste time from the start of a game but never so blatantly with people feigning injury.

I counted at least 10 occasions where their players fell down playing dead when nobody was anywhere near them. The referee was shit.

that is very true,

and when they were losing, did they go down, dying, did they fuck, cloughie would turn in his grave.

They were going down in pairs as well, and would often jump straight back up when the ref ignored them. It was blatant.

The most blatant was when they had one down injured but off the pitch so another decided to have a little lie down in the penalty area.

[SoccerHQ]

Forest are a nothing team nowadays, mad owner, team packed full of 2nd rate foreign players I've never heard of (was saying to my Dad I'm amazed how many foreign players are actually in this league which doesn't bode well for England) and won't be higher than mid table yet again.

Let's hope we don't become like that...

[tomd2103]

Saw the goals on TV earlier after being at the game yesterday.  Have to say that Westwood's defensive efforts for both their goals left a log to be desired.  The half hearted tackle for the first goal was especially poor.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I have to say that Forest were Stoke newly promoted under Pulis levels of horrible when it came to cheating. I have seen his teams with both Stoke and Olbiyun waste time from the start of a game but never so blatantly with people feigning injury.

I counted at least 10 occasions where their players fell down playing dead when nobody was anywhere near them. The referee was shit.

that is very true,

and when they were losing, did they go down, dying, did they fuck, cloughie would turn in his grave.

They were going down in pairs as well, and would often jump straight back up when the ref ignored them. It was blatant.

The most blatant was when they had one down injured but off the pitch so another decided to have a little lie down in the penalty area.

I'm struggling to think of any game I've watched where the ref added 5 minutes extra each half. Pathetic from Forest.

[Witton Warrior]

Just a quick observation but didn't we have the highest attendance in the Championship this weekend? Thought Leeds v Huddersfield would be bigger. I only had a quick glance yesterday but it looked it and wondered why so many thought it poor...

[Matt Collins]

It was a good attendance but poor atmosphere

[Villa in Denmark]

Saw the goals on TV earlier after being at the game yesterday.  Have to say that Westwood's defensive efforts for both their goals left a log to be desired.  The half hearted tackle for the first goal was especially poor.

And the typo of the day award goes to.....

[Hookeysmith]

Gollini must have been knackered having to play in two positions at once:



Either that or Dr. Tone has perfected a cloning technique.

If that was not bad enough. I was away for the weekend and the BBC web site had

Nathan Baker replaces Gollini in goal - I nearly choked

[ADVILLAFAN]

I was wondering who the kid that Forest were playing at Centre-Back was, only looked about 17. My brother looked him up and it was Michael Mancienne!!