Aston Villa v Fulham Post Match Thread

[Lizz]

Voted Championship goal of the day according to SSN.

[Monty]

I like Bruce's tactics. Have a midfield that's only there for defence and focus on forwards forwarding around as forwards. Not a bad solution to the problems that RDM's summer left us with!

[olaftab]

Stats.

We had 34% possession, 16 shots, 7 on target. Fulham 66%, 5 shots, 0 target.

The Fulham possession was a bit like we had under Lambert. All it was Parker tipping 5 yard passes either side and then back to the keeper. Most of their play was in between the D and the centre circle in their half. Those of you who get annoyed with Westwood would "murder" Parker if he was playing like that for us. An utterly useless piece of apparatus on the pitch.

[four fornicholl]

Dont forget channel 5 now guys, i almost did.

[olaftab]

I like Bruce's tactics. Have a midfield that's only there for defence and focus on forwards forwarding around as forwards. Not a bad solution to the problems that RDM's summer left us with!

I also liked his restoration of midfield trio for the last 10 minutes or so.

[Chris Jameson]

A couple of minutes before we scored I said to my son that if we closed the keeper down on back passes he didn't look comfortable at all.

Almost dozed off in the first half for the first time ever at a match, it was tedious. Much improved second half and don't think anybody had a poor game apart from the most one dimensional footballer I've ever seen, Gestede can head a ball and nothing else. Gardner impressed me and the defence looked solid, Jedinak was decent as well.

More convinced than ever that Bruce is a good appointment.

[nigel]

Delighted and no nitpicking from me this evening. Two consecutive wins and a much more positive, organised team, all from a manager who currently can only deal with what he's got. Well done Mr Bruce.

He's inherited a pretty good squad, all it needed was putting together and organising properly.
He's done a great job so far.
I'm pleased the way he uses the bench, too.

[saunders_heroes]

When was the last time we had 2 wins on the bounce?
Who cares, another win. Up the Villa!

[Gareth]

You can see why Fulham do well away, the keeper, centre halves & Parker / McDonald just play tippy tappy keep ball betw then to strip any tempo out of the game - Gestede just never had pace to disrupt / pressure them.  60 odd per cent but I bet they didn't have 20 touches in our area.

Gardner / Bacuna / Baker & Chester were excellent, Amavi looked more like himself going forward again.

Pleasure to watch a team that has a clue what it is doing....be good for Bruce to get a week training with them.

Yes! Yes! Yes!

UTV

[SoccerHQ]

3 points were all that mattered today.

Didn't go but sounds a scrappy one...doesn't matter one jot. Newcastle and Brighton have had a few already this season.

Now the play offs don't seem that far away at all.

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

Delighted and no nitpicking from me this evening. Two consecutive wins and a much more positive, organised team, all from a manager who currently can only deal with what he's got. Well done Mr Bruce.

He's inherited a pretty good squad, all it needed was putting together and organising properly.
He's done a great job so far.
I'm pleased the way he uses the bench, too.

Couldn't agree more nigel.
Was pleased to see the solid common sense of taking a forward off and bringing a DM on at 1 up with a few minutes to go...pity it was Westwood though!
I am starting to see what I wanted to see from us...organisation, strength in defence and a timely (cracking!) goal or two...the midfield still a work in progress!

So happy with 2 wins on the bounce...what a good feeling it is!
BFS's claret and blue army!

[Ian.]

Cracking goal, I could watch that over and over again.
Glad to hear Gary Gardner played well again. Well done Bruce and the team.

[Oscar Arce]

Bruce has got the team more organised in a week than RDM did in his 10 games, you can see a pattern to wok to and the players are all in their right positions.
The back four (Baker headed everything) look more confident with Jedinak in front and two energetic midfielders in front of him, giving us a solid spine.
Bacuna has never been a bad player and his position suits him well, Gardner looks a different player to the one I saw earlier in the season, Kodija is just a constant menace, whilst Ayew causes problems for any defence.
Adomah did well, Buce's substituions were perfect for the match situation.
It's early days but it's looking good, a solid team with a threat...bring on the Scum!

[BC54 VFC]

Link to  the goal:

https://www.facebook.com/myoldmansaid/videos/1295169837194657/

A comments on that link refers to the goal being similar to Tony Daley's against Everton in 1988 which is exactly what I thought at the time. One of my all tine favourite Villa goals.

What's funny is it was exactly 28 years ago to the day. 22nd October, 1988.

Yes, and that was also the last time that we won a home match played on Saturday 22nd October; the three more recent home games played on that date all resulted in defeats. Another hoodoo broken.

[django]

One gripe, I wish the crowd would help lift the team on occasion rather than waiting for the team to do it. Our away support slate other home atmospheres on our travels, yet first half today was silent. The atmosphere at home games has been poor on the whole apart from Rotherham and Huddersfield. Hopefully as the confidence grows on and off the pitch the noise levels will grow also.

I thought the Holte was making a good old racket, the 10 minutes or so of relentless Villa go marching in was pretty phenomenal.

I thought it was pretty close in the first half, although we had the better opportunities, but once we brought Adomah on for Gestede we were a totally different proposition.

I don't mind Gestede if he's utilised properly, but he's a waste of a player if we play like we did in the first half. He won a couple of flick ons but if the other two strikers are wide theirs no one near enough to profit from the flicks he does win. The front three we finished with seems like the way to go, with Bruce bringing on a McCormack or Grealish for one of the more solid midfielders when we're trying to turn the game.

I thought Gardner grew into the game, he was doing a lot of running in the first half without getting near the ball very often, something clicked in the second half and I thought he was outstanding at times. Encouraging.