Aston Villa 1-0 Wigan Post Match Thread

[Pat McMahon]

Maybe Bruce will go left field and go for Conor McGregor

[Deano's Mullet]

Just got home. We weren't great today and people around me were getting frustrated with the constant sideways passing but what a goal! We need to go central a bit more, too often we are looking to go wide all the time. Thought defensively we were solid although Wigan offered nothing, Jedinak was poor 1st half but much better second and Ayew was fairly low key. Gestede and McCormack both looked out of sorts when they came on but three points is three points. UTV.

[rob_bridge]

Maybe Bruce will go left field and go for Conor McGregor

I like him. Turn up at training and justify why you aren't in as good shape as him.

[Lastfootstamper]

Elphick was very angry with Gollini when he didn't come for a Wigan cross in the closing minutes. I expect the McGregor rumour is true and he'll be our regular keeper come January.

He was seven yards from his own goal, it was Elphick's to deal with.

[Villafirst]

The sooner Baker is back the better. We need another centre back in January as I'm not convinced by Elphick.

[Mister E]

We are far more solid and organised at the back and there is a solidity in midfield without it being particularly dynamic, it's up front where we haven't really gelled, with the players we have we should be creating lots of chances but it's not really happening, yes we've seen some great individual goals but the fluidity is still to come.

The issue is a lack of movement up front and the current inability to move the ball quickly.
The number of times yesterday that Grealish, Jedi and Gardner looked to slot the ball into the channels and found there were no runners into the space; and, the times when Kodjia, Adomah and Ayew should have been finding space and didn't ... it drove me mad.
We have to find that balance upfront, and we have to drill some more dynamic approaches: because breaking down the packed defences that we face will not happen without some guile and movement.

[Charlie8182]

When was the last time we scored late to win???

Reading.

When was the last time we won 4 straight league home wins and realistically a 5th? Surely not 1982/83?

[Clampy]

We made hard work of it but that was down in part to Wigan putting 10 men behind the ball for most of the game and us struggling to break them down which made it frustrating to watch. Lovely goal to win it though and if we do go up, we'll look to games like that where we had to grind out the result.

[London Villan]

You could tell how much effort Wigan had put into the game by their reaction to our goal. Their players were collapsed all over the pitch, totally shattered mentally and physically. Teams will raise their game against us at Villa Park and try that little bit harder as they know they are going to experience the most expensive forward line ever assembled in the Championship.

[The Edge]

thanks very much to those who encouraged and contributed to the radio show this afternoon, i was happy to be your stooge. here's a brief write up https://stoneygolf.blogspot.co.uk/

It's good to be part of the Villa family even when shivering in a northern Scottish outpost. Thanks everyone.

Had to laugh when I saw this. Keep up the good work mate!

[Des Little]

That Jordi Gomez is one cheating fcuker. Either that or he had no studs in his boots...spent more time on his arse than on his feet.

[Chris Smith]

You could tell how much effort Wigan had put into the game by their reaction to our goal. Their players were collapsed all over the pitch, totally shattered mentally and physically. Teams will raise their game against us at Villa Park and try that little bit harder as they know they are going to experience the most expensive forward line ever assembled in the Championship.

I noticed that too, we've conceded enough late goals ourselves so know how if feels.

As everyone says after the first 15 minutes it turned into a real grind but we now have a few players now who can produce a touch of class to win the game.

[peter w]

Well we were playing a lot more attacking intent under RDM, like a loose poker player who gets involved in too many pots, and dropped far too many points because we dropped away last 5 mins. We're now a more dour team at times, and look far from the finished article, but off the top of my head we've now won probably the same amount of points with late goals than we lost under the previous manager.

[eamonn]

Four late points won against Wigan and Reading with late winners, a stretch to say Fulham as there was about 12-15 minutes left but I think we're still behind on the games thrown away against Weds/Hudds/Forest/Brentford/Barnsley.

Did many fans leave yesterday before the goal? What a double pisser if so (no beautiful late goal and lots of rain to wade through).
I was moving house, lugging boxes and bags from a removals van in crappy weather so am not being smug.

[frank]

We made hard work of it but that was down in part to Wigan putting 10 men behind the ball for most of the game and us struggling to break them down which made it frustrating to watch.

Agreed, but we have to learn to cope with these tactics and we need midfielders who can produce the killer pass. How many decisive passes did we see from midfield?  Perhaps 2 or 3 in the whole game.