Aston Villa v Preston North End Post-Match Thread

[Richard E]

Don't let it worry you, all he ever does is talk about our support 

Thinking about it, has anyone ever seen him and Tony Pulis in the same room? 🤔

[oswald funkletrumpet]

The Holte was in fine voice today.  We sang One Graham Taylor and Graham Taylor's claret and blue army all through the tribute and all through the 72nd minute.  Anybody who thinks our support is inferior really should be either sectioned or have their ears syringed.

Bruce should have pulled Grealish off after an hour.  Gabby and Grealish should both have scored instead of passing.  Johnstone looks no better than Golly.  Five captain's on the pitch but no effort made at all to get back up to speed after the break.  We give the opposition just what they need.  Clear signs that we might be bottling it.

The 72nd minute looked awesome

I think some of the atmosphere is to do with acoustics, ive sat in a1 in the upper trinity and struggled to hear the holte. Today in the upper doug (albeit by the preston fans) i couldnt really hear anything from the holte even though it would have been rocking in there during the tribute

[four fornicholl]

I was in L3 today, and the atmosphere lower down is fairly muted.
As an aside, Im almost fifty, my eyesight is failing slightly and 80% of todays game was at the other end of the fucking pitch.
Glad Angela had those orange boots on so I could identify our new boy.
Great phone tribute on 72 too.

[Gareth]

Personally I really enjoyed that game, think sometimes we need to recognise there are 2 teams on the pitch who will both do good and bad things - the fact that this season we are invariably watching a competitive game is brilliant.

First half I thought was probably our best 45 minutes all season, we were on the front foot and looked like we had a threat, second half I thought we were doing just fine until they scored a very decent goal, second goal was just rank bad defending and like the Leeds goal when Gollini got slaughtered the real error is in the space the wide man has to get in the cross i.e. jack today.

Other than 15 mins at the end when both full backs turned to jelly & Adomah who strangely I thought was poor throughout all played pretty well Westwood & Gabby included.  Lansbury looked a class above for an hour & the pace / directness of Green was a joy to see.

If only Bruce had been in charge all summer, can't help but think we had have a better, more balanced squad who are all physically fit to tackle this league...subsequently we would be comfortably top 6

[timeoutbigbar]

The Holte was in fine voice today.  We sang One Graham Taylor and Graham Taylor's claret and blue army all through the tribute and all through the 72nd minute.  Anybody who thinks our support is inferior really should be either sectioned or have their ears syringed.

Bruce should have pulled Grealish off after an hour.  Gabby and Grealish should both have scored instead of passing.  Johnstone looks no better than Golly.  Five captain's on the pitch but no effort made at all to get back up to speed after the break.  We give the opposition just what they need.  Clear signs that we might be bottling it.

The 72nd minute looked awesome

The Holte looked fantastic lit up from the North Stand.

[brian green]

I suggest we should have somebody in the tunnel to jab them in the arse with a cattle prod when they come out for the second half.

[adrenachrome]

Massively disappointing result to throw away two points.

We played really well first half and should have scored number 3 and 4 in the second. Two really bad goals to concede.

We dropped a little too deep and stayed too open second half against a side with no pace, especially when Robinson went off and a side that I think lacks any kind of quality, so to chuck it away against such a blunt, workman like outfit is maddening.

Grealish decision making was very poor I felt. If Hourihane had signed this week, you can bet he'd have stuck his shot away and not had any issue feeding Gabby.

There are positives now I've calmed down.

Lansbury; what a difference. Movement and purpose to him and it appeared infectious. He tired and that saw us revert to a more traditional clueless midfield ways when he went off. The boy can pass too and he's a horrible snide. I'm hopeful he's going to have a big impact.

I think Jack has played his last for a time, especially if Hourihane comes in.

Seems Jedinak's form had coincided with a groin injury he's been carrying for over a month. While McCormack's behaviour is disgraceful.

Green and Adomah did good and bad things. They stepped closer to us second half which stopped us feeding them effectively. But it should have been academic. There was something of the Huddersfield game about that.

Baker missed that free header too. Maddening. Especially to leave that talentless lump free in the box, with no pressure on the cross either.

The gap has marginally closed. It should only be 7 and we're leaving ourselves with less wiggle room, even accounting for a need to beat Wednesday, it's still 6 points and a potential 4 game turn around.

More Lansbury and less Gardner and we've got a chance.

A mention to Gabby as well. Worked hard. Very hard and created problems too.

Good summary, and saves me typing which is a good thing as drink  has been taken.

[aj2k77]

Really disappointed. Not a bad performance. Will be much better when loser Westwood and Fatty aren't anywhere near the side.

[PaulWinch again]

Massively disappointing result to throw away two points.

We played really well first half and should have scored number 3 and 4 in the second. Two really bad goals to concede.

We dropped a little too deep and stayed too open second half against a side with no pace, especially when Robinson went off and a side that I think lacks any kind of quality, so to chuck it away against such a blunt, workman like outfit is maddening.

Grealish decision making was very poor I felt. If Hourihane had signed this week, you can bet he'd have stuck his shot away and not had any issue feeding Gabby.

There are positives now I've calmed down.

Lansbury; what a difference. Movement and purpose to him and it appeared infectious. He tired and that saw us revert to a more traditional clueless midfield ways when he went off. The boy can pass too and he's a horrible snide. I'm hopeful he's going to have a big impact.

I think Jack has played his last for a time, especially if Hourihane comes in.

Seems Jedinak's form had coincided with a groin injury he's been carrying for over a month. While McCormack's behaviour is disgraceful.

Green and Adomah did good and bad things. They stepped closer to us second half which stopped us feeding them effectively. But it should have been academic. There was something of the Huddersfield game about that.

Baker missed that free header too. Maddening. Especially to leave that talentless lump free in the box, with no pressure on the cross either.

The gap has marginally closed. It should only be 7 and we're leaving ourselves with less wiggle room, even accounting for a need to beat Wednesday, it's still 6 points and a potential 4 game turn around.

More Lansbury and less Gardner and we've got a chance.

A mention to Gabby as well. Worked hard. Very hard and created problems too.

Good summary, and saves me typing which is a good thing as drink  has been taken.

Yeah thanks Ads.

[BOB MANSFIELD]

Thanks Ads - all other contributors who were there today and wrote reports and marks.
It is very refreshing to read some realism instead of the crap you get on the net or in sports pages.
Much appreciated by those of us who can't easily get there, I am sure.

[four fornicholl]

The Holte was in fine voice today.  We sang One Graham Taylor and Graham Taylor's claret and blue army all through the tribute and all through the 72nd minute.  Anybody who thinks our support is inferior really should be either sectioned or have their ears syringed.

Bruce should have pulled Grealish off after an hour.  Gabby and Grealish should both have scored instead of passing.  Johnstone looks no better than Golly.  Five captain's on the pitch but no effort made at all to get back up to speed after the break.  We give the opposition just what they need.  Clear signs that we might be bottling it.

The 72nd minute looked awesome

The Holte looked fantastic lit up from the North Stand.

As did the North Stand from the Holte

[preston28]

Well its becoming clearer that we have another season in the championship.  Bruce will get us up but with his squad. Need to offload some players in the summer and bring in some more physical and resilient players next season. Teams get results from us from desire.
 

[robbo1874]

I've not seen the match, so can't really comment on it. I just wanted to say how it amazes me how much gabby and Westwood polarise opinion between a lot of people on here.

Reading the comments from a lot of posters, I'm genuinely struggling to understand whether both players had shit or good games today. It's baffling.

I think at least with Gabby, Bruce is probably thinking: he's costing me 65 grand a week from my wage budget and used to be a decent player, I may as well see if I can get a tune out of him. he'll not be going anywhere whilst he's on that kind of money here.

[Marlon From Bearwood]

Watching their equaliser again, I have to say Grealish's lack of effort in preventing the cross was pretty appalling.

[Rudy65]

Watching their equaliser again, I have to say Grealish's lack of effort in preventing the cross was pretty appalling.

Thought the same. May as well have stayed at home with Ross with that lack of effort