Rotherham 0-2 Aston Villa Post Match Thread

[Chris Smith]

Encouraging to pick up a win despite the injuries before and during the game. Appears to all be starting to come together now,

[PeterWithesShin]

I'm definitely starting a GoFundMe page for you lot to pay me to stay away from games. 3 straight wins in the games i've missed.

[paul_e]

This is better, it's ugly as fuck but the defence look like they're getting their act together and we are starting to create chances.  I'll take it for now and hopefully we can add a bit more style and little less clinging on.  We really need to get working on taking chances if we're sticking with this though.

If Bruce can deliver these types of results and performances regularly against the bottom half of the table it'll be a big help towards being where we want to be, this is what I expected from him from the start.  I just wish he hadn't taken his eye off things for a few months and let us drift though, 10-12 points more and we'd be looking at a late push for the playoffs and we could've had those points if he hadn't made such a mess of things in January and most of February.

[Salsa Party Animal]

Looking good and highlight looking good. Think we should spend 20 minutes extra on shooting and finishing every training sessions on the pitch to increase accuracy

[Ads]

We deserved the win, but we didn't half make a meal of it.

It was incredibly frustrating the amount of panicked recycling of possession we went through. Balls lumped into the channel to nobody, Jedinak slicing here there and everywhere, head tennis, passes going astray.

We should have been three up at half time, but it was frustrating as anything to watch. It's symptomatic of what I think the biggest issue is, confidence, as once the first went in, we suddenly clicked. It was the same against Bristol; movement increased, Hourihane was a menace, we were flooding the box with runners, passing was sharp. They had a five minute spell where they put balls into the box, but we coped easily and finally wrapped the game up.

Stewarding down the front was atrocious the way they were grabbing people and putting them in headlocks. They carted off what looked like a 10 year old too.

Happy for the win. 3 on the bounce and 3 clean sheets. I hoped for that a week ago and thought it was within our gift if we could just beat Derby.

We need to take our chances as we're a different animal when we're a goal up.

[SoccerHQ]

It's something mad like we've lost 2 games in 16 when we've taken the lead and pretty much the same in terms of winning when we've gone behind.

I've never known a club so dependant on needing the first goal to get a result in a game. As Ads admits (try that after 10 pints) we rarely lose when we go infront in a game.

Still a very good week and I find it hard to be too critical when we're actually winning games in a row, a feat not achieved in 7 years.

Much tougher week to come and the next two fixtures will give us a pointer on how good this squad will be for next season I think.

Still 60 + points and top 10 should be the target. We have momentum now, let's finish the season with momentum and take that into August.

[john2710]

Whilst the last 3 results have been very welcome & an improvement on what went before,  it's marginal. But that's seems to be the way with this league.  I suspect it's also a fragile improvement.

We'll need to be far more ruthless with the chances we get, keep the ball much better than we are & cut out the fuck ups if the run is to continue.

A couple of good results, against better opposition, would do the team confidence a world of good.

[paul_e]

We deserved the win, but we didn't half make a meal of it.

It was incredibly frustrating the amount of panicked recycling of possession we went through. Balls lumped into the channel to nobody, Jedinak slicing here there and everywhere, head tennis, passes going astray.

We should have been three up at half time, but it was frustrating as anything to watch. It's symptomatic of what I think the biggest issue is, confidence, as once the first went in, we suddenly clicked. It was the same against Bristol; movement increased, Hourihane was a menace, we were flooding the box with runners, passing was sharp. They had a five minute spell where they put balls into the box, but we coped easily and finally wrapped the game up.

Stewarding down the front was atrocious the way they were grabbing people and putting them in headlocks. They carted off what looked like a 10 year old too.

Happy for the win. 3 on the bounce and 3 clean sheets. I hoped for that a week ago and thought it was within our gift if we could just beat Derby.

We need to take our chances as we're a different animal when we're a goal up.

See why weren't you posting stuff like this when we couldn't buy a win.  You're absolutely right with this, we generally start games ok but if we don't score in the first 10-15 minutes we start to fall into the same traps.  Confidence is the key but if you can't get confidence from results or performances then you have to get it from the training ground and I don't think the management and coaching team did anything like enough in that regard, that's why I got so frustrated with Bruce.  I still think it's a big problem that he needs to work on but 3 wins in a row buys him time and is a nice confidence boost but it's needs to be a starting point.

[Ads]

I post based on what I see. We haven't recycled the ball like today so maddeningly since Brentford.

[QuintonVilla]

"Alan Hutton, the Scottish Cafu!"

[Mister E]

The defensive panic-factor is an issue. Hopefully 3 and none will start to rectify the team's confidence.
I think the key driver is the emergence of Hourihane: he was good today and improving all the time; Ange played well and an improving Houri will really move us on.

[myf]

Looks like Ian Taylor had fun from the Twitter footage!

[maigrait]

Great result well done lads. Could have been a banana skin and you could have guessed villa would have slipped up. We didnt. Onwards and upwards - great to look up not down.

[Clampy]

Yes, it did sound like we needed the first goal again today. It wasn't from the lack of trying though if the highlights are anything to go by, although it did sound a very dour game.

[Mister E]

Looks like Ian Taylor had fun from the Twitter footage!

it was great to see him amongst us! He attracts lots of interest.