Birmingham City v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[SoccerHQ]

I hate having Bruce as manager, you know. Even when we win it's hard to build up much optimism or to look forward to us playing again.

Even when we go on a decent winning run it's always at the back of your mind there's a cowardly away performance around the corner.

We were so poor today for an hour.

I just don't see how we can get top 2 approaching many away games like this.

You think that was cowardly today?

First hour was.

No it wasn’t it. I thought we bossed the first 20 minutes anyway.
Getting a 0-0 away from home in a local derby is never cowardly. What a daft statement.

The approach was exactly the same to Wolves. Luckily SHA don't have the quality they do throughout the team.

I'm sorry but I just don't see us winning enough away games to get top 2. Happy to be proved wrong but we don't seek to play on the front foot enough in away games.

[paul richard]

Hard working, but ragged and disjointed too often. Too many long balls, and we were hampered by some below par individual performances.  Onomah and Snodgrass were piss poor today. Onomah should have been hauled off instead of Hourihane. Two points dropped against mediocre opposition.  Given our resources, squad, potential, experience etc we should have what it takes to get out of this league this season. My worry is that performances like today's and v Wolves may leave us short come May.

[LukeJames]

can someone tell me who hit the bar?

Davis 1st, Kodjia 2nd.

[AlexAlexCropley]

Aston Villa's updated league record against Birmingham:

WWWWWWDDDWD

12 years, 11 games and counting... 💪

That last should be D minus

[ASHTONVILLA]

We were terrible second half until Jedi came on, he made a huge difference and it is good to see him back. Davis also looked good when he came on, but Hogan was an odd substitution.

Disagree with some here on Hourihane, I thought he did ok today. Can't understand how Whelan got MOM.

That defence is loads better than last year.

Johnstone 8 - Did well

Hutton 9 - Excellent again
Terry  8 - Great as usual and nearly got another goal.
Chester 7 - dependable
Elmo - 7 dependable at the back and at times a threat going forwards.

Whelan 6 - Terrible first half, better second half.
Snodgrass 6 - Meh
Adomah 6 - Couple of good runs early and late on.
Onoma 6 - Meh
Hourihane 6 - Good at times

Kodjia - Looked much better when Jedi came on

Hogan 3 - pointless
Davis 8 - Good
Jedi 9 - Very good

[wittonwarrior]

11 whelans would have won us 3 points

[Ads]

Not today. Got my nipper down with the grand parents.

[SoccerHQ]

Cotterill dismissing us hitting the crossbar twice because “they were just counter-attacks”...

Yeah okay, mate.

The Houirhane free kick was a hair away from being turned in while I was sure that Kodjia had scored with his header.

They had 15 minutes of the second half and should have scored. We took control after and should have taken oir chsnces to punish them.

But we are always a bit ropey here performance wise. We created more than we usually do mind.

I’m okay with it. Losing at the Sty is unthinkable to me so even a 0-0 is acceptable, as they always raise their game against us. We’re still 6th and still in the mix.

It's fine margins though. Let's say Jota buried his chance as he obviously should've done. We're 1-0 down after 50 minutes barely having had a shot and no doubt SHA would've started camping on their own box so we'd probably have struggled to create the chances we did.

I'm hypothesizing of course but then again 10-11 away games have panned out like that under SB's tenure so far.

[ChicagoLion]

Hard working, but ragged and disjointed too often. Too many long balls, and we were hampered by some below par individual performances.  Onomah and Snodgrass were piss poor today. Onomah should have been hauled off instead of Hourihane. Two points dropped against mediocre opposition.  Given our resources, squad, potential, experience etc we should have what it takes to get out of this league this season. My worry is that performances like today's and v Wolves may leave us short come May.

Completely agree, we could have easily been a goal down before Bruce finally changed it.
He seems paralysed when teams are on top, this awful not lose first football.

[old man villa fan]

I hate having Bruce as manager, you know. Even when we win it's hard to build up much optimism or to look forward to us playing again.

Even when we go on a decent winning run it's always at the back of your mind there's a cowardly away performance around the corner.

We were so poor today for an hour.

I just don't see how we can get top 2 approaching many away games like this.

You think that was cowardly today?

First hour was.

No it wasn’t it. I thought we bossed the first 20 minutes anyway.
Getting a 0-0 away from home in a local derby is never cowardly. What a daft statement.

Agree that we had the best of the first 20 minutes but once they got into the game we didn't seem to have any idea how to get back on top.

I think the first substitution was defensive to protect what we had got, rather than to go and try and win the game. It worked against a poor Blues team but I don't think it would against better sides.

[saunders_heroes]

I hate having Bruce as manager, you know. Even when we win it's hard to build up much optimism or to look forward to us playing again.

Even when we go on a decent winning run it's always at the back of your mind there's a cowardly away performance around the corner.

We were so poor today for an hour.

I just don't see how we can get top 2 approaching many away games like this.

You think that was cowardly today?

First hour was.

No it wasn’t it. I thought we bossed the first 20 minutes anyway.
Getting a 0-0 away from home in a local derby is never cowardly. What a daft statement.

The approach was exactly the same to Wolves. Luckily SHA don't have the quality they do throughout the team.

I'm sorry but I just don't see us winning enough away games to get top 2. Happy to be proved wrong but we don't seek to play on the front foot enough in away games.

I’m okay with this criticism, but it’s calling the team cowards that struck a nerve. They fought well and could have won it. This is a local derby and form goes out of the window and they always raise their game against Villa.
Yeah a win would have been brilliant and when we brought on Jedinak and then Davis we looked like we could win. Food for thought for Bruce.
Still we’re 6th and still in the mix.

[Toronto Villa]

Bruce is what he is. And we will now go to Deepdale with precisely the same objective and mindset. Fucking miserable

[Ads]

Let's imagine Kodjia scored and we didn't rattle the bar and Terry or Chester had turned Hourihane's free kick in.

[Lastfootstamper]

24,408
2,078 villa
So,22,330 noses in their best crowd of the season
Pa-the-tic

WM's take on this was that 22 Villa fans didn’t show. I shit you not.

[saunders_heroes]

Let's imagine Kodjia scored and we didn't rattle the bar and Terry or Chester had turned Hourihane's free kick in.

Na, let’s pretend Jota scored then camped in their own half and we couldn’t break them down.