Birmingham City v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[MONCABA]

There is too much after match negativity for me. We performed okay (no more and no less) and got an away point against a team scrapping for points and who will have been wound up to beat us more than any other we will face this season. I think we will now go on to beat Preston as I reckon they were over achieving for a while and in recent games seem to be struggling to maintain those standards.

Have they still got their plastic pitch?

Absolutely this.

[berneboy]

According to an away fan on Twitter, the Villa fans were held back for over an hour at The Sty by the police. I’ve always wondered about the legality of this. Sounds like a form of custody to me, and while I’m sure the argument is that it’s in the fans’ best interests, can they actually legally insist on you staying behind? What if you’ve got a plane to catch, or kids to pick up? What would happen if yoy insisted on leaving?

The police apologised on Twitter this evening claiming the held back the Villa fans due to the behaviour of 200 - 300 Noses at the match. Obviously waiting for them outside I’m guessing.
Scum of the earth.

My son said he was held back for two hours and was very frustrated by the police action but saw enough threat from Blues fans to understand.

On the positive side he shook hands with Sir Brian and has a lovely photo of the two of them.

[ez]

I thought for the first 20 minutes we controlled the game. Okay they came back into it then but to say we were terrible first half is a bit OTT.

I thought the same about the first 15-20 mins. I thought the control ended when Blues finally put in a couple of big tackles. Our players seemed to lose control of it after this. Whether they were worried of being taken out so got rid of it quicker, I don't know.

I thought we were poor first half and i was glad of the half time whistle. That in itself was funny as the ref had just signalled a corner to them then blew for half time.

[pauliewalnuts]

I thought for the first 20 minutes we controlled the game. Okay they came back into it then but to say we were terrible first half is a bit OTT.

I agree with this. We were totally in control for 20 mins.

[OzVilla]

That's pretty much exactly how I thought it would go, they raise their game and intensity, Bruce sets us up to be cautious, we go into our shell as an attacking force and the game just becomes a stalemate, both sides happy with a point.... next.

[QuintonVilla]

Preston have only got one fit centre half available for Wednesday so if he sets us up negatively there he's a buffoon.

[LeeB]

We would have won it if Kodjia had stayed on.

I thought we were sound.

[frank]

Just got in, 14 hours after getting up. Those 14 hours included 2 taxis, 4 trains, 1 bus, quite a lot of walking and 90 minutes "hold-back" in the ground. Was it worth it? Well, obviously not on this occasion, but that's not the point. One of the attractions of following your team home and away is that you never know how things will work out. It might have have been one of the great Villa away victories over Blues, such as the Wylie-inspired 2-0 in 1962. It might have been a real thriller, with Villa losing or winning 4-3 in the 97th minute. It might have been a humiliating defeat. You just never know. That said, I must admit that I feared that Steve Bruce would revert to his default position, which is to defend deep in away games, as at Wolves, and I was pleasantly surprised that he left Samba and Bjarnason on the bench and brought on Davies and Hogan. (Not that Hogan did anything, but at least we replaced a forward with a forward).

I agree with many of the earlier comments. Onomah, after his good performance against Fulham, was poor and didn't seem to know what his role was. Why was he left on and Hourihane taken off? Snodgrass achieved little and I think Elmohamady might have been a better option wide on the right with De Laet in defence. Kodjia was disappointing, but he always has the ability to produce something from nothing, and I hope the injury isn't serious. Davis and Jedinak both made a difference. Blues had done their homework on Adomah and he was tightly marked and far less effective than last week. He's skilful enough to beat one man but not two.

In other words, there weren't too many positives to take from the game. If it bored us committed fans inside the ground, it must have been pretty dire for the neutrals watching on tv. But you can always argue that a derby, especially this one, is different from other games, and Preston on Wednesday and Wednesday on Saturday give us an early opportunity to pick up momentum again. With Kodjia out, perhaps Davis will start and perhaps O'Hare will get his chance. Or Grealish. Perhaps Jedinak will strengthen the midfield. Perhaps Adomah will find more space. We just don't know. What I hope is that we don't defend deep but counter Preston's attacking play with attacking play of our own. And that the journey up to Preston will be worth it.

[nodge]

Great post frank

[auntiesledd]

Great post frank

Seconded. It was a pleasure to read. Bless you Frank; & UTV.

[QuintonVilla]

Superb Frank. See you at Preston.

[Tony Erdington]

agreed with the three above. good read Frank. UTV.

[brentastonb6]

The game at the Sty is always going to be amongst the most difficult we have irrespective of where they are in the league. Take the point forget the game and move on to Preston.

This. Toughest away game of the season out of the way, onwards and upwards 👍

[sickbeggar]

I'm not sure i'd call it the toughest away game - maybe the one we don't want to lose the most. Bruce in fairness did that but jesus, you wouldn't watch that game again, like most of our games since he got here

[pauliewalnuts]

I'm not sure i'd call it the toughest away game - maybe the one we don't want to lose the most. Bruce in fairness did that but jesus, you wouldn't watch that game again, like most of our games since he got here

I know you said most, but I thought our last home game was one of the most watchable games I've seen there in fucking ages.