Aston Villa Superstars 5-0 Bristol City

[Chris Smith]

Disagree entirely.

He’s a lump, brave and committed but almost entirely lacking in skill and composure.

We were great today once the first went in there was a noticeable boost in confidence throughout the team. Like many I am sure, it was an effort to drag myself out today through a New Years alcohol fog and for once it was rewarded. I have a feeling that the significance of this result might be huge in terms of what it says to other clubs as as well as our own self belief.

[Toronto Villa]

Disagree entirely.

He’s a lump, brave and committed but almost entirely lacking in skill and composure.

No way to talk about Jack Grealish, Chris.

[TonyD]

Listened to the game on the wireless.  Sounded great.  Nice to hear Jack back at his best. Please keep Whelan out.
Only Everton had a bigger crowd.

[Breezeblock]

Due to work exiling me to darkest Wales I had to miss this game and my dad won’t go on his own missed it too. I am absolutely gutted 😥

[paul_e]

Disagree entirely.

He’s a lump, brave and committed but almost entirely lacking in skill and composure.

We were great today once the first went in there was a noticeable boost in confidence throughout the team. Like many I am sure, it was an effort to drag myself out today through a New Years alcohol fog and for once it was rewarded. I have a feeling that the significance of this result might be huge in terms of what it says to other clubs as as well as our own self belief.

The key thing is that we don't panic if a game isn't going our way and revert to 10 behind the ball and hogan 40 yards away.  The build-up in pressure agianst Bruce always coincides with the displays where we start focusing on not losing, it might be cocky but we really should be better than that and today is the proof, that's the higher end of what we should expect but we need more games on that end of the scale rather than the millwall end.

[OCD]

In theory we should do better in the second half of the season, on the basis that most of our games against the top sides have been away and we still have a lot of them to play at home (Wolves, Derby, Cardiff, Leeds, Preston). If we start getting players back from injury without losing others and we respond positively to the pressure that being at the business end of the season brings, it will be interesting to see if we can do it this year.

[tomd2103]

The first twenty minutes, I thought we were awful, we looked like we had spent the xmas break eating and drinking. Then we score and what a change. Confidence running through the team, we looked lively and like we were going for the jugular.

Grealish was absolutely unplayable tonight. What he needs is a run of 6-10 games in that position, give him a chance to establish himself and not dump him out the team the first time he struggles. We saw tonight what he is capable of.

Other shout outs - Hourihane who works so hard and covers so much grass, Snodgrass, Hutton (who I think had one of the best games I've ever seen him have for us), and Hogan - you could see how happy the others were for him when he scored.

A great way to start the new year.

He was in a different class tonight and it was interesting to see him play in a deeper midfield role. 

[Abbeyfealeavfc]

A fantastic result! Very proud of my team tonight. Pleased with Hogan scoring (in fact it's great to have a striker score a goal). Great contributions from the whole team and I'm glad Snoddy is finally coming good. I don't expect to win every game (and certainly not 5-0), but I do expect that we give it a go and try to entertain and dominate occasionally. Today was a great example and should be the standard we try to aim for every game. We tanked Norwich earlier in the season and then started with 3 centre backs in our next game. Having taken a huge step forwards tonight, we need to ensure we keep progressing with the brand of positive, exciting football, that saw off Bristol. Over to you Bruce to keep this momentum going!

[ROBBO]

Hogans header was inch perfect and he almost repeated it with the keeper at full stretch. He is a natural finisher we just haven't been playing to his strengths.

[Percy McCarthy]

Only seen the goals. How was Hogan in open play, did he link up better once he’d had a confidence boost from the goal, or take people on? Having never noticed him for Brentford, and only seen him out of sorts for us, I still don’t really know what kind of player he is.

[JD]

Superb performance. Great to hear that Grealish had a dominant game, let's hope he has his swagger back.

I am so pleased for Scott Hogan. Hew has taken a lot of stick (some of it quite rightly) but has kept his head down and today did the business. I would love it if he started knocking them in for fun like he did at Brentford.   

[Walmley_Villa]

That was fun. Key thing for me is that we played like a team that knew their jobs. We pressed from the top as a team and worked harder than they did. Do that and you will win more games. Jack was a class apart. Delighted for Hogan and Shoddy. They were all great especially the defence where Sam never had a save to make.

[Clampy]

A few pluses from last night. Everyone played well but the stand out's were Grealish who was immense, Snodgrass who probably had his best game for us, Hutton who oddly is better at left back than in his normal position, Hogan who's first goal was as good a header as I've seen in a while but Jedinak for me makes the difference when he plays that role. He needs to stay there in place of Whelan.

[bobcat]

Whilst a win is welcome we should remember they had a poor second choice keeper in goal after their first choice was red carded against wolves on Saturday.

[Chris Smith]

Whilst a win is welcome we should remember they had a poor second choice keeper in goal after their first choice was red carded against wolves on Saturday.

Absolutely, it is probably the only reason we won and I am sure you will show similar consideration to any side with important players unavailable, such as their best centre half plus their top scorer from last season.