Aston Villa vs Birmingham City Pre-Match Thread

[Rudy Can't Fail]

A cold, winter Sunday lunchtime borefest, 0-0 with the Rags parking their coaches for 94 minutes.

[ironmaidenmania]

Hopefully the 120 minutes yesterday and the loss in ET will make this game easier. 2-1 to the villa with a nervy last 5 minutes as usual.

[robbo1874]

Past caring about Blues now. Expect a professional performance from us and a routine win. Bruce knows the score in these games. I expect him to set up not to lose, but we’ll have too much quality for the rags.

[mrfuse]

No doubt it will be a physical game and I'm not sure Hourihane is up for those battles, neither is Onamah.
I never like to change a winning side, but I wonder If Bruce will bring in Jedinak or Whelan.

Hutton will be another one that will need to careful with his timing of his challenges.

Peter Bankes is the ref on Sunday. He likes to give out the cards. Last Villa game was away at Leeds where he gave out 5, 3 for us. Last weekend at Derby - Brentford he gave out 5 including one red.

Thanks for the info, hopefully we can keep our discipline and maybe use that to our advantage.

[Tony Erdington]

No doubt it will be a physical game and I'm not sure Hourihane is up for those battles, neither is Onamah.
I never like to change a winning side, but I wonder If Bruce will bring in Jedinak or Whelan.

Hutton will be another one that will need to careful with his timing of his challenges.

Peter Bankes is the ref on Sunday. He likes to give out the cards. Last Villa game was away at Leeds where he gave out 5, 3 for us. Last weekend at Derby - Brentford he gave out 5 including one red.

Thanks for the info, hopefully we can keep our discipline and maybe use that to our advantage.

Having a card happy ref should work for us.  5 - 0

[villan from luton]

I think 1-1, but hope 2-0, with maybe then down to 10, after someone kicks Jack too many times, but I think that they will take it in turns so they have a lot of yellows, but no sending off.

I also dont like these games.

Do you think the noses will have the brains to take it in turns, they will have to get near him first anyway.

[andyh]

A cold, winter Sunday lunchtime borefest, 0-0 with the Rags parking their coaches for 94 minutes.

This is precisely my thought as well.

[robbo1874]

The 5-1 highlights someone posted earlier - We looked like a team that meant business back then. 10 years ago doesn’t seem like that much in the scheme of things, but that side was on a whole different level to now. I’m still confident we’ll
Win without too much fuss.

[tomd2103]

Past caring about Blues now. Expect a professional performance from us and a routine win. Bruce knows the score in these games. I expect him to set up not to lose, but we’ll have too much quality for the rags.

Feel like that in the weeks building up to when we have other fixtures to be concerned about, but in the days leading up to the game the desire to beat them really begins to pick up.     

[Dougs Socks]

The closer sunday comes, the more excited i am getting. Hopefully Brucey throws caution to the wind and we tear into them from the off. Just get Grealish, Adomah and Snodgrass run at them, get an early goal, then watch the shite collapse like a pack of cards. 

[robbo1874]

When has Bruce ever thrown caution to the wind? He’s not about to start now. He knows what it’s all about, so not losing will be first and foremost in his mind. You can’t really blame him for that, but I do think we’re too strong for them and we’ll get a couple. Age old trap of complacency, some may say. Don’t care really, think we’ll beat them fairly comfortably.

[Three Spires Villa]

Its important to get a win, we need to keep on Derby's heels, its not about "them" its about The Villa.

[robbo1874]

More concerned about the upcoming Fulham match. They are looking pretty handy at the minute

[andrew08]

I’m absolutely complacent about this game. We’ve won a few on the bounce and are playing well and haven’t lost to them in ages so people think, in ‘typical Villa’ fashion somehow then, they are due a win. The way I view it is we are due to give them another thrashing.

I fully expect this to be over by half time and them, by then, to be down to 10 men. Especially if they get us to kick into The Holte End first half.

Don’t worry everyone.

[Mister E]

I’m absolutely complacent about this game. We’ve won a few on the bounce and are playing well and haven’t lost to them in ages so people think, in ‘typical Villa’ fashion somehow then, they are due a win. The way I view it is we are due to give them another thrashing.

I fully expect this to be over by half time and them, by then, to be down to 10 men. Especially if they get us to kick into The Holte End first half.

Don’t worry everyone.

That’s exactly the sort of complacency that loses games 😊. They will be desperate to burst our win bubble and I expect a tight, nervy game with one goal in it.