First half we were a bit slow but did enough, second half because they upped the tempo a bit we reacted quite well, but we really didn't have to do very much. Sunderland was like watching us 2 years ago when a.n. other mediocre Premiership team arrived at Villa Park. I do feel for the fans as they deserve better.
We had quite good seats near the dugout so a few observations from there :
- the away support was immense - the only area of the ground which was full and easily the loudest in the ground
- Taylor plays a little too far forward behind Albert
- Grabban looks really useful, so I would start him ahead of Hogan, which is harsh but he adds a bit more
- Grealish when he came on changed us from being workmanlike to coherant - he really does provide the link between midfield and attack
- Whelan played well and only put 1 pass astray, but Jedinak was immense and Bjarnesson really does provide more movement
- Snodgrass got a comment from Bruce in the second half which I thought a bit odd, but he shouted - Snoddy - you've not had a touch for 5 minutes - sort it out. No-one else got anything.
- The 2 coaches were very involved, especially with the front 2
Some random photos..
