Bolton Wanderers vs Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[Des Little]

Just got in. Another way below (freezing) satisfactory performance. It’s a cheap shot but I’m going to fire it - we’re bottling it, all over the pitch. Sides are working us out , closing us down and winning their battles, and try as we might we don’t have the fight in us in these last two games. Too many stray passes, bad decisions and hesitancy on the ball lead to mistake after mistake. Frustration takes over and we lose the plot. 

The team looks absolutely knackered, mentally and physically, so this international break may have come at the right time.  I’d also like to see Lansbury get a start instead of Hourihane, especially against teams like Cardiff who’ll no doubt follow Bolton’s lead and rough us up.

All we can hope for is a Derby win tomorrow, otherwise it’s almost certainly play offs at best.

[olaftab]

It's not going to get any easier. Going to Hull, Ipswich, Norwich, Millwall are all tough. Home to Derby and kicker Cardiff also tough. We need to guarantee a play off spot.  I have so little faith in Bruce, just as we seem to be doing well, we think we've cracked it and fall apart.

all of a sudden a guaranteed play off spot doesn't looked nailed on does it ? - whilst Wolves was commendable let's reflect on the performances against Fulham,Preston QPR and Bolton - doesn't inspire confidence does it ?

Reflect on Wolves, Bristol City, Sheffield Wednesday..

It's easy being miserable and seeing the worst. But look at our form over the past dozen games, 27 points is it?

25. W8 D1 L3.

Last 7 w3 d1 l3  10 points out of 21 Not good enough.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

This is SB. He does what he does and will never change. Why should he? He earns the big bucks.

The same could be said of Gabby. I guess it's more because fans want to believe and have become accustomed to us being shite. Alex McLeish with a great squad; we win more than we lose. Yippee! Me, I'm still hopeful one day we'll join the 21st century. 2023 will be our year. Mark it down in your diaries.

[eamonn]

Well at least we don't draw anymore...

Nobody posts player ratings anymore, it's a shame. On the Manila site in a different life the post match thread would be full of ratings and justifications for the scores given but I feel it's just gone too much the other way now.

[BC54 VFC]

I can't remember ever seeing us win in the snow.

13th December, 1975: Villa 3 Norwich 2 - An excellent game played on a very snowy and icy pitch; the game would probably not have gone ahead in the current era.

[Risso]

Absolutely shocking performance. Bruce should be deeply ashamed. No point at all in beating Wolves to go and put in two such dire performances afterwards.

The last two games have probably ruined us for years to come.

[Axl Rose]

No stand out performers from us today. Bolton deserved the win, though that fucker of theirs at left back should have gone for that assault on Birkir. Dreadful, especially considering the linesman was right in front of the incident.

Ref was a wanker, swanning around like he was on stage at the Globe theatre. Poor standards appear to be the norm in the Championship, referee-wise.

I thought Elmo was deeply disappointing. No poise, which is fair enough to some expects given the conditions, but deary me. They, didn't seem to affect Bolton like they did us.

We just seemed to lack any oomph, for want of a better word. Hourihane was very disappointing, and what does O'Hare have to do to get a game? His endeavour and workrate might have just been what we needed.

And the four strikers isolated up top towards the end had me clicking on the cross in the top right hand corner of my laptop screen.

Rubbish.

A Derby victory later will bring a smidgen of joy to what has been a dreadful week.

Up the Villa.

[ROBBO]

Those closer to the action may have an answer but didn't we buy experienced players to prevent meltdowns like this? I thought players were supposed to be terrified to put in crap performances with Terry barking at them. Sorry but this is so Villa over the last decade to me it seems that this lot just are not hungry enough.

[Lastfootstamper]

I change my mind all the while. I'm not the Church.

Luck is used a figure of speech, if somebody is using it as a genuine means of analysis then they're talking shite.

Perhaps look it as a figure of speech.

The playoffs are decided by one or two moments in a game.

Who mentioned the church? Change your mind a lot - take your time in future 😂

Aren't all games?

[Abbeyfealeavfc]

At this stage of the season why are we still playing with players out of position and bizarre tactics and substitutions? Despite 2 transfer windows we still have no natural understudy to Taylor, so Bree has to play left back. We substitute 3 players with 30 goals between them all season with 3 players on 7 goals between them to find the goals to secure a draw/win. We end up playing 4 strikers with little thought as to how they can play together. Plan A with Adomah on the left and Snoddy on the right could easily become plan B, if they were just swapped. It might unsettle the opponent's back line if nothing else. This doesn't happen because Snoddy has no pace and this would be shown up on the left when he would be expected to get to the byeline. Bowing to the wishes of loan players or loan clubs only adds to the strange decisions. For this reason we have to go with Onomah on the bench instead of our own O Hare. When things click eg wolves everything's great, but we don't have go into meltdown as a team and management quickly!

[dorsetvillian]

Finally got home at 2.30 AM, after a very snowy drive south of Birmingham. So, so disappointing. The whole season potentially thrown away in two performances. After Wolves, I thought no one would want to play Villa in the play off's. Now everyone will see we are a soft touch if you simply put us under pressure.

[David_Nab]

Looking back I think as well as we played against Wolves they underestimated us and they weren't up for the fight.Bolton and QPR were up for the fight and for the most part our ageing one paced , physically weak squad got found out. I lost count of the amount of times Ameombi for them simply muscled his way past players .Infact it was only after they lost Prately that we even got into the game at all.

[Clampy]

Like the QPR game, we were awful again and what was more worrying what that we didn't really look like scoring. I just hope the international break does us some good and they come back firing and up for it because they need to be.

[The Edge]

Finally got home at 2.30 AM, after a very snowy drive south of Birmingham. So, so disappointing. The whole season potentially thrown away in two performances. After Wolves, I thought no one would want to play Villa in the play off's. Now everyone will see we are a soft touch if you simply put us under pressure.

You deserve  a medal mate🏆 I'm holding on to the fact that the two big games with big crowds have brought out the best in players and fans. Lets hope that continues in the play offs.

[mr underhill]

top man