Championship 2018-2019

[walsall villain]

I think it's a huge task to finish 6th but will be delighted to so so.

No. At no time did they look a threat. Didn’t seem to be working that hard either.

Did Boro look to you a team yesterday that can secure another 17 points in the run in?

[Villafirst]

An uncertain start following potentially going into Administration last Summer plus a terrible injury list has screwed our season. Only now, with players returning from injury, can you see the real Villa. It dismays me that this team now is good enough to walk this League and you see bang average dross currently in the top three positions who, if they go up, will most likely get relegated next season - look at Fulham now.....

[IFWaters]

I think the top 4 will be the top 4 at the end of the season, perhaps in a slightly different order. So there are 2 playoff places and I would say 8 teams in the running, down to Hull. 3 of those 8 have games in hand on us and could be on more points than us after 38 games and Preston are on a similar run to us. So I would see us right in the thick of it but we also have the risk that an injury to Jack or SJM could knock our confidence and we have very tough last 2 games.

These are the seasons you live for, in the thick of it and I think this squad has the skill and the experience to do it. My favoured path would be finish 5th, knock out the Tesco bags and beat Leeds 5-4 in the final at Wembley.

[SoccerHQ]

Boro are a joke.

Pretty much all season Pulis has played 5 CBs and then 4 defensive midfielders as they did yesterday. He's beyond a parody now.

They had a 15m pound striker on the bench yesterday.

Travesty if they make play offs ahead of good football teams like Preston and Bristol City.

I agree with your point entirely, but don't think we're on the surest of ground if we take the piss out of £15m strikers.  We've got 3 £12m strikers, one on loan at Sheffield United, one who will never play for us again, and one who at the moment is an occasional sub!

At least we play attacking formations, a striker two wide players and a number 10.

Boro pack their side with 9 defenders and  have a wide player or Downing in support of their CF. It sums Pulis up.

[andyh]

I’d like to think that some of our critical players who have not played much football this season  will just be coming into peak fitness and help carry the team forward.
Jack, Mings and Hause should be full of energy for the run in.

[Luffbralion]

As mentioned on WM last night, our stats under Dean Smith are as follows:

With Jack          P13   W9  D2  L2  pts 29

Without Jack     P13    W2  D7  L4  pts 13


Using the top column's figures, if we had Dean managing and Jack playing for all 46 games we would have amassed 102 points!

[AV82EC]

As mentioned on WM last night, our stats under Dean Smith are as follows:

With Jack          P13   W9  D2  L2  pts 29

Without Jack     P13    W2  D7  L4  pts 13


Using the top column's figures, if we had Dean managing and Jack playing for all 46 games we would have amassed 102 points!

So without Grealish we struggled to turn draws into wins looking at that.

[Ads]

A Wednesday fan opinion on his side, sound familiar?

The performance yesterday wasn’t good, we were outfought in midfield and sloppy at the back. You look at the run in and the level of performance needs to improve from that significantly or the dream will end pretty quickly.

[PeterWithesShin]

Hammer the bitters home and away in the semis, humiliate Bruce at Wembley. Job done.

[KRS]

Haven’t watched their highlights, but they couldn’t have been that bad to score 4 goals?

[Abbeyfealeavfc]

Villa doing brilliantly with 4 wins on the bounce. Obvs if we keep the winning run going we'll make the playoffs. Falter and I see the main threat for the last 2 playoff places (3rd and 4th places look to be out of reach) coming from boro and derby (looking at their run-ins) with Preston as an outside bet. It would be a travesty if boro and derby were both to make it at our expense. UTV!

[Smithy]

The next 6 are the key games, with a three-way race for automatic promotion I wouldn't want to be looking at the Leeds and Norwich games NEEDING wins to secure a playoff spot.  Ironically, I looked at those last two fixtures back in November thinking they were great, as it could potentially see automatic promotion in our own hands.  But right now, I'd rather just have a top 6 place secured before we meet either of them!  On current form, I'd fancy our chances against either of them, but if they're both still chasing an automatic promotion spot, we'd be playing them at the worst possible time.

[SoccerHQ]

Norwich have a bit of a gap in 1st now. 5 points with just 8 left. They have quite a good run in, 4 winnable home games.

I think they'll be up before final game so them being on the beach mentally would help us.

They're always awful at VP aswell, lost both games since we've been down here and also lost to our atrocity of 15-16.

[DennisHodgetts]

After watching our sheer dominance and game control on Saturday, I believe we can now do a Fulham and storm through these remaining games and possibly get into the high 70s in points, but being a realist I suspect that low 70s will be enough for the playoffs this year. Indeed high 60s might possibly be enough. Lets make certain by getting at least another 4 or 5 wins and some draws. Albion in the Semi (we still owe them this year), probably Leeds at Wembley, Jack winner, happy day!

[Ad@m]

The natural Villa fan pessimist in me is now starting to think about how absolutely galling it would be if Bruce got Wednesday up through the play offs at the first time of asking!!!