Aston Villa 2-2 Stoke City Post Match Thread

[pauliewalnuts]

I thought we were pretty poor, to be honest. Elmo was truly brainless in giving that penalty away. Our defending at times is frighteningly slack.

On the bright side, we still took a point.

That's the coldest I've been at a match for a long time. Fucking freezing and absolutely shitting it down, too.

[Steve67]

I don't think Grealish will be back next week, listening to Dean's post match interview but Jedi, BB and Angela will be.  We will need more creativity in the centre of the park to beat Leeds.  Hourihane and Whelan ain't it.  We need to purchase a player in that area in January imo.

[PeterWithe]

Delighted with a point to be honest as we were second best all over the park.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I don't think Grealish will be back next week, listening to Dean's post match interview but Jedi, BB and Angela will be.  We will need more creativity in the centre of the park to beat Leeds.  Hourihane and Whelan ain't it.  We need to purchase a player in that area in January imo.

Or give O'Hare a chance.

[Steve67]

Yeah maybe.  Decent player, throw him in.

[olaftab]

Play offs at very best this season if we can sort the defence out in January

Yes that's my take on it as well.

[kippaxvilla2]

I think we need some perspective.  Stoke have still got a very decent squad and were PL last season.  At the start of this run I wouldn’t have given us much hope of many points.  But with arguably one match left in the very difficult run we are still only three points off the play offs with some very winnable games in January and February and with a better defence and keeper. 

Finally, we are so far behind the top two because of the sheer incompetence of Bruce neglecting the defence and not being able to get a tune out of a talented squad for the first quarter of the season.  It’s done very bad damage.

[olaftab]

Well it was like Tuesday night in Stoke in wet cold December today. Just thawed out. We never got going but Stoke had a part to play in that. Their niggling tactical fouling slowed us down and our defence did the rest. Terrible error by Elmo for their penalty. After the first half I thought we will not score today and Stoke were marginally more competent throughout the game. However once again we popped up with goals to salvage a deserved draw.

[clash city rocker]

The way I look at it is...our attack is a plus....our midfield is a neutral...and our defence is a negative.

[PaulWinch again]

Thor would massively help in the midfield.

[achilles]

Why was McGinn pushed so deep. Lucky pen for us and a sensible header by Kodja I’m content we live to fight another day

Totally disagree, blatant penalty which the referee nearly didn't give!

[kippaxvilla2]

And another thing seven injuries seven.  When the fcuk are we going to get a break.

[john e]

Stoke still our bogey team then

[JUAN PABLO]

Did not see it today as busy at work .   I did quickly look at a FB stream and saw we were 2-1 up , danced around cheering and then realised the score board was back to front ffs   and we were 2 1 down .

[SoccerHQ]

We missed Grealish today. Our counter attacks were a touch too slow today and that allowed Stoke time to get back and double up.

I'm quite happy with a point tbh. Stoke have been like us in 16/17 so far but they were better going forward than I expected with Berahino as a lone striker and I thought Joe Allen had a superb game, sort of player who'd look brilliant in Smith's system imo.

They have strung together a 9 match unbeaten run now so they will be contenders for top 6 come May.

It was a scrappy game and one we could've easily lost so I'll take the point and move on to Leeds. As things stand we are actually narrowing the gap to Norwich aswell.