Preston NE 1-1 Aston Villa Post Match Thread

[AlexAlexCropley]

Match highlights

Some miss by BB at the end.

McGinn was abysmal for their goal. Ball watching for a simple give and go pass. He is a liability without the ball too.

Bizarre statement.Can you give anymore examples apart from the one incident in todays game why Mcginn is a liability without the ball?I'm struggling to think of any.I rather think the opposite, that of our midfielders he is the one that is most effective without the ball.

In fairness to Johnny Mac , Hutton offered the sum total of fuck all in cover

[Matt Collins]

How did fans of Derby and boro feel after we pumped them at home? Did they give up on the play offs? By comparison this really isn't a crisis 

[Dazvillain]

surprised be didn't rotate the wingers today with 3 games in 6 days and 2 more next week.

very Bruce esque

Surely we need a stronger 11 v qpr than pne, so yes I don’t understand not resting some today

[brontebilly]

If Preston was so depleted why did Smith not take the opportunity to freshen it up?

Very disappointing, Adamoah, Kodjia, Bjarnsson all could or should have started if nothing else but to freshen up the team.

2 points dropped but performance levels have dropped a lot since Grealish's injury.

[Dazvillain]

Why is anyone surprised?  For years this has been Aston Villa.  We don’t sack the bloke that failed with the best squad in the league early enough.  For the second time in three seasons we waste a quarter of the season as a result.  Meaning constant self imposed pressure by not being able to afford an off day like today.  Result fcukin no progress for the third season in a row.  He’s had ten games and only lost once but we are still five points off 6th.  The play offs are not going to be at all easy to get into.

....or get out of

[SashasGrandad]

Match highlights

Some miss by BB at the end.

McGinn was abysmal for their goal. Ball watching for a simple give and go pass. He is a liability without the ball too.

Bizarre statement.Can you give anymore examples apart from the one incident in todays game why Mcginn is a liability without the ball?I'm struggling to think of any.I rather think the opposite, that of our midfielders he is the one that is most effective without the ball.

McGinn was being targeted by Preston midfield - ref refused to make their players retreat at our free kicks - and lost his bottle when he should have given Johnson a second yellow.

5 mins later Johnson crosses ball for their goal. It was bound to happen he would do something to change the game.

They kept trying high balls down the centre - which caused a few problems - but I thought Bree did a great job defending them.

[boutrosboutrosgnarly]

Match highlights

Some miss by BB at the end.

McGinn was abysmal for their goal. Ball watching for a simple give and go pass. He is a liability without the ball too.

Bizarre statement.Can you give anymore examples apart from the one incident in todays game why Mcginn is a liability without the ball?I'm struggling to think of any.I rather think the opposite, that of our midfielders he is the one that is most effective without the ball.

Joe Allen's goal v Stoke comes to mind in recent weeks

I blame our defence for their inability to clear their lines for that goal rather than McGinn maybe he can be criticized for getting wrong side of Allen, but at this level Allen is a very good player.Agree to disagree over Mcginn he is excellent with and without the ball.

[Risso]

How did fans of Derby and boro feel after we pumped them at home? Did they give up on the play offs? By comparison this really isn't a crisis 

The huge difference there is of course that they were in the play off positions, and still are.  We're not, and after the recent less than stellar results, they're getting further away.

[WarszaVillan]

How did fans of Derby and boro feel after we pumped them at home? Did they give up on the play offs? By comparison this really isn't a crisis 

The huge difference there is of course that they were in the play off positions, and still are.  We're not, and after the recent less than stellar results, they're getting further away.

2 bad results till a Risso 'Smith Out' thread I reckon

[SashasGrandad]

The negativity on here is awful.

We didn't play at all well today but arguably our best (most creative) player is out injured, we have lost a solid CB, we did not lose, we picked up a point on the top two (who both lost), we have a new quality keeper in the wings, and the transfer window opens next week when finally Dean will get the help he clearly needs. We all knew the squad was not good enough thanks to SB - but if you had offered me 22 points and a new management team, 13 games ago after the original Preston debacle at VP (along with great wins at Derby, Boro, and at home to Small Heath), I would have snapped your hand off.  We are 5 points off 6th and 9 off of 3rd and todays results at Leeds, Norwich, Baggies and Millwall just show that everything is still up for grabs.

Compared to 3 months ago, or 6 months ago, we are on the up and in a far better place and one poor result doesn't change that.

In Deano we need to trust. Lets get behind this lot - we can (and will) do it.

VTID

Yep.

Ditto

[mr underhill]

I don't think the top six will remain the top six. But that doesn't mean we will be part of  it. A lot depends on who will bring in next month.

[robleflaneur]

There is quite a large gap between us and the top 3,I think the Baggies will finish above Norwich but it can be bridged.
There are several reasons to be optimistic.One is our fixture list,apart from Leeds,we have played all the top 6 away and they have to come to VP.Second is that we have important players to comeback from injury and reinforcements to come in.I think that the best is yet to come from our team.
Finally,there will be points dropped by the top 6 when they play us , one another or when they play in form teams,as Leeds,Albion's and Norwich 's home results today demonstrate.

[Edvard Remberg]

How did fans of Derby and boro feel after we pumped them at home? Did they give up on the play offs? By comparison this really isn't a crisis 

The huge difference there is of course that they were in the play off positions, and still are.  We're not, and after the recent less than stellar results, they're getting further away.

2 bad results till a Risso 'Smith Out' thread I reckon

Risso has a strong opinion, which i don't always agree with (unless watches) - and in this case we look for scape goats. But today we just were crap - don't blame individuals

[Matt Collins]

There will be loads of twists and turns

I don't think the top two is set in stone at all

Basically nobody is that good. Especially defensively - apart from boro

This is a sticky spell for us performance and injury wise. We've still only lost once. Too many draws of course. But I do think we'll regroup and push again. We've shown that we can take on anyone in this league and have a massive goal threat

[SoccerHQ]

How did fans of Derby and boro feel after we pumped them at home? Did they give up on the play offs? By comparison this really isn't a crisis 

The huge difference there is of course that they were in the play off positions, and still are.  We're not, and after the recent less than stellar results, they're getting further away.

Boro are playing terribly atm, just had the luck of Ipswich at home today and Reading away last week. In any case we match up so well against them they'd be a good play off opponent once again.

We will have these fixtures soon enough but of course need to make them count and we obviously didn't today which is disappointing.

Would still be shocked if we're not in top 6 by start of February. Something will have gone very wrong then.