Stoke v Villa post-match thread

[manic-road]

1-1 away at a crap stoke team. Bruce as much as I hated him would have been vilified for the run we are on at present. As much as I hope Smith succeeds he needs to take responsibility for a fuckin awful run of results....piss poor and simply not good enough.

Have you looked at the injury list and John McGinn's suspension?

And now Hutton looks to be fucked for a good while too.

Good. He's been a liability for a good while, so at least Smith will be forced to try someone else back there (if we have any other options).

How sad, glad that one of our players is injured....

[CT Villan]

OS interview https://twitter.com/AVFCOfficial/status/1099373289762422786

Radio WM interview audio boom

Thank you for the links.

[Three Spires Villa]

1-1 away at a crap stoke team. Bruce as much as I hated him would have been vilified for the run we are on at present. As much as I hope Smith succeeds he needs to take responsibility for a fuckin awful run of results....piss poor and simply not good enough.

Have you looked at the injury list and John McGinn's suspension?

And now Hutton looks to be fucked for a good while too.

Good. He's been a liability for a good while, so at least Smith will be forced to try someone else back there (if we have any other options).

I’m sorry, but what a bloody stupid thing to say

[KRS]

Oh come on...Hutton has been taking pelters all season for being shite and full of mistakes so let's not start pretending that he's anything but a liability and that it won't be a bad thing if he can't play. It's not sad at all...in fact, it could be a blessing in disguise...every cloud and all that.

[Three Spires Villa]

I can’t and won’t wish a Villa player to be injured, I’m not talking about his performance, but to wish injury on a Villa player, sorry not for me.

[Legion]

I'm a big fan of Hutton but he has been rather poor lately. I definitely don't want him out injured, though.

[KRS]

I'm not and have never wished injury on any of our players...it's already happened, so all 'm saying is that it's not necessarily a bad thing.

[Legion]

I'm not and have never wished injury on any of our players...it's already happened, so all 'm saying is that it's not necessarily a bad thing.

Suggest a replacement. I can't.

[garyshawsknee]

Losing Hutton for the rest of the season isn't a massive deal, unlucky for the player, but he won't be here next season. Just a shame Bree is out on loan.

[brontebilly]

We all thought the comeback against Sheff Utd would be a catalyst. It’s wasnt. I still think we are in for a very bumpy ride through to the end of the season.

If there was anyone on here in the post match thread who thought that, they were very much in the minority. Three desperate defensive errors, two from their keeper.

There has been an inevitability about our plight for months.

[KRS]

Please refer to my initial post: "(if we have any other options)"...presumably he'll have to play Elmo at RB which unfortunately isn't necessarily a good thing. 

[Malandro]

Oh come on...Hutton has been taking pelters all season for being shite and full of mistakes so let's not start pretending that he's anything but a liability and that it won't be a bad thing if he can't play. It's not sad at all...in fact, it could be a blessing in disguise...every cloud and all that.

It’s certainly not sad, it’s part of the game and he’s had a good living from it.

Good luck Alan. You can leave with your head held high.
Not a bottler.

[olaftab]

I take back everything I said about passion having watched the Wales team win the oval ball game.

[SoccerHQ]

May be in the minority but I thought we played quite well today.

Of course this was against expensive opposition facing an even bigger identity crisis than we are but I thought we looked threatening for most of the 90 minutes and could've easily scored 3 goals which is big progress compared to how we've played since xmas.

To quote a prophet I thought Stoke were mince. All they did was taken advantage of Hutton off the pitch (given he was nearly crying after he came off think that will be the last time we'll see him in a Villa shirt) and score v 10 men. I honestly can't remember them having a serious shot for rest of the game. Think their squad actually cost more than ours which takes some doing at this level.

What summed things up was our wide players. Adomah got into some good positions first half but ruined it by always cutting back onto his left for some reason (he took the equaliser with his right well enough) and El Ghazi was a pub player in the first, skied a cross when well placed on the counter and also shot towards the Incinerator when he had a really good chance centrally.

Second half he wasn't far off unplayable. Great work for our goal and he was a threat throughout. Said before I'd like to see him play just off the main striker as he can drift into space and has nice turn of speed.

Given how dead our season is we really need some of these question mark players to step up and start putting in some decent performances.

Thought Hause and Mings were good again and both are very comfortable bringing the ball out from the back from what I saw today.

[Ads]

First half I thought we were slow in recovery of the ball and seldom quick in transition. The odd occasion we did do it, we opened them up.

The goal was unfortunate, Hutton lying down being treated and the first phase back, they attack the disorganised space and score.

Despite us not being with it, we were still better than them first half and ought to have scored with El Ghazi skying a sitter.

Second half we were much better. The best we've been since the Albion. Not as incisive as we could have been, but with Jack and McGinn out, it wasn't a surprise.

We were much smarter and quicker in recovery and used the 442 well. We dominated and more than deserved the point. Mings was unlucky not to score.

Better and the first consistent performance for a sustained period, particularly away from home (that was our first away goal of 2019) at a ground we're usually poor at.

Lots of police, lots of drunks, one bloke spewing his guts up towards the back and if you were wondering what was different, they've filled in a corner.

A decent point and a much improved performance.