Aston Villa Reserves v Forest Post-Match Thread

[Mellin]

We should've lost is over the top. It could've gone either way though.

Forest are third in the league. It's a good result. Players had some rest. That's 4 in 5 in the league. Do that again and we'll be in a good position.

[jwarry]

Outclassed in the second half, we should really have lost that game. Every single restart from Emi seemed to result in the ball coming back at us.

They pressed us too well for us to play out from the back and when we went long, Forest won the 50/50s.

I've dismissed Forest as counter-attacking merchants but they kept us pinned in our third for most of the second half and we kept coughing-up chances. I worry for us in Paris after that, to be honest.

I think should have lost is over stretching it. We let them get on top and they had their chances, but so did we - Rogers and Rashford both should have probably scored.

Furthermore we could have been well out of sight before they even started to make a game of it

[manic-road]

Great three points, In the second half we didn't play as well but they were always going to try and get back into the game. We still had the better chances in the second half though.

[Baldy]

We rode our luck today.

Lucky to get the three points, draw probably a fair result.

Eight starting changes and 5 substitutions against a top 3 team might be too much. Thankfully, Unai knows a lot more than me.

Well done lads. Onwards and upwards.

[eamonn]

So not on target then. If they keep missing they don't deserve to win. Meanwhile their keeper was a contender for their MOTM.

By that logic a daisy-cutter from 40 yards that a goalkeeper can throw his cap on is more impressive than the attacking team getting in behind a defence only let-down by a close miss and a keeper not knowing much about it.

[Tony Daleys Shorts]

Wow!! What a win, 8 changes and still win. Beautiful.

[Somniloquism]

Should have lost? After 17 shots and 8 on target and they had 3 on target?

Hitting the bar and a couple of very narrowly wide-efforts from Gibbs-White and Williams which were gilt-edged may not be on-target but they were still damn close.

 They managed to get in behind our defence way too often for comfort. And the recent clean-sheets shouldn't hide that we have a lot to improve in terms of defending as a team.

The top of the bar is still not on target. A telling stat is even though we were under the cosh, they had 17 touches in our box and we had 29 in theirs, seems to point that the a significant number of shots were outside the box which is not a great scoring area and needs a real great finish to score from, especially with Martinez in goal.

Their goal even had the misfortune to catch Konsa as it went through his legs so it spun wide of Martinez otherwise that shot would have been saved.

[Olneythelonely]

Outclassed in the second half, we should really have lost that game. Every single restart from Emi seemed to result in the ball coming back at us.

They pressed us too well for us to play out from the back and when we went long, Forest won the 50/50s.

I've dismissed Forest as counter-attacking merchants but they kept us pinned in our third for most of the second half and we kept coughing-up chances. I worry for us in Paris after that, to be honest.

We beat them in pretty much every single metric. Could and should have scored 3 ourselves second half. They might argue they should have got a point, I don’t think we should have lost it at all.

[eamonn]

And Elliot Anderson, their midfielder, was the best player on the pitch, I thought.

Delighted/relieved we won but I'm just surprised at how we were bullied for a lot of the second half.

[LeonW]

Mission accomplished. And that’s all that matters at this point. Beating those teams around us and sucking them in to the run is invaluable. Rodgers a threat throughout. Maatsen was largely really good.

[Brazilian Villain]

Mission accomplished. And that’s all that matters at this point.

Yup, we deserved at least a point at their place, they might have got one today. Take the win and move on.

[Somniloquism]

We rode our luck today.

Lucky to get the three points, draw probably a fair result.

Eight starting changes and 5 substitutions against a top 3 team might be too much. Thankfully, Unai knows a lot more than me.

Well done lads. Onwards and upwards.

Not sure what luck we rode when they had their goal come from a deflection of Konsa wide of Martinez and we didn't get that and just had to play really good football to get ours. Rogers when through and Sels sat on the ball to save his. But the rear of his arse sat on it which should have been forced out behind him but instead it stopped dead.

[pauliewalnuts]

And Elliot Anderson, their midfielder, was the best player on the pitch, I thought.

Delighted/relieved we won but I'm just surprised at how we were bullied for a lot of the second half.

They are third in the league, what do you expect?

They're also a tough, physical side who are that high in the league largely because they've got taking their chances and defending for their lives when needed down to a tee - as we did.

We're going to have to dig in and grind out results against good sides - we did that all the time last season, but not so much in the league this time (until recently).

[Rigadon]

Felt like a pretty straightforward win over a lower league side. Which is what Notts Forest are. 

[PaulWinch again]

Well they’re demonstrably not.