Aston Villa v Bologna Post-Match Thread

[Dante Lavelli]

Nuno’s tactics suited their players perfectly and they barely had an injury. They sold a few and none of those that came in have done much. Plus three (four?) different managers since Nuno.

[PeterWithesShin]

Wood has been cack for over a year even when fit. He had an insane run where he was running at a conversion rate well above even elite world class strikers. He'll never get close to that run again.

[paul_e]

and he's 34, if you're relying in a 34 year old striker being fit and available all season to avoid the relegation battle then you're taking a bit of a risk.

[PeterWithesShin]

This was the day before the Porto game

Nottingham Forest striker Chris Wood admits he will have to manage his knee injury for the rest of his life.

The New Zealand international has returned following six months out and is in line to feature in Forest's Europa League quarter-final second leg against Porto.

Forest host the Portuguese league leaders on Thursday following last week's 1-1 draw in Portugal, with Wood starting at Estadio do Dragao.

It was his first game since last October, having had knee surgery in December, and the forward knows his knee will never fully recover.

"It's a knee injury, it's going to take years of managing throughout my whole career and when I'm playing with kids, playing golf or doing whatever I do after football," said the 34-year-old.

"It's going be there. I'd say it's always got to be in your back of mind that I have to keep myself in top shape ready to go.

"A knee injury is always horrible, you never know what could happen in the future or how you are going to come back from it.

"So mentally, that's one of the tough things to deal with. But I had confidence I was always going to come back. I got very close to returning pre-surgery and it just didn't happen. That's just unfortunate."

Wood returned as he looks to help Forest into the last four of the Europa League - where they will face Aston Villa or Bologna - and stay in the Premier League.

He is also aiming for a World Cup spot with New Zealand, with the All Whites facing Iran, Egypt and Belgium in Group G in this summer.

"It wasn't a straightforward injury, we tried a few different avenues to get it right before having to go down the surgery route," added Wood, who did not play for Sean Dyche during the former manager's 114 days in charge of Forest.

"It didn't work out the way we wanted to. At least we got it now with a goal to come back to and luckily I have been able to come back with a decent amount of time [before the World Cup] so hopefully I'll be in the running."

Midfielder Elliot Anderson is a doubt to face Porto after he missed training on Wednesday.

"Today, he was not able to train," boss Vitor Pereira said. "He has personal problems and we have to respect [them]. We will see [about tomorrow], we need to wait."

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

Would have preferred Porto but bring on Nottingham Forest.

Ain't right to play a European away game somewhere you can get to for 8 quid on National Express

It's a place plenty of can get to for free with our bus pass.

[PeterWithesShin]

We should have 40k in Nottingham easy.

[brontebilly]

There were many fantastic performances but a special mention to Matty Cash. After the first leg he must of had a few sleepless nights and also the threat of another yellow card hanging over his head.

Jonathon Rowe was the obvious threat but between Matty, Unai, McGinn and Konsa he never got a sniff. The supply line to him was reduced, space limited and when he did get the ball we doubled up. Our positional sense, awareness and discipline was perfect.

Matty had him in his pocket all night. Poor Rowe, probably didn't sleep well last night.

Well done lads, your homework paid off.

Thought Rowe was decent to be fair to him. Still put in some decent deliveries but wasn't getting past Cash. McGinn was much better out of possession than in the first leg. That helped massively.

[olaftab]

Very good. The first was a top class team goal.

Almost nearly as good but not quite as the goals SHA were scoring regularly last season.

[eamonn]

Gibbs-White is their main man, we need to keep him quiet and then hopefully sign him in the summer.