A fairly dull game with no real dominance by either team but the first point is on the board. A battling defensive display, Villa are clearly showing that McLeish will add more steel to the team, but the questions remain regarding how chances are going to be created.
Sadly, Charles N’Zogbia didn’t show much of his undoubted capability during his debut, whilst Shay Given was arguably a candidate for Man of the Match. Given earned his wage in the early part of the second half as Fulham dominated the first ten minutes.
Shay Given appeared to pick up an injury in the latter part of the game and hopefully this won’t turn out to be anything serious due to lack of goalkeeping cover at the club.
Bent had the ball in the back of the net only for it to be disallowed rightly for offside.
Who will replace our former wingers?
Ultimately, we will need to find out who is going to take the place of Young and Downing as, on the face of it, the current setup of playing strikers wider seems unlikely to bear much fruit.
Our concerns going forward will be scoring goals. Bent is renowned for converting chances, but how many can he convert if the creation of chances is stifled? N’Zogbia will provide given time, but he can not realistically be expect to take the place of both Ashley Young and Marc Albrighton.
Full match report to follow.
The Author
