I enjoyed my trip to Villa Park today. The weather was wonderful and the hospitality in The Trinity Suite was fantastic. I normally go to the game with my Father but he has gone to Spain for a week. The weather there is currently terrible which made it all the sweeter for being in England on St George’s Day. In his place I took my 6 year old daughter who was thrilled about going.
Hospitality – First Class
We arrived at the ground at around 1:30pm. My daughter was given an Easter Egg and we had a marvellous 3 course meal. Daughter began with a Vegetable Soup which was superb. My Chicken Tikka terrine was also really good. I ordered a claret as I eyed up the Roast Beef from the carvery. Unfortunately the beef was overcooked, so I had the pork which was cooked to perfection. A piece of belly, loin, stuffing and crackling. Wonderful.
Daughter had Sea Bass Linguine and then profiteroles for pudding which again were great but I opted for cheese at half time to compliment my wine. The hospitality in there really is very good and a credit to the club.
The football was pretty poor. Villa didn’t lack spirit, just the necessary quality to see off a team that are obvious but battling and tough to break down. Stoke were full value for their point. Daughter had resorted to her Nintendo DS after just 20 minutes of the game. After 30 minutes I considered the possibility of taking it from her to give myself some entertainment as there was none on the pitch.
In a nutshell, we couldn’t control the game or create because neither central midfielder knows how to go forwards. Petrov was terrible, Reo-Coker only marginally better. Heskey was pointless. Bent is priceless. One chance. One goal.
Makoun or Delph have to play. We need a central midfielder that can pass forwards. It’s very simple. Stoke are too well organised to not cope with what we threw at them today. It made for a very tedious game.
Positives… besides the food
There are positives to be taken from the game in terms of the performances from Luke Young, Kyle Walker and Darren Bent. They were excellent in a generally mediocre performance from the team.
It looks like we are heading for mid table mediocrity. A few weeks ago we would kill for this position. We are on a nice little unbeaten run and we have a good chance of keeping that going.
Let’s hope that the football improves to the extent where I don’t feel the need to report about food.
The Author
