An away win at last. And the fact that a win of any flavour has been obtained is, of course, to be cheered! It does not mean, of course, that all is now hunky-dory and that promotion is in our grasp, but it does mean that a small weight has been lifted from everyone’s shoulders.
After Saturday’s result, I believe I uttered some wish that we would win at Reading to help put the players mind into a better state for their next home match, for it is at home that the players seem to freeze the most. My wish was granted.
I was not able to see the Reading match, but analysing a combination of the report text and the stats gives some clues as to how Villa played. With a possession stat of only around 30%, Villa matched Reading in the shooting department, including the number of shots on goal. It was good to see Bacuna, Gardner and Adomah showing up well in terms of shots or assists against a team that had been unbeaten at home until last night. And the fact that Villa fouled a few times more than Reading may well indicate some extra effort on the part of our team. The Birmingham Mail analysis stated: “The way some of the previous under-performers ran around for the cause was so impressive”.
And the nerve of Ayew to take his last minute penalty kick in such a cool way deserves praise.
So, was this apparent improvement down to more sustained training since Saturday? Of course not. Our new manager made a brave team selection, clearly organised the players in the most effective way and probably also managed to get a message of responsibility into their skulls. And he made good substitutions. What was indicative to me was that the enforced absence of Grealish (and Elphick too, for that matter) seemed to cause little concern for the Villa, which might support my feeling that Villa are not really any better with Grealish in the team. I may ruffle some feathers by saying this, but though he may well have talent, I feel he still has a lot of growing up to do and that Villa cannot wait for that development to take place while they’re trying to find a way back to the top tier. Well, it’s possible that under Bruce he might be different.
So, another win this Saturday would set us up well for the Small Heath encounter the following week. All of a sudden the game – and winning – seems so simple. I hope I’m not expecting too much from our lads over the next couple of weeks!
The Author
John Lerwill
I'm a Villan of more than 60 years standing and an occasional writer on Villa history. For me there is only one football club worth supporting, but I am now wondering whether I will again see anything like the pageant that was paraded under Ron Saunders or even that by Big Ron and Brian Little. My glass, however, is always half-full! Click here for my Villa website.Comments 75
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Extremely pleased to get a win to shout about not really for the manager or players but for the most fantastic travelling support, sold out virtually every away allocation took the best part of 6,000 to Preston these fans really deserve something to pay them back for their undying effort following this team all over the country, lets be honest they are a credit to the club.
Premiership support for an average championship club.
SWV
Well I’ll take that all day long!! 437 days since the last away win, all that mattered was the result. I text a mate earlier in the day, having read that reading were yet to lose at home this season and we know our record. They were quite positive they called a 2-1 win for the Villa. I can actually go to work this afternoon without having the piss ripped out of me by all and sundry. Blues, Albion and Wolves fans have been merciless at our demise( I have a horrible feeling blues will go up this season). Was it a good performance last night? No far from it, we were shite for most of it. Were the travelling fanns excellent? Once again we sold out a massive ticket allocation and took over. Is this team good enough to make the play offs ? Nope not this year we already need snookers.
We need to follow this up with a home win against Fulham and kick on as the derby game against the blues is going to be a tough one, Rowett has got ragged Arsenal rovers playing some really decent stuff and they are potent up front. They are all chipper now Carson yeung has departed.
John,
I totally agree re: Grealish the boy is a talent there is no question of that but we are not good enough to carry any players in this team, we need every single player putting in a shift every 90 minutes, Jack drifts in and out of games and I am not sure many sides in this division could accommodate a player like him.
We also have Ayew who has that fault in his game but I think in Bruce they may well have found a manager who does not suffer fools, he knows the size of this job and what will happen if he does not turn it around, he also knows he has inherited a squad not good enough to mount a challenge so his remit is to try and stay in touch and come January bring in some players who may be able to give us the quality and lift to have a go at the play offs.
SWV
Like winning the lottery. What a shyt hole . Pubs miles away .
One thing I have noticed….Bruce does not seem to rate westy which I thank the gods for.
Other hand he seems to like hutton!
surly cissokho will be booted now…guys a liability.
How calm was ayew for his pen! balls of steel.
See the size of McCormack! makes gabby look like slim jim…disgrace.
fans outstanding. see the stat this morning…villa have averaged 3500 away fans after 6 games. More than any prem team!
funny old game…everyone was kicking off after seing the line up whih on paper looked rubbish but they go and win!
3 in the midfield helpsat last. Credit to brucey so far. 4 points from reading and wolves is ok….6 points off playoffs…..
still find it stange what the dr and his pa have said again.
Now we are organised, with a game plane and training intensive and will get fitter. Players know there jobs.
That’s damning on Clarke & rdm…wtf were they doing.
Andrew,
Think you might find Hutton is only stop gap until January forced by the injury to DeLaet, as with Cissy he is getting in because he is a slightly better defender than Amavi, Bruce is trying to set up with a solid back four of predominantly defenders very championship like.
As for McCormack he has always been that build but I tell you if we can get him playing in the right system then he will be key to promotion, he is a very clever player at this standard, Gabby may have been quick but no end product.
Agree about our fans 100% first class.
SWV
such a shame about de laet. January could be interesting.
yeah can tell McCormack is a bit chunky but looked fat last night!
Amazing, reading all the posts last night on the various blogs, at 1-1 virtually every one said we were total crepe and a lot worse, at 2-1 everything is hunky dory and Spud is inspiring, whats that word again fi…. ?
Thought the move for the first goal was excellent and Baker showed he’s the best CD on the books, also pleased that GG and Jedi apparently worked up an understanding in MF.
Well once again a deciding goal was scored after the 85th minute.
But — for the first time since Methuselah was in nappies … it was the Villa that scored it!!
Woo-hoo!!!
We do seem more organized, the substitutions made perfect sense, and at the end it was our boys who were putting their defense under pressure.
Seems like times, they may be a changin’ …
Oh, and Gollini seems to have found his confidence and is improving match-by-match (perhaps just in time for Juventus to come calling).
As per the 30% possession percentage from last night: obviously a 4-5-1 like we played against Reading will surrender a good deal of possession, but will greatly improve the protection and cover for our fragile back four.
Texas,
The possession % doesn’t really matter at all so long as the result is a good one, i.m.o.
BTW … “Seems like times, they may be a changin’ …” … I prefer the Ian Campbell Fok Group version! 😉
It will take a few months of wins for me to believe times have changed. villas got a long way to go to get my trust back. im damaged goods!
don’t give a damn about possession. result is all that counts. Ideal world win and play like brazil but the worlds not ideal
Funny how Gary was supposed to have been pretty good last night, wasn’t it spud who took Craig to the blues and then to Sunderland, so me thinks he’ll get a run now under Brucie. He seems to grasp that our midfield sucks so lets bypass it as often as possible. It’s not a difficult game keep it simple as our lot don’t get the complicated stuff anyway and we’ll be OK.
Andrew & John: I quite agree, results matter far, far more than possession stats. In fact, under RDM we usually won the possession statistic but not the match itself. Kudos to SB for recognizing that our back line needed better protection and being willing to surrender some amount of possession in order to gain the added cover.
I hate to admit it, but last night’s lineup and formation were pretty much exactly what Pulis would have engineered. Not the most exciting to watch, but it does get positive results, — and positive results build confidence, which gains even more positive results.
Evening all
Thanks for excellent leader John , agree with every word .
The win last night was a twelve pointer for confidence . The ‘can’t win’ a game has become ‘we can ‘ win . What a huge relief . It is not just confidence in themselves that the players have gained but confidence in the new manager – this is v important .
Ayew has to come in for special praise : with a penalty shot with pressure similar to Drogba’s Champions League penalty (well ok not quite but up there ) his penalty didn’t just win the game, it won the team their belief back . He did incredibly well and I am sure that his scoring form will take a hike up too . He has earned his place back in the team : first name on the sheet IMO
I think it’s rather premature to say that everything is rosy : a deflected goal and a pen after 30 per cent possession doesn’t suggest we are pulling up trees yet , but maybe in these last two games We are getting the luck that deserted RDM.
The Reading Mgr criticised the tactics as being anti football so I expect it was similar to what Morinho did with Untied on Monday . It might not be pretty but right now we need the points and our players need the belief . Looks like it is a ‘keep it simple’ and a formation they are comfortable with (note I didn’t say like ). This is definately what they need to steady the nerves and get their confidence back .
Here’s the thing / does Bruce change that winning team (the final team on the pitch ). I’d say no . Whilst they didn’t perform as well as they did second half Newcastle , he should still be able to use some of the high from those players achieving our first away win since ……… .
Lastly : Golini – Fantastic penalty save – another huge confidence boost .
Bruce does, indeed, keep things simple…
He’s stated that he told the players: “It’s pretty obvious, to play for me you have to show fight – or else you don’t play,” he said. “They got that message loud and clear.”
Good tactic. Play proper or you don’t get selected. Wonder why the other managers didn’t take that line!
Just watchec fantasy football on sky which i like. Dont know why but might have summin to do with rachel reily.
Anyhow they had chris kirkland on there and was thinkng he sounds like a good chap, comes across well. They asked who the best manager he played under and said no doubt bruce. Not benitez, martinez, houllier strachan. Said bruce is a superb motivator. And theres just something about him that makes players play for him. Never heard of one player in the game to have bad word about him.
I think thats it with bruce. Formation tactics and style of play prob basic but gets he best out of his players. Keeps it simple, organised players fired up. Simples!
You could see by the players reactions that a weight had been lifted and as Jen mentioned it was a real pressure pen, Villan Joe Lolley who plays for Huddersfield stated on Twitter that Ayew was Villa’s best player, sometimes i think he’s too aware of it.
Once again agree that Goalini is rapidly improving.
A lot of comments on other blogs, the media and Jaap Stam about our lack of style, i agree with them, its crepe and i wouldn’t pay to watch any team playing it, at the moment we need the points but we’ll never be worth watching under Spud the same with Graham Taylor. Personally i’d sooner lose and be entertained rather than win playing rubbish football, the Saunders teams were generally crepe to watch barring the team that beat Everton to win the LC which he dismantled soon after and even the Championship winning team relied on 5 or 6 stalwarts because the others were guaranteed a game irrespective of form.
Well are we about to have our Indian summer at the end of October, there’s a long way to go for this team to convince me it can challenge for play off spots but that didn’t stop me being royally pleased with the win.
A win that was achieved the ugly way, little in possession, little in the way of chances on or off target and yet we got the three points. So tempted to get ahead of myself and think of mid-table opportunity if we beat Fulham but in the words of every football player and manager everywhere who can’t think of anything else to say, ‘I’m going to take it one game at a time’.
The mental fillip that this win would have given the lads is measurable and for some strange unproven reason, I expect Bruce to be able to build on it as opposed to it being another false dawn.
Anyway up the Villa, my fellow Lifers
Here’s how I’m reading Jaap: “We want to play beautiful football. We need other teams to cooperate so our beautiful football can work.”
Sorry Villa didn’t cooperate, Jaap. Bruce’s remit isn’t to put on a footballing clinic or a traveling circus. Neither is it to validate your footballing philosophy. His remit is to win games and get Villa back up to the Premier League.
Right now, I’ll quite happily take three “ugly” points from an away match for the first time in 437 days. As is so often said, it’s a results game. It’s not a pageant. The fabulous away support didn’t seem to mind, either.
Just win, and we can worry about style points later.
Always better to win ugly than loose pretty.
One game at a time indeed. Lets hope a few months from now we can look back on ayews last min pen as a turning point.
As in the immortal words of Phil Collins on that warm July day in 1985
“Funny old world init” how many teams over the last few years have come to Villa park and “parked the bus” because that’s what you have to do to win games, but when we do it, its tantamount to crime. Like others have said above, I’ll take some crepe wins for a while as apposed to pretty loses. So Mr Potato Head, keep winning any which way you can!!!
Finally starting to get a team I like and that cab win in this league.
Jack may be hard pressed to get the shirt back as will Elphick; the way it should be!
We need Gards and Bacuna to keep playing well.
Wouldn’t have a problem with Westwood replacing Jedinak.
Hopefully Amavi can push on now as well.
UTV
Evening all
Just read on twitter
https://twitter.com/blueberryvillan/status/789087642650574848
Birmingham rep doing a play about villa and blues / want to hear from the fans – apparently stories wanted not for acting
Steamers et al – your chance for fame again ! ☺️☺️
Jen- steamer and ST75 do a mean Pantomime horse, don’t even need a costume
well 3 enforced changes and a few thought about, has Brucie got a lucky rabbits foot 🙂
“Oh no we dont ”
Ronnie,
Yep, I agree on your player issues.
It’s an opportunity for Baker to show his mettle, too, and Bruce won’t feel compelled to bring Elphick back if Baker struts his stuff.
But …. oh the right-back position. It seems Bruce already is planning to get someone in for that slot once January comes. And another midfielder it would seem.
Steamer 75 Touche 🙂 🙂 🙂
I think its a bit early to rubbish Elphick and proclaim Baker although Baker has done no wrong as yet. Elphick has had no midfield protection practically all season and a weak RW set up that exposed us. he’s not the quickest but who is of our CB’s? He may just be out because he has a calf injury at present, without that he would of made the team on Tues no doubt, maybe even Richards if he wasn’t injured. GG and Bakuna coming in made the Job a Whole lot easier at the back. We may yet see Chester at RB and Elphick and Baker CB’s.
I hope bruce takes a look at Toner and few others in Jan when they return before plashing the cash. Rb a must IMO.
With the African cup of nations coming up we will lose Ayew and Kodjia and maybe Adomah so our forward line may well be Gestede, RM, Kosak, Murphy.
Oh and Gabby 🙂
latest on the gabmeister
Bruce also revealed that Gabby Agbonlahor is on a fitness programme as the striker looks to get up to speed for this Championship campaign.
He added: “Gabby has dipped in and out with us. He’s on a programme at the moment, which he is a week into. He’s listened and wants to succeed again.
“This week he’s been terrific in everything we have put to him. He’s worked extremely hard.
“He understands that he has to get himself in better condition.
“As I said last week, I am not interested in what happened in the past – for me, the slate is wiped clean.
“The way he’s been this week, no problem.”
Mark: “I think its a bit early to rubbish Elphick and proclaim Baker”
I don’t understand why you think I am making “rubbish” of Elphick! You have a way of reading into my words things I am not saying! 😉
I simply made that comment alluding to the fact that Elphick is not Bruce’s signing so therefore he (Elphick) has the same chance of selection as anyone else and should not be regarded as an auto choice (as he was before). In fact i.m.o. the signing of either Elphick or Chester was unnecessary as Baker for me was already eminently suited to the position and the other two have not (in my view) bettered him.
Maybe I’m not JL? 😉 maybe I’m responding to the general view that Elphick is no good and has been dropped by Bruce. The best partnership we have had was early on IMO with Elphick and Baker. Baker has a history of injury and we only have 4 CB’s including Richards. GG has been similarly been marked as not good enough, clearly it matters who you play with and How, Bakuna for instance played in his favoured CM position and did oOK, how long has he been considered just a RW or RB? its not a dig it will be interesting to see how Bruce uses players Vs RDM and how they Respond/perform
I will add RDM would of mentally had attachment to his High priced buys that may have swayed selection? Playing 4 forwards etc Brucie baby has not such compunction and has a get out clause of they are not mine
Reports that he wants Hernandez and Rhodes, sorry, both are average and not EPL standard and wouldn’t get in this team anyway, the accumulation of mediocrity begins with the January sales.
Mark,
Yes, f course RdiM may have been swayed by the price of his acquisitions! In other words paying out so much must have meant that he rated those players more highly and hence their selection.
About injuries, it’s not too strange that they sometimes disappear when the frame of mind has been altered by a bit of success – and both Baker and GG clearly did very well the other night. And Bacuna had about 3 shots on goal – the other side’s goal I should say!! 😉
Yes, I agree that SB’s approach seems quite different, although enforced by having 3 of last Saturday’s starters unavailable.
Steamer, we’re in the championship. so just the right std for us.
I fully expect Dr.T to be a kid in a candy store if and when we get promotion and we’ll be bidding on players that are mid-table or better EPL standard to keep us in the league.
Have a great weekend my fellow Lifers.
I think a lot of these player rumours are tripe and speculation, wasn’t RDM after Drogba?
JL- Elphick actually has a real injury and Richards thankfully does too, baker is to brave for his own good at times 😉 . I hope GG gets the opportunity to do what he is best at more oftenand bomb forward seemed more like the player he promised to be on tues but its early days yet
Says a lot about the modern Villan, adopting a crepe song by an even crepier band as an anthem. Still, standards in music are falling even faster than standards in footy.
steamer- I’d think roll with it would be more apt
Evening all .
Very excited for tomorrow : the fog is thinning out , we won a game !
I agree Steamer : Oasis are so tied into Man City, their music is blasted out the Emirates , so to adopt DLBIA just doesn’t feel right , it’s not exactly a rousing tune either is it . We have our own Brunmie bands thank you .
Steamer
Wouldn’t disagree, we want something to identify with;
UB 40 Fill my cup….What a tune …what a band
As an adopted Birmingham person, I think that could be our anthem.
Nice of ex-Villan Jamie Ward to pop one in versus the vermin.
Yus, got to be a melody from Oswald and the boys and dedicated to the fly tippers from Somalia Heath and with a few words from Mr Oz –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nbCg-I_FZI
Hold your horses….. Im brip pop 90s era. Oasis are gods to me. Not so sure we should be adopting them though. Man citys band. Queens we will rock you i like.
Nice humbling defeat for the blues before derby day.
Archie: “UB 40 Fill my cup….What a tune …what a band
As an adopted Birmingham person, I think that could be our anthem.”
As the dad of two of the members of UB40 was Ian Campbell I heartily concur! 🙂
Think Fulham could be party poopers today, 0-1 and the crowd chanting ‘Spudhead out’.
S75 was telling me that he goes on to something called facebook to chat with both his friends and they compile their favourite melodies, ok if you’re a Al Bowly fan but it gave me an idea, which in turn gave me a headache, as we all luv a tune write down your five fave records ( including 78’s JL ). Nice to see what musical treats pop up, i know Matt was a DJ, St75 and Runtingz are into Reggae, B62 Paul Weller, JL Jazz, Jenny Soul, Tex Singer/songwriters and SWV the Archies (tone deaf), we’ve had some good yaks on here over the years, could be a laff.
Make it a top 10.
Yes brucey. Amavi in for cissokho. Please finally make the shirt your own. Ross still benched and ayew in for adomah.
433! Happy with that brucey. 3-0 to villa,
Adama starts for boro. Worth a look out for.
Tisch and mccormack on bench. Brucey big balls. Big games for gestede bacuna gardner and amavi should be busting a gut to make shirt there own.
433 or 4 1 4 1 with Kodjia playing as a winger again… at the end of the day if the players are smart and adaptable during the match it’s the same thing I suppose 😉
Also feeling more positive, I like the look of the 18 now and that’s even without Jack; absolutely no reason looking at our squad why we can’t be in the top 6 as our confidence grows.
Jedinak(if he’s off the pace again replace him with Westwood) and Amavi need to play well… Bacuna and Gards need to push on from last match and we’ll be fine!
UTV
Be interesting to see if Lamala & Sissoko get bans for worse offences than Grealish’s, oh, i forgot Spuds are the media darlings so the same incompetents who appointed a moron to ref won’t act.
Crepe game, crepe standard.
Got to admire Bacuna after all the welly he took last year, fair do’s to the bloke.
Just aw Adama, blow by the Arsenal defense, could very easily have been a goal for him or on the rebound to Negredo. He’s undoubtedly a world class talent driving forward… injuries and commitment to the rest of the game aside!
Bored stiff.
Archie
sorry mate UB40 to me are just a reggae Kareoke band , l have all the original stuff on vinyl and to hear them do kingston town makes me cringe and want to fuck the radio out the window , their 1st lp was good but when they started doing the covers it was a kop out and imo shite , and Oasis , l’d rather have my head drilled will a blunt drill bit , got 4 tickets for them in the 90s and my wife and my brother and his wife went and l gave my ticket to my 6yro nephew at the time ,
oh hum back to the game
Sounds like typical Bruce crepe.
scores not too bad at the mo.
We won, we won, we won … again!
At last a proper manager. Brings a striker and winger on to win game. Goes one nil up. Takes of forward for a midfielder to see game out.
And the best bloody bit is he got the defence up the bloody pitch in he dying mins. First time in years and bloody years not defending deep with 10 men behind ball.
Not the best of games…..who gives a feck. Im going to be fery very happy on a sat night first time in lng time
Back-to-back victories!! Oh my word … it’s been so long I don’t know how to respond!
Steamer: you said that I liked singer-songwriters.
Sir, you’ve got me pegged with complete accuracy! Love me some brilliant and thoughtful lyrics, married with a great melody.
Reading hadnt lost at home this season. Fulham not lost away. Booom.
Kogers goal was quality. Sounds like gg played very well. Good to hear
Andrew,
There seems to be a far more +ve sense of purpose in the team now – no yellow cards, for example!
Ayew still throwing his chances away though, I think. He should be top scorer by now.
Hilarious –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViYYP5k5tak
another
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8hcoZANJHM
a young 14 year old has been streaming the games from the Holte Live and he’s asked if any fan would like to make a donation. fuck me some villa fans have called him for everything , he only asked as its costing him for the data , l said fair play as he’s helping fans in other countries and as l found out last night that there were no streams , what the matter with some of these arseholes . as l said l went to preston and l got to admit there are some right twats following us at the moment , l nearly threw the one twat off the train .
lv watched codger for a few games and l think if he can keep it up and tweak his movement a bit , he reminds me of Alan”sniffer” Clarke ,
the cops called all the chairmen of the different Lions clubs in to a meeting last week and put it too them , “that if they agree of going to the sty on coaches from villa park , the police will escort 6 coaches at a time to the shithole , and they will keep the villa fans back in the ground for 30 mins after the end ” if they agree they will let the pubs around Aston open up early and show the game , if not . then no pubs opening anywhere till after the game , . l fucking hate coaches .
steamers75
Yeah, I wish I’d thought about looking for that stream. It is a great thought and effort. Would be quite happy to pay for it above and beyond data costs. Kid’s providing a service and showing initiative. What would be wrong making a couple bucks/bob on the deal?
And there’s a match review up now…Though those of you who were at the game will need to share your insights to help the rest of us get the full picture.