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Player Match Ratings: So much for the new boss bounce!


John

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Optimism and hope were replaced by pessimism and gloom yesterday at Villa Park. Stoke came back from a goal down to win at Villa Park for a second successive season. Tim Sherwood can be under no illusions after this sad performance of the magnitude of the task that he faces in trying to maintain our top flight status this season.

Given the change of management and our stirring cup victory last weekend following Sherwood’s half time intervention we arrived at Villa Park unusually with some level of confidence. We anticipated this game might be the first to demonstrate that we would see an improvement in our league performances and in our abysmal run of results which had seen us slip into the bottom 3.

We started this game well enough. We were unfortunate that they levelled just before the half time break and they would have happily left Villa Park with a point until our captain’s late howler gifted them all three. But as Sherwood said post match “we didn’t do enough to win it”. Although a draw would perhaps have been a fairer result as Tim also suggested “I thought neither team deserved to win” you do not always get what you deserve when you are floundering at the foot of the table.

We were encouraged that we could turn a corner by a splendid second goal in two games by Scott Sinclair. But rather than look for another to try to seal the win we sat back on the lead after going ahead and all but ran out of ideas up front. Given this was only our 13th league goal of the season admittedly we do not score often enough to be able to make a real habit of doing this. But their 45th minute equalizer knocked the stuffing out of us and that has become a regular occurrence this season. So with our new found belief dwindling it was an injury weakened Stoke that had lost their last two games 4-1 who went on to have the better of what remained of the game and to take all of the points.

This was a game that we really needed to win as winnable games are quickly running out for us and the belief that we can actually win all of those winnable games is fast disappearing. A win would have lifted us out of the bottom three and it would have left us three points clear of the teams who would have been occupying those relegation places today. A draw which I would have settled for early in the second half given the way the game was unfolding would have also taken us out of the bottom three and a draw really was the minimum acceptable result for us from this game.

But a sixth successive defeat and an eleventh winless league game drops us down a place to leave only Leicester below us. It has left a three point gap between the bottom 4 and Sunderland who sit uncomfortably in 16th place. It threatens to make this relegation battle one that could be fought out between the bottom 4 or at best 6 clubs and one that it seems likely we will be involved in right up until the last day of the season if our fate has not been determined before then.

Other clubs such as Burnley have developed the ability to get unexpected league points as they did at table topping Chelsea yesterday. But we can be relied upon to lose on a consistent basis and this is a habit we need to kick quickly if we are to maintain hopes of survival this season.

We have not won a league game since early December and have won only 2 of our 13 league games at home this season. It will take an incredible change of fortune and run of favourable results for us to get out of this mess. We cannot rely on poor results from the teams around us to keep us up unless we are able to lift ourselves out of the bottom three. Given we have won only 5 of our 26 league games to date it is quite a leap for us to aim to win a minimum of 4 – 5 games of our remaining 12 league matches. But I suspect we will need to do this to prevent the ignominy of relegation becoming a stain on our football club’s proud history.

My player ratings from a game that left us second from bottom of the table having conceded goals at the end of each half are:

Brad Guzan – 6 – He once saved penalties for fun but that has not been the case for a long, long time now. Moses converted his stoppage time penalty with ease to win the game for the visitors stroking the ball calmly to his left after Brad had dived to his right. Brad gathered a Moses shot low down that took a deflection on the edge of the box off Hutton on 29 minutes and also produced a good one handed stop to keep out a Walters effort on 84 minutes.

Alan Hutton – 7 – He did his bit for the cause once again and he is a player who is more reluctant to readily accept defeat than are others at the club. He worked hard, was solid at the back and made a positive impression during his regular forays up front. Made a strong run just after their equalizer and his effort was pushed away by Begovic. .

Ron Vlaar – 5 – Ron produced a very solid defensive display for 90 minutes that was undone in stoppage time when he made a terrible hash of things. The ball ran to his left following a Sánchez challenge on Moses but his first touch was clumsy and heavy and it put the ball back into the path of Moses. The striker ran into the penalty box and our captain scythed him down to earn a second yellow and to concede the late penalty that did for us.

Ciaran Clark – 7 – Had another good, solid game from start to finish. Had a header from a Delph corner tipped over the bar on 89 minutes and will mow resume his solid partnership with Okore next week.

Kieran Richardson – 5 – Left the field on 42 minutes due to injury and after Sherwood had needed to implore him a couple of times to get into a more forward position.

Carles Gil – 5 – Carles was unable to make quite as positive an impression on this game as he has done in others since his move to us. He appeared to be bullied out of it by Stoke’s uncompromising approach and by their strong challenges although he did have some bright moments early on.

Carlos Sánchez – 4 – Carlos was no doubt selected to provide some bite and strength in our midfield. He was unlucky to have lost his starting place after one poor performance at Arsenal but this was another to add to that one. He again surrendered possession too often and hit a number of wayward passes.

Fabian Delph – 6 – A display that was below par given what we have come to expect from him but he unlike others around him did improve as the game wore on and tried to get us back on the front foot in the second half. Fab lacked sufficient support alongside him in the middle where we were badly outnumbered and we really needed to bring Westwood on to try to rectify this. Hit an 81st minute cross that was headed just the wrong side of the post by Wilson when under pressure from Benteke.

Scott Sinclair – 7 – MOTM – Scott picked himself up off the floor following a clash inside the box with Bardsley when trying to reach a Gil corner to head an inviting 20th minute Delph cross into the corner of the net. This was a header that Benteke would have been proud of when he was at his best. His performance particularly in the first half showed that he has not lost his pace or ability and he was the one player who worried their defence with his movement. I just hope we can stay up so that another club does not benefit from his resurgence with us come next season.

Gabby Agbonlahor – 4 – For a player who is often described as being Villa through and through he again did very little to show it yesterday. It hurts the fans to see us staring relegation in the face but this was another no show from this one club man. I was surprised to see him back in the starting line up but had hoped this might just be a game in which he would want to impress the new manager. Sadly it seems it was not.

Christian Benteke – 5 – Won some aerial challenges but nobody moved for the balls that he flicked on. He lacked both support and service. But he was again some way below his best and that was particularly disappointing given he had showed some signs of improvement last weekend and that the new boss had stressed his importance to us in our being able to pull things around in what remains of this sorry season.

Substitutes:

Aly Cissokho – 6 - Replaced Richardson on 42 minutes. He struggled to make the contribution we were looking for on those occasions he was able to get forward but was reasonably solid at the back.

Andreas Weimann – 5 - Replaced Gill on 58 minutes but failed to make a significant impression on the game.

Stay Up Villa!!

John Lewis

Source: Player Match Ratings: So much for the new boss bounce!

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