mikeyjavfc

I'm buzzing with the win, but being honest it was a very flat performance. Lots of possession but that was more due to the fact that WBA let us have the ball on the whole. Very little width all game and almost no overlapping from the full backs which has been a staple of our game all season, especially down the right. Fair play to WBA for stifling our style but ultimately they tried so hard to shut down our attack they forgot to leave there own half for the 210 minutes and deservedly lost. I am not blaming Deano too much. He has built up too much credit for that and I think a lot of that performance was player mentality. We played within ourselves as we had a lead to protect and then once they had scored the fear of the sucker punch exit from the playoffs meant we rarely played a pass that wasn't safe, or directly to feet. The lack of through balls or balls to chase / in to space was obvious and made us look very rigid and ponderous. I think we will play with more freedom in the final when the mentality is win or bust, and Leeds won't defend with 11 men like WBA. One definitely bonus is that the penalties were fantastic on the whole apart from Albert's skyrocket, and it was good to hear Deano say we have been practicing peno's for 4 weeks since we knew we were in the playoffs. I assume the psyche out routine from mild mannered Jed Steer was probably Deano's idea too! If the final goes the distance than I am VERY glad that we have the experience of a nervy shoot out under our belts!

Frustrating day but we got the rewards in the end. The goal we gifted Albion really influenced the 90 minutes as they could just sit on their lead and hope to take 1-0 back home. Ultimately that negative tactic came back to bite them when they let there guard drop a couple of times and lost the game. Not our best performance by a mile today, but we just needed to have patience and play our game as it has been proven to be effective 11 games out of last 13 now! They’ll need to come out of their half in the next leg so hopefully we’ll have some joy in cutting them open next time out and kill the tie early doors. Good subs from Smith, I bet he’s buzzing this afternoon! UTV

Presume it is just unsafe to have members of public hanging around by the side of the road at the gates of BH, where I’d guess there is no footpath etc.

I for one welcome our new Qatari overlords.

The worry is that even if the injury is not too bad will Chelsea prevent him playing under light injury or with painkiller injections etc? I certainly wouldn’t want our players playing through injury when on loan...

Regardless of his current form, it is surely absolutely damning that the one manager to get a tune out of Hogan in the past (Smith) has decided to loan him out rather than keep him in the squad. Just goes to show you, even with his good form at Brentford under his belt, Dean Smith recognises Hogan for what he is: a limited player suitable for a mid-championship team, not one with promotion hopes.

35mins - shortest Villa career ever for a signing? (in terms of playing minutes, not including villa academy products) Can anyone beat that? I guess David Unsworth will always hold this title. Edit: I thought Simon Dawkins would run him close but turns out he has a cool 71" to his name.

The David Moyes special

We need to start quickly and score early to set the tone. If we let Shef sit back and dictate the pace they could be hard to break down. That being said Tony P's Middlesborough tried this and got taught a lesson! I just hope Tammy has his shooting boots on this week as I feel like he misses 2 good chances every week, which would make life much more comfortable for us.

I have just caught up with the Price of Football blog post, I thought this detail was interesting: "Being so close to the limit does also mean that Villa (and other clubs which are too close to the FFP naughty step for comfort) will have had to submit regular monthly financial reports to the EFL to ensure they are compliant with P&S rules for the present season." If we have been submitting monthly financial reports to the EFL all season, then I wouldn't have thought we'd be in breach of FFP this season? Unless the report just says: "not compliant again, D'oh!" every month.

He's tweeted this season confirming he's out of contract in the summer.

Axel stays on the bench for me. The defense has been very strong in the last 4 games I don't think we should disrupt that by swapping out players, unless fitness is an issue for somebody. The best team doesn't necessarily have to include the best players, if everybody compliments each other well.

Even Middlesbrough fans agree with this deep down. We need to keep the ball on the deck and play our passing game. Borough will be launching it every chance the get and we shouldn't get drawn into a game of head tennis as I assume their team is filled with giants. Is Jedinak fit? It would be good to have him on the bench just in case we are losing the midfield battle.

Spur's new stadium is c. £300m over budget. I would be surprised if they have £40m available to activate Jack's release clause. Much better value to be had in the Spanish markets.

Must be nice playing for a big club after spending years at Bournemouth

A fantastic result and performance. It didn’t feel that comfortable to watch live but I’ve just rewatched the highlights and forest didn’t have a single decent chance apart from the flukey goal, so we breezed it in reality. The back 4 look really settled and special mention for Neil Taylor who is showing shades of his early Swansea form now. Dean will have a selection headache when Axel is fit again!

I remember reading that that idiot who came on the pitch and tapped Enkleman in the face got 4 months in prison. This seems very lenient in comparison, as this was from behind and could have been really nasty if he didn’t punch like school girl with polio.

I think the fact he was not drunk will count against him in this case. It seems he is playing the 'moment of madness' card, but lets face it - it was probably premeditated. A chance to make himself a terrace 'legend'. Maybe I overestimate his intelligence, but would any sober person really get the urge to leave their seat, vault the barriers, dodge the stewards and make an unprovoked attack on a specific player without thinking it through? And this was during an innocuous break in play, not after a goal or bad tackle or anything like that when tempers are high. My guess is he was planning on doing this for a long time.

Our second away game in 4 days, whilst this will be their second home game. We played a crunching local derby on Sunday, whilst they cruised to a 3-0 win on Saturday... I'm worried that fatigue may play a part in this game. Sorry to say a draw might be a good result here. At least this may turn out to be an actual football match instead of the dirge that Birmingham decided to "play".

I have seen enough of Grealish to know that when that cowardly attack happened it would not unsettle him for long but drive him on to get the win for Villa. The guy is pure class and destined for the top. I was so sure I chucked a tenner on him to get the winner at half time at 21/1. Never in doubt! I hope Deano is using this incident to inspire the team on for a big finish to the season. Grealish is the captain and heart of the team and this was an attack on Villa itself, not just Grealish. An attempt to unsettle the team and scare us into a poor performance. What could be more inspiring than Grealish’s and Villa’s second half reaction to that attack - we must carry that motivation and attitude into every remaining game!

Fair play to Glenn for calming things down when that idiot attached Grealish. He stood over him and prevented anybody from doing anything stupid and getting sent off or worse.

How do you explain the Kalanic transfer?

The only stat you need about Bruce is that he had almost 2 seasons, 2 pre-seasons and 4 transfer windows with that Villa squad, whereas Smith has had half a season, 1 transfer window and no pre-seasons. This is not a criticism of Bruce either, just a fact. Give smith some time and stop comparing him to Bruce until the situation is in anyway comparable.

Wow I found this thread languishing down on page 4! Says it all really. Any news on when we might see Henri back? He's contracted here for another couple of years, so have to hope he can get fit and be useful for us. Hopefully not Micah levels of injured.

Now that the promotion chase is over, I hope we start to see the players who are leaving in the summer phased out. The pre-pre-season starts now.