sharkyvilla

I went to see Horsham beat Walton 2-0. Ray Lewington was there as his son plays for them, probably saw a better standard of football than San Marino last night. They let kids in for free as well so the crowd swelled up to nearly 400 which is pretty decent

Mike Ashley? The important thing is that he managed to turn Newcastle back around again and learnt from his mistakes. We're just at the beginning of our recovery. Surely you must see that Randy has made the right decisions based on correcting the mistakes of the past and should get some slack for the next couple of seasons?

How much longer does he have on his contract?

Agree entirely. I can agree that he perhaps needed a kick up the arse and leaving him out at West Brom for the strikers who won against City, in fact he got the instant impact of a Bent goal. Let Bent say how disappointed he was to be left out - I really don't see why a manager would be upset about it. Start him the next week and he scores and your best striker feels like the dog's bollocks and motivated to prove that he is number 1. Leave him on the bench again and you're inclined to really piss him off. Bent doesn't need Villa, I'm sure he wants to stay but he could just as easily move on, it's no skin off his nose. But goalscorers are proven to keep teams in the Premier League. The work ethic of the other 9 outfield players has been good enough to allow the luxury of Bent to sniff around the box imo. I'm sure they would prefer their hard work to end up with someone banging the ball in the back of the net and winning points than sitters being missed and losing points all over the place as a result.

Considering he's only 28 and was only a bit part player for Spurs plus was injured last season that's not bad going. I'm sure if he played 38 games he would score above 20 goals considering he is now at his peak.

Surely then it would be better to have him in the side and scoring goals to increase his value before selling him than alienating him so he has to go for about £10m. I just don't understand the logic at all, if he got dropped for what he said then Lambert must be very thin-skinned. I know we most likely wouldn't have beaten Spurs anyway and I still expect us to improve in the new year but having a 20-goal a season man has kept sides in the division before. It's a dangerous game imo,

I just don't think we're good enough to not play Darren Bent. Hope I'm wrong and Benteke grabs an early goal to settle his confidence but it seems a very odd selection to me.

That said, it did go to extra time and it was a few of the players' first start of the season. To expect all of them to repeat it again at the weekend was a bit much, especially when Bent, our best goalscorer, would have been fresh. Although I was impressed with the first half, I feel we dropped 2 points on Sunday and selection was a big reason for that. I'm still totally behind Lambert and liking the work he has done so far though.

****'s sake not another international break. I thought Shawcross was trying to be Welsh?

I don't think we necessarily need wingers. In the first half today the midfielders were generally popping up all over the place and Gabby would run into the channels. With that kind of work ethic and movement you can afford Bent to play up front just sniffing around the box. I don't think he's anywhere near as lazy as people let on anyway. He's pretty much at a goal every other game this season already I think, we need him in the team.

I said on the Benteke thread that we just aren't good enough a side to leave out a potential 20 goal a season man. I thought the first-half was really positive, really liked the attitude but we really needed a goal to show for it. Once we went a goal down it was almost like we didn't know how to respond which I guess goes with the territory when you're rebuilding a fragile team. The changes made a difference and I would expect all 3 to start the next match. Holman was man of the match for me.

Yeah it's pretty clear that we're not good enough a side to leave Darren Bent on the bench. I felt sorry for the lad today. His first three touches were quite good but then it went to pot. He worked hard and created that chance for himself by chasing down the defender (Olsson was it?) but lacked composure. Definitely needs a bit more time.

Yep that's what I want to see. I want to see Gabby playing through the middle terrifying the defence with his pace, allowing Bent to find little pockets in the box to bang in a hattrick. Gabby needs a run in the side where he isn't on the wing.

It's amazing how up and down this place gets but I do agree with a lot of what you say Archie. All I really want this season is for some genuine enthusiasm back at VP and Lambert's giving us exactly that. A decent result against the Baggies would do nicely too.

My mate Dwayne is built like a brick shit house, or at least he was until he lost his legs in a car crash. He's more like a brick shit bungalow now

Trouble is, if we can't pick up points from teams like Southampton, we are not going to get enough points to make anything like 12th. Trust me we will pick up plenty of points, especially from the new year onwards and especially at home

I read that a while ago too and have been working my way through his stuff over the past year or so. Filth is something else. I've started getting into Phillip Kerr's Bernie Gunther series, I read one of the later ones to start with and really enjoyed it and am starting back at the beginning of Berlin Noir now.

We did harvest festival and sang hymns, I just assumed that was a normal thing at primary school, I'll have to ask the folks whether it was a CofE school. I'll be very shocked to find out they sent me to one when they didn't even bother to Christen me. Towards the end we dropped the hymns and started singing things like Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and Puff the Magic Dragon, whether that was due to the change in headmaster or policy or what, but could explain why so many went on to become drug addicts. I loved harvest festival. I would happily send my kid to a school like that if it was convenient and had a great record from Ofsted.

There were always likely to be big bumps on the way this season. Saints to be fair this season have looked half-decent, much better than 0 points suggested and much better than a lot of the league imo. I think the positives we saw in the previous two games far outweigh the shocking 40 minutes or so yesterday but it is going to take a lot of work. That is why most of us expected nothing better than 12th this season when asked earlier in the summer, and it is not going to be plain sailing. I am still very encouraged by the work Lambert is doing.

Not a club one but I really hate the 'Your support is **** shit' chant. It just doesn't have any wit, you either sing about your club or if you're taking the piss out of the opposition then at least be a bit clever about it

**** me I think that Oscar goal is the greatest I have ever seen! Up there with Messi's chip for the Argies in the Copa America

I will never ever wish a poison croissant on anyone ever again. RIP Woolnough

He seems a brilliant judge of a player. It's hard not to get over-excited as there will no doubt be a few bumps on the way to the end of the season, but top job so far Lambo.

I have no real problem with City, in fact I much prefer the way they have gone about it than Mourinho's Chelsea for instance. If you're going to spend money then do it with the most exciting players you can possibly buy, don't suffocate the life out of the rest of the league like Jose did. Is it for Villa? I'd rather we slowly built with Lambert, I think the challenge is far greater and we'd have a bit more pride if we ever managed to get to where Spurs and Newcastle have got themselves to recently.

Just that Jimmy had invited him around to Sunday breakfast in his kitchen (It used to be called Jimmy Hill's Sunday Supplement) and he used to ridicule virtually every opinion that poor old Jimmy had. Plus Woolnough comes across as an absolute bell-end anyway.