GrassyNoel

3 minutes ago, Barney_avfc said:

Enjoying the game with the exception of the the sky commentary. What a couple of cock wombles. 

I reckon we let them both go as youth players. The co-commentator will need a Kleenex soon. 

Majorly confused, because football.

Lewis Grabban. 

What’s the tease on the official site’s blog I wonder...

First time we’ve won five league games on the spin for 20 years. Feels good to do, almost better having had to dig deep and nick it. Dead chuffed. 

This is the sort of thing that wins stuff! Absolute dig dirt for 90 minutes and still win. 

This could happen. 

He’s not just JT, he’s the captain. A good natured clip round the ear from John Terrance IMO.

32 minutes ago, sidcow said:

OK It's time for me to retract my Bruce out stance. 

One of the things I said at the time was there was just no way he could turn us around into a team which looked like promotion contenders. 

Right now we are very much playing like promotion contenders added to which removing him from office when we are in the position where we are would be the very definition of insanity. 

Also, can anyone explain to me what Bruceball is? At times today our play was probably as exciting as under any manager since big Ron. 

Not blowing smoke up your you know what, but I respect this very much. 

1 hour ago, Dr_Pangloss said:

Agnew could well be our signing of the season and credit to Bruce for pushing for it. 

Abso-bloody-lutely. I’m convinced the upturn is his doing.

I found it interesting that Steve Agnew was sent to a less conspicuous part of the ground by the officials because he was getting too involved. Seems to properly give a ****. Almost two gaffers out there. Staking a claim? 

We need a song. What rhymes with Karanka?

2-1 Villa. As much in hope as expectation. 

1 minute ago, Fairy In Boots said:

I think it’s entirely possible that the Bristol game was a fluke, the pressed for the first time in Bruce’s tenure. He’s been atrocious against any half decent side up until that result. The game was a late fixture because City had to have a minimum turnover of 48 hours between matches. 

Really let’s be honest can you really see Bruce coming up with a style of play other than hoof ball between now & May? Can you see us beating all the sides currently in the playoff picture? If you do I’ll have what you’re drinking. 

 

Could be, or maybe it’s not all down to Bruce. Maybe Agnew’s having some impact already. Maybe Clemence was the problem. Agnew’s appointment and the uptick in performance could be coincidental, or could be causal. 

“Doc, sorry I didn’t get us automatic promotion or even finish in a play-off spot, but I did get us through a couple of rounds of the FA Cup.”

Doesn’t matter what we think of Bruce, his remit for Aston Villa could not be clearer.

“Priority one:
Insure return of Aston Villa to the Premiership.
All other considerations secondary.
FA Cup expendable."

Seriously wish we didn’t have the FA Cup game distraction. I’m itching to see if this is SA’s influence and, if so, continue it in the league. Amazing stuff tonight, regardless. 

58 minutes ago, sne said:

He's like having Agnew signing!

Get off!

I really want to believe Steve Agnew is largely responsible for the more attacking approach / improved all round play.

I’m slightly emotional after that game. 

The board sanctioning the appointment of Steve Agnew as first team coach is either them backing Bruce’s setup and future here, or their final throw of the dice to get us doing something different. I can’t decide which.

It seemed to me we were booing the hoof balls. I might be wrong though, it’s been known. 

With a new manager, the stage was set for Sunderland to cause an upset last night. We stopped that happening, kept it professional and brought home three points. I couldn’t be happier, especially with Preston helping us out also. Classic performance? No. Effective? Yes. We played well and won against QPR. We played less well and won against Sunderland. That sort of stuff gets teams promoted. Onwards. 

Can’t see Preston being that bad in the second half. Pro job required - bring it home lads. 

That was 45 minutes to underscore I know nothing about football, team selection or whether Bruce is good or bad. Strong work all round. More please. 

Still rate Jimmy but I’m pulling my hair out with him sometimes. The decision not to square it to Adomah the other week (you know the one) still makes me wince.

There’s a kid in my lad’s team who has exactly the same attribute. No lack of skill but rarely lays the ball off. The coaches are trying but it looks very difficult to train out, nature of the beast and all that. And that’s a young kid - can’t imagine the task in a practically fully developed player. 

Hoping to see a run of Davis and Hogan TBH, if only to get it out of my system and prove it does or doesn’t work.

15 minutes ago, markavfc40 said:

 

We had some very good situations mate and had we have chose the better pass or weighted the pass better we'd have given ourselves a great chance of scoring a couple more. You then don't get the nervy finish and trying to protect a narrow lead.

The subs were defensive but for me the right ones in last 10 mins. Snodgrass wasn't having much of an impact. The only thing with bringing De Laet on is I would probably of put him right back and pushed Elmo forward but having said that De Laet in his 10 mins had a very good chance to score so did get forward.

As for the other contentious sub Adomah was out on his feet as he ran himself into the ground. Bjarnasson was the only real wide option and we did need someone who could help our make shift left back out as he was getting sucked inside.

Fulhams biggest threats are out wide and the more they pushed for an equaliser the greater that threat would likely become so to shore up the wide areas made sense. As it was it worked well as Fulham created nothing after our substitutions.

A better weighted pass or better pass selection might mean they’re Prem rather than Championship players though. Too harsh?

See this one home lads. Got to stay in touch with that pack.