Straggler

Well you could colour me yellow and call me bananna, Petrov has come off

60 - 40 possession in this half! That is shocking.

Yep, we have lost the ability to pass again. It invites pressure onto us and has done in pretty much every game this season bar the West ham game.

Yep, Young to left back and Lichaj on is spot on

I beg to differ, you know exactly what needs to be done

Yep, sub Warnock right now.

Petrov has barely touched the ball They are also thinking that this is just half time. Most commontators of any sort prefer to wait until the end of the game to come to any conclusions. Also people like myself who have said that we can do better make their decision over many games and in his case seasons. 45 mins of action good bad or indifferent will be added to the database from which an overall decision will be made.

Oh and I had big Brad as my man of the match, he was critical for the point we won today. A big mention for Luke Young, so happy to have him back. Don't be too harsh on Gabby, his was an impossible task today with no protection at all from the clearing in the woods of a ref.

The ref really did start the decline for us today. Knight might as well have handcuffed himself to Gabby, because he didn't let go of him all day. This allowed Bolton to stop us playing by foul means and the ref saw nothing wrong. It totally destroyed this as a game of football and made it really turgid stuff to watch. That said, we really needed to adjust to this and I'm sad to say it, but we needed our players to stop being so honest and riding the fouls and start hitting the deck. I recall one challenge in our defense with Collins giving I think it was Davies the same shove in the back Knight had been doing to Gabby at every contest. The difference was that Davies flung himself to the ground and the ref gave the free kick. Gabby stood up to it all and tried to keep playing, Carew when his shirt got ripped in half, not only stayed up but shook off Knight and ran on to win the ball. With a ref so incompetent it was up to the players to take matters into their own hands and ref the game for him. If fouled fall down and grab the ball, don't wait for that pilllock of a ref to blow up. Sounds like a job for Emile.... I don't know if it was my head or the players that dropped first due to the poor ref, but it had an impact, I for one have lost my voice from singing "you're not fit to referee". What we needed then was leadership on the field, someone to bring heads up and keep us in the game. There was none of that to be found and the substitutions left me baffled. To end up with Downing, Albrighton, Young and Petrov as our 4 in midfield in a game where we are loosing the physical battle is astonishing. I'm not a fan of NRC, but this was a game crying out for him to come in and step up to the scrap, yet we finish the game on the ropes with an unused substitution. There are some good players here and a good coach will make a difference to the results we will see, but I think we can forget about this season and start building for next. I'd like to see us get enough points to avoid relegation then get the kids blooded so they can play a bigger part next season, in particular Delfonso and Delph when he returns. I'm not pissed with Kmac though, he is a good man, I am however royally hacked off with MON who for my money is responsible in the main for the shit I had to watch today. If we ever play a team with MON in charge I'm going to get all Kevin Keegan about it.

Not a fan here. Having Nigel in midfield is like playing Cuellar at right back. When the ball gets to him he either looses it or the momentum of the move is lost. He can't play with his head up, can't make a decision on the ball, does not have the technique to make a pass even when not under pressure, he is caught several times a game in possesion normally as the last defender infront of the back four putting the whole team under pressure. His own team don't want to pass to him, leading the defence to play it over him rather than through him. As a destroyer if he is at best average, which does not make up for the other areas in which he lacks. Against Everton we were winning the ball in the back 4 not in the midfield. Everton played through us like the midfield was not there, this should not be possible if the midfield is doing its job. To be fair I think we were sent out without a plan to close them down effectively as a team, but as an individual I saw nothing in Nigel's game to change my mind.

to score more goals than them Very good Sounds like we have been going to Kevin Keegan for advice then

I am chuffed to bits with this win, but I don't really feel that we have too much to shout about here. Our defence won this today, and I mean the back 4 by this, not the covering infront. There was loads of hard work done my Petrov and Reo, however it was so badly misplaced that they might as well not have bothered. As a team we shut down everton really poorly, with single men chasing the ball around. There was no sense that we were closing the ball down as a team, which allowed Everton to pass the ball around us, and they weren't even passing the ball all that well on average. I mean we had 33% possetion today, which is awful by any standards, it basically means that we had the ball for our own throw ins, goal kicks etc then propmptly gave it away. I don't care how hard the team works, if you give the ball away that much most teams will murder you. The bigger concern is that we did not look like a team that has the technique within the team to pass the ball. We have a team of technique have and have nots, but there are too many have nots to allow us to pass effectively. Reo is the classic example of this, I believe his reputation has improved by sitting on the bench, like many of the players that missed out on England selection. Today he worked ok to get the ball back, but it is all for nothing if when he gets the ball he gives it away, which happens more often than not. It means his own team mates loose faith in giving him the ball, which in turn gives them less options making them more likely to pick a harder pass and give the ball away. It also encourages the defence to lump the ball further up the pitch as they would rather defend a ball on the half way line than have Reo give it away 25 yards out from goal. For me though this game nails it down that I don't want Kev as the full time manager. The team did not play as a team. The back 4 defended brilliantly as a unit, but this is a good well established unit. Everything infront of that defence was poorly organised, held together with the odd bit of effort and individual skill. If we continue on this path we will get murdered by much worse teams than Everton (as we were by Newcastle). I don't want to get too down on individual players as I want to see all the members of this squad given a chance under a manager who can set them up to play in a much more organised manner. I may be wrong, but if anyone our there can tell me what the plan to beat Everton today was I will be all ears.

I think we need 2 CM's. I have said pretty much for the whole of the time Petrov has been here that he is not good enough. We can't play 4-4-2 because we have Petrov in the team and it does not matter who plays with him. We need a defensive midfielder behind him and an attacking mid infront of him. This being the case why the hell do we need him? Fletcher and Scholes cope, Lampard and Essien cope, Fabregas and anyone of many cope, Gerrard and Mascerano cope,Felliani and Cahill cope, bloody Huddersfield and Palacio cope. Petrov and one other does not work which makes Petrov a luxory. It's like taking a bar of dairy milk to the jungle. It may be nice to have, but in context it is bloody useless.

The new set up is a better mid for us. With the line up we sent out we are always going to struggle to compete in midfield. Reo should give us a bit more of a backbone to build from. The only downside is the moment when he will give the ball away right infront of the back four.

So is the penalty not an attempt at goal?

Oh I forgot the result was pretty good too. Can we keep Milner please.

Hello General I paid my first visit to the Holte pub since it has been renovated today. I would like to let you know how pleased with it I was. The staff including that on the door were freindly and efficient, the atmosphere was lovely, the sort of thing I would be happy to bring the family to, which is some way distant from what is traditional outside a British football club. I've not forgotten all the good things that have been done to this club in the community since Randy has taken over, but it was nice to really experience a part of it first hand. To have the bar manager come over as he did not recognise us (my father and I), introduce himself and wish us a good experience there was a very pleasent surprise, and again feels so alien in a footballing environment, but in a good way. I have been coming to the Villa since the early eighties, so I remember what it is like to be treated as a cross between cattle and a prisoner as a football fan, so to be treated as a valued customer and to be welcomed is a world apart. For my father and I this sort of improvement is so welcome, long may it continue. I hope that you, Randy and the team are here for many years to come.

It was similar, but this was a little less direct than that. The other thing that really made me happy was that we didn't revert at any time to smacking it at Carew. This may change under pressure from a better team, but we kept the ball really well today

This was the team that MON could have sent but never did. The right formation, players playing in the positions they fit best, made me happy and proud. Man City can keep their money, on this performance we are getting stiffed with the offer on the table. To Ireland I would say you go and hold out for that 2 million, I'd even suggest that perhaps you could go for 4 million. Milner was Paul Scholes today, how much would you pay for Scholes in his early twenties?

Absolutely outstanding read. It really does put to shame the mind numbing drivel that we get in the press these days.

I was on the time the place and got to meet rosie lee. She was very nice.

Give me a decent % of the place I work for and I will service any damn one. Man, woman, animal vegitable, miniral, it is all on. I am not a proud man.

My achievements keep on dissapearing. I have played through 7 seasons with my pro, most of them as a striker and have still only scored one goal as a rebound off a post. it took 2 seasons to earn the go through a game without getting booked dispite having many consecutive games without anyone on the team getting booked. Also the tackle detection rate is awful, I'll put in loads playing as right back and look up the stats and have none credited. Same problem with assists. Only a minor problem in a good game, but it does grate and I would like to see it put right.

Thanks for that, but my problem is I cant even score headers when I'm not even using my created pro. Eg when playing with Villa even Carew cant hit the target with headers. The shoot button is for headers right? Right I have one more thing you can try. What I tend to find when I'm heading the ball high and wide is that the player is getting under the ball. Take control of the player rather than let the computer control the run and jostle with the defender. Positioning is very important and not that easy to achieve. I can't rememder the button combo for the jostl I know it is the shoulder button, but I just do it without thinking with the controller in my hand. Try to keep the ball goal side of you and if you get a good position don't let the defender push you under the ball. You need to win the header but as low down as you can to keep the header down. Now go and reverse gravity it is easier

I struggled for ages with headers, it was a sort of chicken and egg thing. I needed the achievement to be able to score and could not get the achievment cos I couldn't score. In the end I started doing a tapped lofted pass accross the box when I would previously have just passed it on the floor for an open goal. I messed up loads of good scoring opportunities with simply getting the cross wrong and even more by heading it over. On the plus side my guy took a few down and volleyed them in which helps on other achievments. Once I got a couple of headed achievements I started scoring in open play more often. (doint the reverse of this will help with the crossing) Also edit your player and sacrifice speed for size. You may play like a pudding for a bit, but it will pay off on the headers.