heid3ster

I've been a big critic of Bennett this season but I am seeing a lot of improvement in the last several games (United being the exception). He was great today.

 

My only regret was that I wasn't there to witness such a fantastic spectacle in person. Ironically I went to this fixture the last two seasons in a row and both games were shit.

 

Hope those that did go enjoyed it. I certainly did watching it on TV.

Did the atmosphere sound good on TV? 

 

Atmosphere sounded GREAT on TV. After the 4th or 5th goal went in, they showed the Holte End, packed full of dancing cheering celebrating Villa fans. Beautiful. So jealous! One of these days I will get out there to see a match live.

What just happened?

Ian Darke did the commentary on ESPN here in the States. He pointed out that for a lot of our players, it was their first ever visit to Old Trafford -- Bennett, Westwood, Lowton, Baker, Benteke, Vlaar. El Ahmady too when he came on. I guess the first visit to Old Trafford is bound to be a little overwhelming. I was annoyed at the subs initially but they seemed to work, at least for damage limitation. Or maybe it was just United taking their foot off the gas.

We'd need to have a bus in order to park it. We have a SmartCar. And we're not sure where the parking garage is.

Didn't expect to get anything from United anyway, so now it's on to next week's crucial match v. Sunderland.

Thank you Carlitos.

Premier League Talk has posted about NBC Sports's Premier League Coverage announcement for next season. Link has all the details, but this part caught my eye particularly:

Every single Premier League match will be streamed for free via NBC Sports Live Extra, which is available online and on iPhone and Android devices with authenticated sign-on via participating TV providers (If your TV provider isn’t one of the ones listed below that has an agreement with NBC Sports Live Extra — Comcast xFinity TV, Verizon FIOS, Cablevision or Suddenlink — you’ll need to contact them to urge them to add it before the season starts in August.)

This is the first time I can honestly say I'm happy to be a Comcast subscriber. Over the course of the season, 20 matches will be selected to be shown live on NBC (free-to-air). Several games will be shown live on NBC Sports and Telemundo every weekend.

Now the only question that remains: will Villa still be in the Premier League? Hope so, otherwise this great news will be rather hollow.

United already up 1-0.

A draw's not the worst result, it's the manner in which we dropped the points that hurts. Obviously a win would have been better, a win's always better. I feel for Delph, the og was unlucky. I wonder why Guzan didn't call for it, it looked like he could have had that. Baffling subs today. We need Newcastle to do us a favor tomorrow.

Ha, Bennett trying to pull off a Lowton...

GET IN!

Huddlestone still can't cut his hair...

............and just to top it off, mark halsey is the fourth official. give him some abuse lower trinity roaders.

I thought Halsey got busted down to the lower leagues after the McManaman tackle?

Yeah, I noticed on the Guardian blogs that people (neutrals, fans of other teams) have been saying they hope Villa stay up. Last season a lot of the same type of folks said we were playing the most dire football (we were last season!!) and hope we'd be relegated. This season it seems our young inexperienced underdogs have replaced Wigan as the Neutral's Favorite to Beat the Drop. That's kind of nice.

Few more thoughts on the match:

1. We finally got lucky with some refereeing decisions! Stoke probably could have a penalty for either of the handball claims. It would have been harsh, but as the saying goes, "I've seen them given." We've had our share of marginal calls going against us this season, good to have a few in our favor this time.

2. I should have mentioned this in my first post, plenty of others have already said so but it bears repeating -- the away support was immense. Real 12th Man stuff. My hat is off to all who were there creating that noise, you guys never let up. Well done. I live several thousand miles away so getting to a match isn't possible for me, but I nearly felt like I was there Saturday.

3. Been watching Lowton's worldy and Benteke's final nail in the coffin a few times over today. Lowton's goal is very similar to the stunner he scored at Swansea -- clearance from a corner, traps it on his chest and then volleyed into the net. But the circumstances surrounding this goal, the context, is what makes it the Goal of the Season for me. I am probably overstating this, and we won't really know until the season is over, but that goal, at that time, might be the one that saves our season. Not just because we beat Stoke and moved out of the relegation zone, but because it gave everyone -- fans and players alike -- that belief. Time will tell. Still lots of points to play for. But I believe.

3a. For Benteke's goal - watch the replays. Watch Begovic as he sees Benteke, Bent, Sylla and N'Zogbia (I think Zog was the 4th, on Benteke's right?) marauding towards him, with the nearest Stoke defender several paces back. Watch Begovic's face as Benteke bears down on him, he is absolutely shitting himself. It's kind of glorious. I don't usually take enjoyment from others' misfortunes, but I'll make a big exception in Stoke's case.

I finally voted in the poll today. I voted No.

I'm looking at the table and next week's fixtures. Norwich have Arsenal away, Arsenal are on a good run and chasing that Champions League spot. Stoke have Man United at home, and well -- Stoke suck and United are nearly unstoppable. I don't expect either Norrwich or Stoke to pick up a point next week. If we keep the momentum going and beat Fulham, we'll be in 14th place. I can't say we'll be level on points with Newcastle because I expect them to get at least a point against Sunderland, maybe all three. But it would put some distsance between us and the rest of the strugglers.

I think Wigan will claw their way out of it, they always do. Reading, QPR and Stoke going down.

The match wasn't shown live here and I had a doctor's appointment this morning, so I had to delay gratification until now.

WOW.

Great first half, we bossed it, Stoke looked lost. Still, the whole second half I was on pins and needles waiting for them to equalize, which I was sure they inevitably would. Once Kightly's goal went in, I admit it, I despaired and feared the worst. I even fast-fowarded the DVR for a little while, not wanting to watch what I was sure would be the usual display of heads dropping, panicking, running around like headless chickens, etc.

I finally slowed it back down to real time in time to see the corner that led to Lowton's goal -- ball went into the box, it looked like Stoke had cleared it, so I looked down to tie my shoe, and next thing I knew the announcer was bellowing "OH WHAT A GOAL FROM LOWTON!!!!" I was so peeved to miss it, even thought it was on the DVR and I could (and did) easily run it back to watch it again. And again. And again. What a beauty.

Then Benteke's 4 on 1 coolly slotted in ball for the 3rd in stoppage time, I ran through the apartment waving my hands in the air like a looney, scared the crap out of my cats.

Huge result. Huge. I'm so glad the players didn't give up hope like I did when Stoke equalized. First win away at Stoke since '84? Massive!

Chelsea, please do us a favor tomorrow and hammer Sunderland. You want Champion's League next year, don't you?

DiCanio appointment is either genius or insanity. We'll know in seven weeks, I guess.

 

Dunno - all he has to do is match villa's results over the next seven games and he's a hero. What I mean he could be very average and still keep them up....................I will go a bit further......as long as they don't implode they will stay up.

He's a complete wild card. He's such a loose cannon, they could very well implode. It could work great -- like he gets McClean and Sessegnon and Johnson all firing again -- and they might go on a crazy unbeaten run. Or he could alienate the whole squad and they might do sweet FA the rest of the season. I just hope we get to hear him singing "Dancing in the Moonlight" again, I loved that. One thing is for sure, it won't be boring.

DiCanio appointment is either genius or insanity. We'll know in seven weeks, I guess.

The only thing Bannan was ever any good at is set pieces and he's not even good at those anymore.

Subs were awful. When we really needed to change the game, those pair came on and offered infinitely less than the players they replaced

I agree about KEA (baffling sub!!!) but Delph was a HUGE improvement over Bannan. Bannan shouldn't play again this season. He is dire. His set pieces are shit (then again, no one else's are any better), he can't complete a pass and he gives the ball away in stupid places again and again. I'm not sure N'Zogbia was much of an improvement on Weimann, but Weimann was injured.

Before the match I was telling myself that any point today would have been a bonus, but I'm left frustrated anyway because certainly at least a draw was there for the taking. In the last 30 minutes we didn't even try to attack. Lambert needs to explain to these guys that the game is 90 minutes long, not 45. It's not good enough.

Good subs, let's see if they can make a difference.

Balls.

WTF is with Vlaar, are his boots on the wrong feet?

GET THE **** IN!

I would not play him DM. Has a lot of attacking qualities for a centre back but not enough for a modern DM. Not agile enough either. Too robust in stature.

 

Clark is a CD, and a good one. We're just expecting him to be world class right away, which he's not.

No one is expecting him to be World Class. We're expecting him to be Premier League level, which he's not. We expect him not to make the exact same stupid mistakes over and over again. We expect him to learn. He's not doing these things and should be dropped.