regular_john

Stefan?

How's everybody getting on with this? I've not managed any for a couple of weeks, back home in Birmingham and all my exercise gear is at uni halls in London. Will be getting straight back on it when I get back though, not far off 14 stone now, lightest I've been in a couple of years, can easily see myself reaching my target of 13 if I stick with p90x. Going to make more of an effort with the nutrition when I get back too, oddly enough the hardest thing for me to give up will be milk - I've been addicted to the stuff since I was a kid.

Can't speak for Aston specifically, but Birmingham in general is a nightmare. Trains and buses cancelled or delayed left, right and centre. Six inches of snow everywhere you look. To be honest, I very much doubt the game will go ahead, which will be an absolute pisser for me as it will probably be the only game I can attend this season, and I will most likely be back in London when it is rescheduled.

**** hope not! It's probably the only game I'll get to this season, got my uncle coming from the coast to see it too!

So pleased we got the win, we desperately needed those three points and we got them. The performance itself wasn't great though, and there's still a lot of work to be done, but that can come during the week. For now let's enjoy the win - hopefully one of many over the next couple of months.

This one HAS to be a win, no excuses for anything other than 3 points and a good performance. This is not Liverpool we're playing, it's West Brom, they suck.

Seriously, what is this boards obsession with Martin Jol? He seems to have developed this reputation of being an incredible, top class manager even though HE'S WON COCK ALL. He did nothing with spurs other than yoyo around 5-10th for a while before spending £40 million and getting sacked a few months later, he did nothing at Hamburg and has just left Ajax by 'mutual consent' after doing...you guessed it...nothing. If you want us to be successful, Jol is not the man for us, unless we make the random assumption that he'll have huge success with us even though he's never had major success with any other team. I'm not the biggest Houllier fan, especially not after the debacle on monday night, but we should at least give him time. To suggest that we're going to be relegated this season, or even be in a relegation fight, is ridiculous and stinks of the typical knee jerk nonsense that consumes VT every time we go on a bad run of form. At least give the man time to work with a fit squad, maybe get some players in January, and see if we can push on from there. We know he's not going to be the long term solution, at 63 that would be impossible, but he might be able to provide us with a stable base of a good footballing side (something that couldn't be said under MON) so we can push on in the next few years. To sack Houllier at this point would make us no better than Newcastle.

I agree with you about the lack of motivation in the side but we weren't always determined under MON either. 7-1 anybdy? Let's not kid ourselves here - there was no passion tonight but it's not like there weren't games under MON where that was the case as well. That game's not a great example though, for the first half at least we were competitive and seemed well in the game, but got torn apart once the team tired in the second half. This is the game that demonstrated just how badly MON had run our players into the ground by sticking to the same players week in, week out. Tonight, on the other hand, we had no fight from the first minute. The players just looked like they were there to collect a pay cheque, just going through the motions. I've seen more fire and enthusiasm in a Sunday kickabout down the local park. The fans that travelled in the cold to watch that game should feel rightly insulted at the lack of effort the team put in.

Where the hell has the fire and the motivation gone from this side? We weren't always brilliant under MON, but at least we ALWAYS fought to the very last breath. The last couple of games we've just seemed half hearted, listless, like nobody on the pitch gives a shit what happens. Not one of them looked like they had any pride in playing for the club tonight, not one of them had even an ounce of passion. Disgusted, not just with the performance but with the attitude and application.

It's starting to feel like the MON years were a brief holiday away from the usual rainy, gloomy, miserable days that accompany being a villa fan. Joy.

Made the mistake of looking at our fixture list earlier, we've won one league game in nine! I didn't realise it had been so long. If we don't win tomorrow, which is quite likely, we may start to forget what winning feels like.

I thought the whole gangster thing was an urban myth, I've only ever heard it mentioned in pubs and on messageboards, you'd think something that significant would be found on an official source!

I'd be surprised if his knee injury would be able to cope with a return to the West Midlands. What actually happened to Lescott? I know he apparently had some involvement with a gang, or was threatened or something. No idea what went on though. Anyone care to elaborate?

Yeah, I don't think he's really done anything wrong, he's not dropped any significant tactical clangers and we're playing excellent football, just not getting the results. I don't think it's fair to judge him in any way till we at least have our senior players back and fit, even then he should really be given till next summer to bring in his own players and build his own squad. I think getting Pires on a free was a good move though.

It'll be interesting to see how we get on without Ash, can't remember the last time we played without him.

Our bogey team ManUre are out, we NEED to win this game!!

Got to say, Barca's pressing off the ball is incredible. They aren't allowing RM any time on the ball whatsoever. What a team!

True, but you are aware of a world outside of the borders of this great nation. The same can't be said for some (but not all) of our American cousins. They need a US version of everything, anything else would just be unpatriotic and communist.

Just did the plyometric work out, **** me that's tough, I've been doing loads of cardio in the gym but plyo x is a new level!

Just finished my first official day of P90X. Chest and back was ok, kept it at about 10-15 reps for push ups and around 5 for pull ups so I could get through the two rounds without burning out, I'll step it up over the weeks. I need to figure out better technique with my resistance bands though, some of the exercises felt like I wasn't getting enough resistance, might just use two bands, if not I'll figure out some kind of alternative. Ab Ripper X is a killer though! Made it through but probably only did 1/3 of what they did on the video!

21st. OMG WERE GUNNA GET RELLUGATED!!!!!

I knew that this was going to be a shit season, that doesn't make games like this any easier to watch though! Inexperience shone through today. We were outmuscled by a very physical Blackburn side, to be fair to them they did their homework, they knew we had nothing to offer in the air so focused on cutting out our passing play. Really frustrating day, we need some of those players back and soon!!

why are we repeatedly putting high balls into the box?

Dumbest post ever.

bring on Pires!