The Fun Factory

Got my tickets today, upper trinity completely closed off tomorrow night , Rotherham bringing 3,000 and the lady at the ticket office said ticket sales are higher than the tranmere match last season

Just as well as that was probably the quitest I have ever seen Villa park! The infamous Southampton game in the 80s was before my time!

Tbh I dont think Gabby is cut out for international football. He is better in the fast paced football of the Premier League. Plus he is best as a starter, and really for England he will be only used as a impact sub when the oppostion 'get tired'. Then he will come on and try too hard. So I can't see Hodgson ever calling up Gabby. He has had a look at him and doesnt rate him. Better for us as he will not get injured or tapped up.

Who does McLeish manage these days? He got on with him.

Managing his bank account with the big fat payoff Randy gave to him for steering us to 16th. Happy days.

Quite a bit of pressure on Southgate. Is he is nice, youngish, polite bloke with a good taste in suits? Yes. Does he know what he is doing as a football manager? Not sure. Obvious he is a pet favourite at the FA, and was nailed on for the U21 job. Needs to do a decent job there, or his management career will be going nowhere. Why is Ashley Young in the England squad is a total mystery. The defence looks poor whatever combination you use out of that lot. Barkely is being overpromoted as usual, a good prospect but now comes the hype. Re no Villa players- keeps me happy as less likely for injuries and players to be sold.

 

There were 42000 against Liverpool unless they lied when they read out the attendance?

When I said 39k I wasnt including the Pool fans.

 

Probably more like 35k then. Always, always get lpool and yewunited fans in the home end every season. 'scuse me mate, can you tell me where the Holte End is?'

Well anyway for all of us going I hope we score a few and get through!

Had a look on the online seat thingy and there are loads of seats avaliable still. Might have to adjust my 25,200 prediction to more like 15,200!

 

Reminds me of that scene in Moneyball when all the old guys are shaking their heads when Billy Beene and the guy form Superbad unveil all their proposed signings for the summer.

Haha well Lambert is running a moneyball type operation

 

'You buy wins, not players' says Lambert/Brad Pitt. lol. Read the book, its great!

From watching it on the telly I coud see a fair few empty seats in the middle of the Trinity, and some in the obstructed part of the Holte over the Doug Ellis Stand, so probably not 42,000 people at the ground. Still a good crowd in though.

Really not sure whether to go to this. Can't get excited about it.

Chance to see some of the new boys score a shed load of goals.  Cheap deals in the ground. Villa Park always looks amazing in the lights. Payback after the last time  a league two side from Yorkshire came to Villa Park. The fact its the repeat of the first ever League Cup final. The fact that this used to be our cup. That it will be our year for the cup, so get your booking history in.

I think Vlaar is a decent captain for now. Didn't he go all round bodymoor and introduced himself when he first signed for us? I guess that impressed Lambert.

Either you pay to cough up 10 to 15 quid to watch it live, or have a nanosecond of coverage in the BBC League Cup Show on Wednesday night. With Manish.

 

Frazier Campbell. Sold by O'Neill for £650,000 to Cardiff in January. Bought Danny Graham for £5 million. That is why he will struggle to get a job again.

That's one of his better deals. He's done far worse than that eg . Curtis Davies for £10m. Absolutely criminal.

 

True but I nearly droped my bacon sarnie when I heard this deal in January. Campbell is a decent forward, and for 650 grand is nothing. He has had a england cap ffs, unlike the deeply average Graham. Still well done Cardiff, suppose that blue shirt protest has been somewhat overshadowed by this result?!

Frazier Campbell. Sold by O'Neill for £650,000 to Cardiff in January. Bought Danny Graham for £5 million. That is why he will struggle to get a job again.

Villa 2 Rotherham 1 AET. Steer, Lowton,Okore, Clark, Bennett, Gardner, Westwood, Albrington, Tonev, Helenius, Bowey. Attendance 25,200.

Are other team fans being nice to use because we still don't seem a threat? Discuss.

If there was 6 tickets left, how come the offical attendance was over 500 less than capacity?!

i dont think it was the formation, i think its the fact that we got a bunch of youngsters. Its all well and good to buy young players with lots of prospective talent, talent we have seen alot of, but what they dont have is the routine, as someone said in the match thread, it looked like we were afraid of liverpool in the first half the nerves seemed to get to them and they did alot of shitty passes and touches that would make rapists seem pleasant. They passed balls into spaces where no one was, straight at the opposition of just **** no where. When they later realised that maybe plop wasnt that dangerous they started playing with more confidence and we looked better.

I dont think liverpool was that much better than us, they didnt create more chances and the only goal they did was down to one persons talent not as a team.

We got a young team, they need a bit more time to gain the composure some of the other teams have, we just need a bit of patience and to be fair im pretty pleased with the performances over the last three games. We are well on our way to become a solid team. Just wait til we play some shit team like stoke and im sure well bash three four goals in whilst keeping the sheet clean.

Is the right answer. Lets not try and get to high when we play well, and too negative when we play badly. Its a 9 month season, and its early days.

Doesn't look like he lacks confidence does he? Think he will be useful for us this year as a squad player.

Yes, they have been crap for years. Ever since Young left us. At  least we havent tried out the short corner routine, a pet hate of mine! Defo an area to improve on.

Wasnt't at his best today. Not terrible but didnt do a lot. I think Lambert is telling him to shoot more, but that is area I would like to see improve. Can't be great everyday, I still think he will do great for us.

Watched it in the pub as its my protest at stupid kick off times. Fight the power. So my views not as good as the villa faithful who went! I thought it was bit of a meh game. Not the greatest of 1st halfs, but we got better in the second as Liverpool looked comfortable for the 1 nil win. A okayish peformance, which shows the team has still a bit of  a way to go. Great save by the plop keeper in the 2nd half- if we were going to get a goal, that was it. My long term fear is that yet again we will be much better on the road than at home as essentially like under O'Neill, we are a good counter attacking side, but not as good trying to break a side down.  9 wins in 39 league games is not going to help to get these 42,000 crowds very often. But lets take a chill pill. 3 pts out of these 3 games is a decent return. Need a win v Rotherham and have a few weeks to take stock. UTV.

The pitch has been great since it was relaid about 8 years ago. Before that it got too hard and we got a few injuries from it.

 

Now Moses is someone I feel is overrated, no idea what people see in him

 

I think it's just people have been pinching Wigan's wingers ever since Utd signed Valencia hoping they're just as good. We did it with CNZ. Wigan's best players over the last 4-5 years have all been wingers/strikers, and there has always been a bit of a media hype around the players too which make people who don't really watch the games think they are in fact quite good.

 

Well I wouldn't say CNZ is a proper winger. That has been the problem for him at Villa. He was bought by TSM to replace Young and he is a different player than him. And hasn't settled in/been fancied by the managers ever since.

We can only hope like the house of usher, Manchester United will collapse on itself in a orgy of bitterness and remorse. I am still waiting.