danceoftheshamen

Sunderland hit the post.. for goodness sake Stoke

Crikey will this horrid season ever end? would be satisfied with a draw but a Stoke winner would be peachy.. Think the Southampton game will be tough for Sunderland so a loss here would seriously damage them.

I think it is still in the balance i really do.. We have a very small advantage yes but GD is negligible & two 1-0 losses for us & just a single 1-0 win for any team in the mix would put us in a worse position than any of them except Wigan.... Problem is they have 3 games left & we have to play them at theirs on the last day. All of those teams still in the mix have at least 1 winnable fixture & a second chance game too albeit in most cases a tough fixture... but still a chance. We have by comparison no easy games left just two tough fixtures. I don't see how we need to only match the Fulham & Stoke results either as they are way ahead of us on GD..We actually need to gain one more point than them so we actually have to better their results. Still think it comes down to 4 games Norwich v WBA Wigan v Swansea Villa v Chelsea Wigan v Villa We need just one of those results to go in our favour really & hope none of the other fixtures for those teams conjures up a "shock" but at this stage of the season anything is possible as we all know.....As i say it's in the balance but we are certainly not safe yet.

I think 40 will see us through. All the pressure is on Wigan right now. I think they are done. Hopefully we can play the last game against Wigan with our bench rather than our starters. Would be good to see Given & Bent get 90 minutes in the league. I can't see how they are done i have to be honest.. Swansea are highly likely to throw that game as a "thank you" present to Martinez for putting them on the way to where they are today. They have nothing to play for whatsoever & i simply cannot see them trying to send him down. Guaranteed home win for me. I don't think they will give two hoots about the cup final as they will know they have little chance of actually beating City anyways & will take survival over winning the cup all day long.. they're already in Europe are they not? as City have already qualified via top 4.

Well not quite actually.. although if we won the Wigan game we are safe automatically. Otherwise every team involved has a winnable fixture & a tough, although on last day lottery day still possible to get points from game. For me it is still way to close to call & what worries me is this: Wigan v Swansea: Swansea have Michu out & with Martinez being their former gaffer & with Swansea having nothing to play for i fear they will roll over to help him out as he must still have good friends there having in effect put them on the road to where they are today. Home banker for me. Sunderland v Stoke Again i fear for this game as with us having badly beaten them last week they will surely be fired up against a poor Stoke side & will likely win. Norwich v West Brom This is the key game for me.. But you have to say WBA are not exactly desperate for points which could well make the difference.. Hopefully it relaxes them but gives Norwich the jitters & with their final game being away at Man City this could yet be the fixture which saves us.... Scary though. QPR v Newcastle Well need i really say anything? as much of an away win banker as you could get & almost a gift 3 points for the geordies against a side who can't wait for the season to end. Villa v Chelsea Win & we are safe but its a tough game as we all know & i worry about the psychological effect of the 8-0. Clearly looking at the other games though this is by far our best escape route.. Even a draw drastically improves our chances... Reminds me of the Spurs home game last season... except Chelsea are a better team. We need a couple of those fixtures to go in our favour but you have to say all the teams we need to lose are surely favorites to win? A real spanner is that Swansea game for Wigan.. I just can't see how they won't throw that game.

Huge win.. makes you realise just how much we were in the proverbial having won the 6 games PL asked for a while back & still not quite out of it... I don't think many thought we would actually get those 6 wins with 2 games still to go.

We don't.... Well yes we do really unless you want to go into the last day with no chance of going down? Or are you confident that we are already safe? Or maybe that a draw would do? Indeed. With 41, we are 99.999999999% safe. Especially with Southampton and Stoke playing each other, Sunderland and Stoke playing each other and Norwich/Sunderland/Newcastle playing City/Spurs/L'Arse Well lets hope so but i just can't get rid of this nagging doubt that Sunderland will beat Stoke putting them ahead of us on GD, Stoke are already ahead of us on GD anyway, Norwich may well beat WBA putting them a point ahead with similar GD but if we lose to Chelsea we will most likely be behind on GD to all of them anyway, Newcastle will surely beat QPR putting them ahead of us by 1 pt too & Wigan will no doubt get 27 dodgy penalty decisions & win against Swansea putting them to within 2 pts with us to play & a game in hand albeit at Arsenal ... where they'll probably get a ridiculously lucky win... Just got the jitters i guess & i would much prefer us to just beat Chelsea & be done with it.

We don't.... Well yes we do really unless you want to go into the last day with a chance of going down? Or are you confident that we are already safe? Or maybe that a draw would do?

Basically we have to beat Chelsea... then we are safe surely. Time for this side to grow up proper now & get revenge for that disgrace at theirs.. we all need to make Villa Park a hell hole for Chelsea next week.

We should be ok now but i'm still worried i have to be honest.. you can see everyone of those teams around us picking up points as all of them have fixtures against teams who are either poor i.e QPR, Stoke or have mentally finished their season i.e WBA & Swansea. Whilst we have 2 pretty horrid fixtures remaining & the GD would be against us too if we lost one or both games....Not safe just yet a while sadly.... West Brom took both their attackers off against Wigan & apparently were barely trying at the end. Just hope to goodness they sort it out v Norwich but it doesn't look promising. Swansea have lost Michu now so will probably get royally stuffed at Wigan too... So that leaves Newcastle needing a win..which i'm sure they'll get at QPR who are dreadful... Looking at the table you'd think we would be ok but every one of those teams can pick up points yet & in fact i would be surprised if they don't. The scary thing is that could be us done for the season now points wise so we are kind of sitting ducks in a sense with every other team having a couple of free shots against us... So for me, yet again, with Wigan winning today we need to beat Chelsea now to avoid a last day lottery as i am certain Wigan will beat Swansea & i am certain Norwich will beat WBA, Newcastle will win at QPR & Sunderland will win against either Stoke or Southampton both at home. The biggest 3 games now are definately Norwich v WBA Wigan v Swansea QPR v Newcastle we need a couple of those to go in our favour but if all 3 go against us we are back to square 1.

I feel this is the day which finally cost us...Pile of s*** Now Wigan will beat Swansea & be level / ahead of us with Chelsea up next & then them ....Good bye Premier League it was s**t whilst it lasted.

Nope.. i really do still think Norwich is a must win sadly.. We simply put ourselves back in the game with the Sunderland win & by cancelling out GD advantage that Wigan & Newcastle had. I can see Wigan nicking a couple of wins & a draw personally or at least we have to be prepared just in case they do... That would put them on 39 pts so a draw against Norwich & we would be in the s*** in my opinion as we'd have 38pts with Chelsea up next & a horrid last game scenario against a team which stuffed us 3-0 at ours. They have plenty of time to recover from the FA cup final too before playing us.. 5 days i believe... Oh for a win against Chelsea mind! Or Norwich.. either would do but i just think we'd get the jitters against Chelsea if we lost at Norwich..weirdly though if we beat Norwich i could actually see us getting a result against Chelsea with the pressure of a little. I just hope we do win at Norwich so we can all kind of enjoy the last couple of games a bit for a change!

Aye!.. with you on that VillaKev... All seating sucked the camaraderie away to a large extent.

Also gotta add... Gabby rounding the keeper in a one on one?! Wow!

Yeah deserves a lot of credit does Gabby.. I have been critical of him at times purely out of frustration as much as anything else but he missed a chance & just kept going. He was a real thorn in their side last night & delighted he got his goal in the end!

Superb performance..a delight to watch him last night & i have never before been able to say "our right back was unplayable!"

The win puts us back in the pot... nothing more really.. Norwich is really a must win as we definately need at least 1 more win & possibly even a win & a draw actually because of the bizarre way the teams are lined up. You have to say that Newcastle & Sunderland could both easily pick up a win somewhere... So lets suppose they all win 1, draw 1 & lose 1 which is distinctly possible... & lets say Wigan win their game in hand & then win 1 draw 1 & lose 1 the table would look like this Sunderland 41 pts Newcastle 41pts Wigan 39pts So for me it's still very dicey indeed & we definately need at least 1 more win but ideally 4pts Problem is if we don't beat Norwich!... That would leave us with Chelsea up next or a final day fright night situation So Norwich is a must win

Good post! Forget Blues Villa are representatives of the 2nd City but we don't really match up. The fan base is there but we rarely sell out. even when we won the league in 81 we only averaged 33,000. West Ham have never been as big as us and they have the Olympic but they are only renting it and I wonder if the will fill it. You could be right Lerner thought he could make us into a an Arsenal or Liverpool but Man City takeover destroyed everything. In the early 80's though Hooliganism was at it's height & attendances were suffering generally all over. Also we had not long come back from 3rd division oblivion too so many of the fan base were hungover from that too at the time. For me there are many fans who would come back & get season tickets as soon as we can get a half decent team together. It was beginning to happen under MON but lets be honest the football was out dated & we were generally being hammered every game & just catching teams on the break. Ok we did alright but we hardly set the World on fire now did we. I was one of those fans from the late 70's / early 80's & i would love to watch a decent Villa team again.. I would be straight out to buy a season ticket if i didn't think i was just going to watch us get hammered every other week...That's not fun in my opinion & i know many others who feel the same way..Don't get me wrong i was no glory hunter & in fact the club was in the 3rd tier when i started supporting them & i also was a season ticket holder during 2 relegation's post "wonder years". Under MON i did consider getting a ST but every time i went up i thought it was pretty poor if i'm honest so i decided against it. Weirdly though if we can survive this season i actually think, with a few additions, we have the making of a darned good team & i may actually get one for next season. I think part of the problem was 25 years of BS from HDE.. to suffer that after watching us win the games ultimate prizes was frankly the ultimate kick in the nads & the club never benefited properly attendance wise as a result... I do strongly believe the fan base is there but needs to see some real signs that we are a good team with a real chance of competing "properly" not "MON top 6 style". The Ellis era was just false dawn after false dawn after false dawn & this peed an awful lot of fans off myself included. I lost belief in the club & once that's gone it takes a lot to get it back & a few half cocked top 6 finishes under a negative manager were never going to do it for me personally. So my message is simple.... Want me to buy a season ticket & commit my valuable time to supporting this club proper? Like i used to before 3 decades of BS?... Then give me a decent team to support that i can be proud of. I don't care if it costs millions or not i just want a decent flipping team & vision of progress for the club that i can believe in... Not fairy stories & substandard c**p! I don't even care if we don't win the league or European cup but at least give me a team that's fit to wear the colours. We're never going to be able to compete for the truly great players obviously but frankly who needs em?... In the words of our most successful ever captain during the build up to a crucial night game against the then reigning Champions, Liverpool when we needed to beat them to keep us on track for the famous title win in 1980... "We need to beat them the Villa way" & we did ..2-0 (Withe, Mortimer) & the rest is history! So that's my challenge to Randy... What is "the Villa way" in 2013?... Maybe just maybe we are witnessing the birth of that this season.... But we need to survive first! Here's hoping!

We have to get a minimum of 4 points from the next 2 games & then we'll still probably need a point from either Chelsea or Wigan.... If we can somehow win the next 2 that would be much more preferable. I just hope we overturn the cocky Italian who continues to disrespect this club with comments like "why would i be bothered about going to a place like Villa Park when i have just come out of St James's Park".. He really does look down at this club & it's fans Quite bizarre how he only managed to reach the massive heights of playing for West Ham Utd well in this country at least... So yes i take offence to an Italian who achieved comparatively little in this country basically disrespecting this club & its fans as an irrelevance!

A shame Liverpool deliberately took their foot off at 6-0... Am sure i saw Brendan Rogers tell them to "stop" when it went to 0-6 & sure enough they suddenly stopped playing & started knocking it around at the back... Thats bad really as the GD could be crucial for other teams including us so for me they should've kept on going... Chelsea did against us ffs!... Also in the after match interviews the Liverpool players were saying they hoped Newcastle would stay up & looked really gutted they had beaten them so badly!

Lord that was close. Now a win against Sunderland looks very different & would put us 5 points ahead. So important Wigan failed to win today.....PHEW!

2-2

A win now against Sunderland merely keeps us in with a chance nothing more..& i struggle to see us winning that. Lose it & we are down for me.

ff'ing knew this would happen today... Spurs are really inconsistent lately

Why is it almost every single time all season long that i have looked at the scores, or results or whatever 99.99% of the time it's grim news for us?...Horrible horrible season & i will just be glad when its over to the point where i don't even give a s*** where we end up... We deserve to go down for what has happened at this club over the last 3 seasons... Professional suicide if ever i saw it