Villarocker

As this is the "social" and travel thread, this must be the place to ask the question, Is the Greyhound pub still open and if so, are we going to take it over as usual? The atmospehere at that pub, at the last 3 finals we have been in, has been brilliant. I haven't been to the new Wembley so I am hoping that this pub is still open and will be the watering hole on cup final day! If it isn't, can anyone suggest another pub to go to on the day of the game?

What a game and what a night General! I am so proud to be a Villa fan. Everyone is ecstatic and wishing away the next 5 weeks it seems. Can you please say thank you to Randy, Martin and all the players, coaching staff etc. They have given us the best start to a New Year we could have wished for. I would also like to add weight to the comments from Paulanddonya regarding the handling of the fans on the pitch. It was nice to see the stewards behave the way they did, especially after coming in for a lot of criticism this season. I think that added to what is a very memorable night for Aston Villa supporters who attended that unbelievable game. Bring on the Mancs General, we can take out anybody these days! Now for my question. I would like to know if Martin and his coaching staff have been reading the Brazilian coaching manual, given their "you score 4 and we'll score 6" style of football? Personally, I am all for it and look forward to seeing Milnero 8 on the back of Jimmy's shirt!

i'll second that General! come on you Villa boys! I really hope you watch tonight General as the atmosphere is going to be amazing.

I know the General has already replied to this but I just wanted to make the point that the club only charged between £15-£20 per adult ticket for the Blackburn FA Cup game, and still only managed to get 25,000+ through the doors! I know the Blackburn game came shortly after Christmas and that the financial situation for most isn't great, but it still seems to me that we wouldn't have filled the ground even if we had charged £10 per adult ticket - just as we are for the Brighton game. I think this is mainly because of the other outlays that come with attending a football match, such as programmes, travel, food, drinks etc. It may only cost £10 to attend the game but I bet the average fan spends at least a further £20 per matchday - I know that I do! With us having 4 home games within 10 days, the potential outlay for some will be massive towards the end of this month, especially if we have a Carling Cup Final ticket to buy as well

I agree totally that Guzan has been brilliant for us in the cups. it would be really hard on him if he didn't get picked to start, but I just think that MON will go with the experience of Friedel for this one. It's been a long time since we had two really good 'keepers at the club at the same time. A nice position for us to be in, as long as other clubs keep their filthy mitts away!

First time at doing this so pleeeease bear that in mind folks! :winkold: With Guzan doing so well in the previous rounds of the cups this season, would you start with him against Blackburn on Tuesday night, or would you play Friedel for his experience? For the record, I would go with Friedel for his superior experience, although there is no doubt that Guzan deserves his chance after his previous achievements this season. Tough one for MON this!

Hi General, I hope you and your family had a great Christmas. Happy New Year to you all and let's hope the Villa make it a winning one in 2010. Will you be over for any of the 3 home cup games against Blackburn? I say home because let's face it, Ewood Park may as well be called Villa Park for Tuesday night! I have my ticket and cannot wait to be there to experience a brilliant, Villa created atmosphere. It is nice to hear Martin's comments on tv recently. It seems that the playing down of our chances for CL qualification have subsided and that he now has every confidence in our team. I love this and I just hope the belief spreads to the players because we are good enough on our day and if that day comes more often than not then this season should see us finish in the top four. General Krulak = Villa Legend! Up The Villa!

I also think 65-69 points. I am sure that I heard somewhere that MON has never won a Premier League game in March! I just hope that isn't the case this season!

Was there in 94, 96 & 2000. How amazing was the semi final win over Tranmere? I hope the atmopshere for the home leg of the Blackburn game is as good, the newer generation won't believe how good Villa Park can be if the atmosphere is anywhere near as good as it was for that Tranmere game!

Another gutsy performance from the lads General and another 3 points! That's 5 wins and 2 draws from the last seven games and the lads are looking a tough nut to crack at the moment. I remember saying that I felt we hadn't replaced Gareth Barry earlier in the season. You said that you felt we wouldn't miss him and you were right. The positioning of Milner in the centre has proved to be a revelation for us. The one thing all Villa fans felt we needed was a goalscoring centre midfielder and now Jimmy is playing in the centre we have one. Three goals and three assists from the four games he has played there is just awesome! Here's a piece of advice for the remainder of the season General, get some more staff in the ticket office because I think you're going to need them!

Without trying to speak on behalf of the General, I do feel sorry for him, and the club, with the reaction to the way the club dealt with the fans that went to Sunderland. The club made an official statement for the Sunderland game. The statement said that anybody buying a ticket for that game would get priority for further away fixtures for the rest of the competition. This was obviously to get as many fans as possible to go to Sunderland for a midweek game in an early round of the cup. Given the travelling distance involved, and the fact that we have struggled in recent years in this competition, I think it was a good idea to get as many fans there as possible to cheer the lads on. The club got a lot of negative feedback afterwards, which I guess contributed to the club not making the same gesture for the Pompey game! That, together with the fact that the Pompey game was the quarter final and against the team that is bottom of the league, which gave us a very good chance of progressing and taking a lot more support. The club have an obligation to the fans that went to Sunderland and I am guessing that this might be the last time that they make such a statement after the reaction it has received, although it was done with the best interests of both the fans and the players. I think that everyone has to remember that the club will get a lot of stick from those that went to Sunderland if they fail to get their hands on a ticket for the Semi! General, will you be attending either leg of the sem final?

My head says that we should go there and play a 4-5-1 with Milner playing in the hole behind Gabby. However, my heart says that we should just go there and go at them from the off. They haven't got Ronaldo anymore. Giggs isn't the flying winger he once was. Scholes isn't the commanding figure in the middle like he used to be. I would love us to just go there and play the same line-up we put out yesterday and try to push them back on their own turf. We have enough talent in our attacking 5 to get enough goals to win against this current Utd team. I usually look at this fixture as damage limitation but I seriously think we will get at least a point next week, maybe all 3 if the players have the self-belief!

Hi General, A good solid win for the lads yesterday. I thought Dunne took his goal like a striker and all 3 involved in Jimmy Milner's goal did brilliantly to react so quickly to the situation with their keeper being off his line! I just wanted to let you know that the stewarding seemed a lot better down in the Lower North yesterday. It was less mob-handed than it has been lately and I think it created for a calmer atmosphere between the fans and stewards. I just hope common sense prevails when we play some of the bigger games that are on the horizon, especially the cup semi final. Will you be over to savour the atmosphere of the semi-final General? This is one game you surely won't want to miss!

Hi General, Yesterday's game was on of two halves. We had the better of the first half but we were totally outplayed by Spurs in the second. I would also like to complain about the Stewarding down in the North Stand Lower. We are sort of used to sitting when we play the likes of Wigan, Bolton, Fulham etc, simply because they only bring a few hundred fans and they seem to remain controlled. However, whenever we play a side with a bigger following, that take up the both tiers in the Doug Ellis, the away fans ALWAYS stand throughout the whole of the game. it seems that the stewards don't have any intention at all of making these people sit, yet they walk up and down the steps like the gestapo telling our fans to sit and spoil our viewing of the game. How are we supposed to be able to see when there are 4 or 5 stewards standing on the steps blocking the view? Now I know you may question why people are standing in the first place but surely you can understand it when the away fans are all standing! At one stage of the game yesterday, I looked up and literally counted 2 orange jackets in each tier among the Spurs fans. How the hell are 4 people going to get around 3,000 to sit? Yet, we must have had over a dozen stewards down in our corner of the stand, all trying to get us to sit down. They start at the bottom of the stand and walk their way up the steps trying to sit us all down but they then block the view. My brother says that he is seriously considering whether or not it is worth buying a season ticket next season, simply because of the stewards intent on ruining the viewing pleasure. I heard lots of others saying alike during yesterday's game. Tempers are fraying down in that part of the ground and I saw fans becoming very irate yesterday. Sorry for such a negative post but this is becoming a real issue.

I just read through the last page of this and thought that there are a lot of valid points. Man Utd have 2 players in Rooney and Ferdinand that cost around 30 million each. I think we seem to forget about that kind of investment from them. As well as the 10s of millions spent on the likes of Berbatov, Nani, Anderson etc. Liverpool also spent a fortune on the likes of Torres, Babel, Kuyt, Johnson and they are often forgotten about too! I don't think our current performances are better than say 07/08. We beat Chelsea this season, but through two set pieces. When we beat them a couple of years ago, we played them off the park at times. We also got a very good point at their ground, although it should have been all 3! The goals were free-flowing that season and that seems to have been compromised for a sturdier defensive look. I think we look more stable in defence but our attacking threat seems to have died. I am not too sure what the answer is. Maybe Carew isn't the same player he was 2 years ago, he certainly doesn't seem like it. Our full backs hardly seem to overlap the wingers and this is something I think we are missing when attacking teams. The top 4 clubs all have full backs that play like wingers. Gary Neville is knocking on a bit now but the other night against CSKA he put ball after ball into that box, more so than a ingers on a normal day! I would like to see Luke Young back in and see him and Warnock bombing forward at every opportunity. Overall I think we are expecting too much from our team. We don't have that extra bit of quality in our side that the likes of the top 4 plus Man City and Spurs have. Those teams have certain players that can change a game with a flash of brilliance but we don't seem to have that. Ash used to be the man but he seems to have been sussed out. I am sure that we will see a better Ash when Downing plays. I am hoping that he plays wide left and Ash wide right so the crosses come in from a more natural angle. Jimmy Milner in midfield would give us more creation and we might start to see more shots from outside the box! I think that 6th or 7th is the best we can really hope for with the players we have at our disposal. We are going to need better quality somewhere in that team if we are to finish in the top 4. I do also think that there is a case of "pets corner". We should be playing the right man for the right position and not putting square pegs in round holes just because the manager wants to accomodate that player into the team.

Ours was a pen. The guy kicked Collins in the back of the head and he was standing at the time! Ash made up for his pen miss but surely that was one of his traditional over-hit crosses!

We were miles better than them in that half. Had plenty of the ball and surely we have to score at some point? Can't believe the decision but i just had the feeling it would be a rough night from the ref once I saw it was steve bennett!

Happy with a point after watching the game but we could have beaten them if we applied ourselves a bit more in the attacking side of our game. We are relying far too much on our defence at the moment. I would love us to return to playing just Gabby up front and play 5 in midfield, to try and get more possession than were having at the moment. I thought the ref was a complete joke today. Some of the decisions were laughable. Cuellar clearly got the ball and you could see from MON's reaction that he was not happy! can't believe I saw Heskey at right back either, I would have thought he would have put Reo-Coker there once he made the change!

Great start to the second half. I hope Milner isn't too badly injured, that surely is the reason he was subbed.

The wide players had off days IMO. Carew was virtually non existent again and Sidwell wasn't too good either! I would like to see us play that extra midfielder, NRC preferably, so that Sidwell and Petrov can concentrate on getting up the other end of the pitch to help out the attack. I think Carew should be the man spared for NRC. Although Sidwell isn't setting the world alight, I believe he would be a better goal threat than Carew or Heskey at the moment. I cannot wait for Downing to get fit. I think my ultimate starting line-up would be 4-5-1 with the middle 5 being Downing, Petrov, NRC, Milner, Young. However, I think I would throw Downing in for Young at first, just to show Young that he needs to start playing better and that he isn't indespensible!

Tim The Villain & alike, Seeing that you think players should have more comfortable seating on the bench and get with the times etc. Do you also advocate the wearing of headphones and being "chilled out" whilst sitting on the bench, waiting for a game? It drives me mad to see players sitting, listening to music, when they should be watching the game to see how it is developing just in case they do manage to get on the pitch! How can a player get a feel for the atmosphere when he is listening to some speed garage or whatever it is they listen to! I think that the dugout should be left as it is. It's called "sitting on the bench" for a reason. Until the day comes when they rename the non-selection of players to "Sitting in the chair", I think they should refrain from installing chairs.

I like the idea of some good old fashioned Brummie music Sled! We should walk out to War Pigs and set the tone for the following 90 minutes play MON seems to wear a lot of black on the touchline, maybe he is a closet goth!

Hi General, I see your prediction came true and what a prediction it was! Just like yourself, I felt that we would have a bit too much pace for them to cope with, and it certainly showed. It was great to see us come back from going a goal behind. I don't think they had many open chances of scoring and that was down to a very solid display by our lads. I was proud to see the effort put in by us. I don't know about you, but I get just as excited at seeing a player make a great tackle or clearance, as I am when I see the ball fly in from 20 yards. Our defence was truly outstanding and it makes the fans very proud to see spirit shown like that. I would also like to say that MON deserves a lot of praise for his tactics yesterday. I for one have questioned some of his decision making in the past, but yesterday I thought he made a great decision in pulling Gabby out wide to stop Ashley Cole's runs down the wing. As a fan, I was screaming for him to do it as Cole was sprinting up and down the left for most of the first half. Once Gabby went out there, Cole was no longer as effective, especially after he got booked for fouling him! We only took 6 points from 8 games against the top 4 last season. We've matched that figure after just 2 games this season and I don't think that figure is going to stop their! With 10 points out of the last 12 at Villa Park, I feel the place is becoming a fortress again. Maybe now the fans will start to fill our wonderful stadium again! Bring on the Wolves!!

Hi General, Good to see you back on the site and seemingly feeling better! I would like to ask you if you are happy with the start we have made to the season and if you think we are on course to achieve our goals for this season? A light-hearted question for you that's off topic. Do you believe in the existence of life outside of our planet? Being a military man, I wondered if you had any such insider knowledge. Former US astronaut Ed Mitchell claims that there is life alien to our planet and that we are visited all the time, hence the reason for my asking! Hopefully the lads will get 3 points for us on Saturday General. I am really looking forward to this one as I think we may have a better chance of beating them with all of their players being away on international duty!

We played well in the first half but I felt like we never looked like really going for the win after City levelled in the second half. I was looking at our back four and they seemed like they were unable to pass the halfway line in the second half! I would like to see us be a bit more adventurous at home but it seemed like we were being a bit too cautious after they equalised.