darrenm

Given is a rocket polisher of the highest order. We're all jealous of him for playing at Man City apparently:

Given said: "I was a little bit surprised by the reaction to Gareth. He deserves a lot of credit for what he has done for Villa. It is a bit harsh on him getting booed and the reception he got.

"He was at Villa for so many years and did great service, got them £12m after Villa hardly paid a penny for him as well, so I thought it was a bit unfair. A bit strange.

"Gareth has come to us and wants to further his career and hopefully win trophies and I think the fans should respect what he has done for the club and move on.

"Fans up and down the country are perhaps a bit jealous of Man City in the sense that they have new owners and what they can bring to the club. But they should respect Gareth for what he did beforehand."

Given is happy with City's start to the season and believes the game at Villa shows how much they are progressing as a team.

He said: "We need to get up there in the top half of the table and we have had a very decent start to the season. Maybe last season we would have struggled with a game like the one at Villa, who are a strong team, and we showed a lot of spirit and character to come back into the game.

"We didn't start the game very well but we responded in the second half and during that period, if anyone was going to win it, I thought it was ourselves."

Forget the names, Warnock is the best LB in the Premiership at the moment.

Come on Blackburn.

The Nokia n900 is VERY nice.

Besides that one

Out of my study group, 14 have Iphones, 5 have Nokias, the Nokia people also want Iphones, the Iphone people guard it with their life.

Actually... I think there is a samsung in there too.

That's because Nokias are rubbish.

Exactly. Apart from Rooney, the best English player for a generation, they looked distinctly average today.

You mean Roy of the Rovers. Taking free kicks, taking corners, getting into the box for crosses, chasing back, covering at left back.

And diving.

SHH! We're not allowed to say anything about it. Only foreign players get chastised for diving, Rooney's English so it's OK.

I put Warnock as the MOTM because even though he had to go off, he was so immense before he got injured that he still deserves it. I hope Capello was watching today because over the last few games Warnock is ahead of Cashley even.

We're in a title race now.

Alan Green keeps banging on about how Villa winning is good for Chelsea and Arsenal.

The thought doesn't seem to have entered his tiny brain that it is bloody good news for Aston Villa.

Alan Green and Co (MOTD) will still refuse to let go the clique that is the top 4, the more they can dismiss this win by Villa the more they paper over it and business as usual.

Fact is Man Utd we not just beaten today, they were at least equalled all over the park, matched in every dept, if you think about it they had to be, and in some circumstances we were the better side, we defended with composure they looked rushed, our keeper looker in control, there keeper looked average, they threw everything at us and still couldn't break our hold.

We just beat Man Utd at the theatre of dreams and despite the fact we were the away team playing the game out, we beat them well and with style that would compliment any Champions League side, that's what put the willies up them.

I said pretty much all of this 2 days ago in this thread and got laughed off the board. Feeling rather smug now.

Interestingly, BBC have changed their front page headline to Villa earn impressive win over Man Utd...

Must have been that torrent of emails and texts from irate Villans

Just got in, half pissed. What was the headline before?

Man Utd Play Really Shit and Give the Game to Villa.

More or less.

Feel like Cup Final day to anyone else?

I'm not drinking from the iPhone fountain, however the iPhone is still the best smart phone out there. The phones you have mentioned try to do what the iPhone does, yet don't do it as well. They haven't left the iPhone behind and no smart phone currently on the market is as good as the iPhone. Have you tried using an iPhone yourself or are you just Apple bashing, like so many people do for no reason?

I was looking in Stuff magazine just the other day and they still have the iPhone rated as the best smart phone. Now surely they know more about a good phone?

Odd that Stuff magazine found the iPhone the best smart phone when T3 has the HTC Hero as the Gadget of the Year 2009 and as Phone of the Year 2009 then as one of the top gadgets of the past 10 years:

http://www.t3.com/features-gallery.html?articleId=12697&pic=/images/TTT172.tenyears3.htchero.jpg&id=89

2009: HTC Hero

Winner of both Gadget of the Year and Phone of the Year at the 2009 T3 Awards, the HTC Hero is the best Android phone yet, and the only mobile to date that matches the iPhone in most respects - it even bests Apple's phone in certain areas. Google's open-source OS means it's a joy to use as a phone, messenger, media player, browser and app platform - there are 17,000 apps and counting at the Android Market - but the Hero also won plaudits for HTC's handset design. With its understatedly stylish looks, decent battery life and stunning multi-touch screen, it's a veritable cornucopia of techy delights. We can't wait to see what HTC does with Google's high-fl ying platform next.

The Droid wins Phone of the Year 2009 above the iPhone 3GS:

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1945379_1944278,00.html

Everybody likes Android, Google's open-source smartphone operating system. But a smartphone operating system isn't all that satisfying without an actual kick-ass smartphone wrapped around it. Now Android has one: The Droid is a hefty beast, a metal behemoth without the gloss and finish of the iPhone, but you don't miss it. The Droid's touchscreen is phenomenally sharp and vivid, it has an actual physical (not great, but good enough) keyboard, and best of all, the Droid is on Verizon's best-of-breed 3G network. It's Android's first credible challenge to the iPhone. Price: $300.

As I said above, each to their own but you're obviously going against popular media opinion that the iPhone is still the best smartphone.

I just extended my contract after looking at everything else, including phones you mentioned above that friends have. Strangely they all want an Iphone and not the phones they do have.

I've found the opposite. About 50% of the peope I know with iPhones are getting Android next. That's not a throw away comment either, they like their iPhones but are slightly disappointed at various bits of it that Android does better.

I don't mean to be incendiary and I know that 99.9999% of people reading this will have already started drinking from the Apple fountain... but iPhones really aren't all that good anymore. Yeah they were great when they first came out but they've now been overtaken by Android phones. The original iPhone was not quite as good as the original T-Mobile G1 (HTC Dream), now the Hero is better than the 3GS and the new Android phones like the Droid and the Xperia X10 really leave the iPhone behind.

Each to their own but I would urge anyone thinking of getting an iPhone to at least look at what else is on offer.

Anyone at the game want to give a balanced view of proceedings?

There's no way we're going down with that team. I would say that's our strongest 11 at the moment (maybe Collins for Dunne).

Every single one of the midfielders and attackers are potential match-winners. Awesome.

Cwor that's some team!

Albrighton on one side, Downing on the other should tear them apart.

Last time I heard football is all about how many goals you score, doesn't matter how you score them as long as it's within the rules.

Feel absolutely cheated out of 3 points tonight because of a goal that shouldn't have stood. It was quite an obvious handball.

Tactically against Spurs I would like to see this team:

                Friedel


Young     Cuellar    Dunne    Warnock


Milner      NRC      Petrov     Young


           Gabby     Heskey 

Bring Downing on at half time for NRC / Heskey / Gabby depending on how we're doing.

Some awesome posts in here tonight.

I watched it on a decent Internet feed. Missed the first 15 mins but managed to stay glued to the rest.

Overall it was a well-fought decent game with the quality dampened down by the weather. As usual from about 15 mins before half and for most of the 2nd half we dominated it. Burnley are always very strong in midfield but we stood up to them for the most part. Really pleasantly surprised to see Downing on.

My ratings:

Friedel - 7 - Perhaps could have been out a bit quicker for their goal. But made a couple of great saves.

Young - 6 - Still getting back into it. Normally better going forward than he was today but still dedicated enough. Seemed to liven up when his old team-mate Downing came on.

Cuellar - 6 - Did everything he needed to, no major mistakes.

Dunne - 5 - Worst Villa game so far. Most likely explanation is Wednesday night. Back to normal next week.

Warnock - 8 - Player of the season so far. More to come.

Milner - 7 - Hard-working and dedicated as usual. Little more class required to really push on.

Sidwell - 5 - Normally a fan of the unsung hero job he does but he wasn't at the races today.

Petrov - 7 - Played quite well. Not his best performance and not his worst. Best footballing brain at the club. Knows zonal like the back of his hand and is a key reason we're so good defensively.

Young - 7 - Pretty good. Needs more confidence. When the keeper was out of position he could have taken it forward and square a bit more before unleashing but snatched at it, even though he wasn't far away. Thank god we have Downing for right-sided set pieces now.

Gabby - 6.5 - Always dangerous but not on fire today. Needs that to look top-level.

Carew - 4 - Didn't see him do a lot.

Heskey - 8 - Pushing for his place and has earned it IMO.

Downing - 8 - Right into it and quality shone straight through. Can't wait to see him score against Spuds.

I'm a big fan of NRC and after today he probably deserves a spot instead of Sidwell but he's certainly seeing his value go up from the Bolton result when they were beaten before they even got on the coach.

Friedel

L.Young

Warnock

Collins

Dunne

Sidwell

Reo-Coker

Delph

Albrighton

A.Young

Gabby

Do it!

I would love to see that team tonight.

General Krulak here:

1. dirk1978: I don't think it would be possible to put a "welcome" on the PA...it would start a precedent that would be hard to keep up.

NP Gen. Thanks anyway. Sorry for putting you in a difficult position.

Hi General.

1. I'm sure you're aware of this but I'll post it anyway - for every person with unrealistic views on what is and isn't possible with transfers there are lots more of us that are happy leaving the flying of the plane to the qualified pilots and have every faith we will arrive at our destination in the smoothest and quickest way possible and theres no reason to think anyone in charge would want anything different to that.

2. I'm taking my little brother (13) to his first football match on Saturday, he's really looking forward to it and so am I. Is there any chance he could be welcomed over the PA? He's had a few problems recently that I don't wish to bore you with and that would make his year and also make him a lifelong Villa supporter.

Thanks for your help.

I'm afraid I don't rate Alonso at all and I don't think he would be good enough for us.

2. chefdoc2000. Simply put, I fully understand why you are cancelling your subscription to AVTV!!! That is a hard thing for me to say but I say it. What I can tell you is that your Club is aware of the problems with AVTV and are working hard to upgrade the capability and make it something that is worthy of this Club. You will see a change in the coming months....but until then, I fully respect your decision. I wish I could say "don't do it" but I can't and won't. What I will say is that we are going to fix it...to INCLUDE MAC capable.

Hi General. Could you also ensure that Linux is thought about too. Thanks.

Evening General,

are there any plans to help develop this area? It doesn't look too bad from the air but err I'm not sure how I can say it other than it's a complete dump to walk through. I know you can't reach everywhere and redevelop all of Birmingham and I also understand this is a commercial area so there are limits on what can be done but it is rather intimidating for people walking through this area.

Thanks!