Harry

Exactly my thoughts. As I have said before there are loads of things wrong with Bruce at the moment but he deserves the chance to improve the side both in terms of the squad and tactics. Bear in mind he is picking up Villa after five years or so of utter shite and mismanagement. If not Bruce who? Loads of names get thrown in the ring, some people have heard of those suggested, others are obscure foreign managers. At the risk of raining on the parade of some posters Aston Villa are just not that attractive a gig for many managers these days. Sad to say but when we parted company with RDM I very much doubt most of the better managers in the Championship suggested would give us a second thought. Sad but also very true.

Still worth £25m then. Phew!!

I think you know full well I did not mean or for that matter say that. But hey keep wuming.

Missed the game and only followed it on my phone. Feels like we were pretty shite?

The anti Bruce nonsense on here is just ridiculous. He took over part way through the season when were, put bluntly, heading for League 1. He has steadied the ship, got us winning and made some astute signings. For the first time since Houllier we have a manager who actually looks like he knows what he is doing. Added to that what's the alternative? Who is the shoe in next manager off the rank that will transform us into Barcelona? Is the football good - no. Are the players delivering to their potential - no. Does he play too defensively - yes. But I would hazard a guess that he has done pretty much everything Dr Tony has asked of him. Is the manager to get us out of this league - yes. Is the manager to deliver the owners vision - probably not. I may be in a minority here but I am going to give Bruce the benefit of the summer to reshape the squad as he wants. Get rid of the dead wood and plug our obvious gaps, see how next season unfolds and then judge. That would include getting the best out of the 'flair' players he has signed. Slightly off topic I know but today we did not deliver against a side who really had something to fight for so quite a few learning points for both manager and players.

Didn't say they did. QPR are a poor side who we made look much better than they actually are. I don't know how fatigued they might or might not have been but a number of our players looked shot by midway through the second half. What pleased me was again we did not play particularly well but won. That's an important knack to have IMO.

TBH two games in four days really showed. There is plenty of room for improvement but we have much more self confidence hence we don't fold in games like we did earlier in the season. We could have scored four or five but could have conceded a couple just as easily. Our defending is generally pretty good but we are still struggling in midfield with too many loose passes and we give possession much too easily on occasion. I think we have most of the players but the balance is not quite right. This is the area needs improvement but is still miles better than it was. At the end of the day a win is a win so let's not be too critical.

*Rolls his eyes in despair*

Come on JV this is VT, you have to see the worst in Villa when we win.

Rode our luck a bit but conversely missed a couple of sitters. So all in all a good result.

But not malicious.

We are row 27 and have to stand because row 26 do. 25 downwards are pretty much all sitting.

Agreed and I think we will at least get our money back for once. The reputed £25m would be nice.......

Looking much better than he did. Still punches way to much for me and I still struggle to see how he is any better than Gollini. Maybe he will get better but one things for sure he will never make it at Man U.

He obviously wants to stay in Spain so lets sell him in the summer. I don't recall we paid that much for him so lets do the deal and move on. How good a player he was or is is pretty academic.

I'm probably going to need a tin helmet but here goes..... Given the money we have spent on him when he gets back in the summer I would reassess the whole situation. Bruce needs to sit down with him find out what his state of mind is, see whether he wants to play for Villa and assess him during pre-season. if all that turns to nothing sell him. As a couple of posters have said he scores goals everywhere he has played so why not us? Gabby has had lots of chances over the years after exhibiting a much poorer attitude so why not give McCormack a chance to prove himself? We need a number of players who can score goals for us, a luxury we have not had for years. Personally I don't think we should just write off the money have spent on him regardless of how rich a club we may or may not be. Whether we should have spent the money in the first place is a different debate but we did.

Highlights

Can't believe all the semi-negative comments on here. We have won five of the last six and that is the only stat we need to focus on. We may be lucky and sometimes it may be ugly but I will take that over losing whilst playing 'better' every day of the week.

Probably dildos and other assorted sex toys.

Loved the Scottish Kafu song for Hutton along with 'Are you Tuesday in disguise'

*Shakes head in despair*

SW have some of the dreadful fans. When we were walking back to the past the coach park it was all kicking off. I suspect that was a bit of goading from Villa fans but there was bunch of their fans foaming at the mouth, swearing, rattling the fence and trying climb over it. One SW fan threw a traffic cone that hit an old guy on the head and they some started throwing stones and what looked like bits of brick at the Villa fans. Usually the police are all along that fence but nowhere in sight today until the noise was such that they came down and tried to restore order. Further along we passed about 10-15 SW fans who had obviously spent the afternoon in the Yewtree. Blokes in their 30s at a guess, all pissed up looking for trouble. Mind you there were a bunch of police following them filming them so I suspect they were 'known'.

Agree with all that. Our finishing is really poor. One match I would really like to see us bury a side. I also can't believe SW are in the play offs either. They are a piss poor side. Oh and a final thought Bannan is as bang average as he always was in a Villa shirt.

He was stupid and he has paid the price although it appears from what posters are saying and for that matter Bruce that it was a much more severe punishment. Not sure why. It just smacks of the usual FA obscurity. Slightly off topic but will the linesman have his performance reviewed and will he suffer any sanction? That is not some sideways defence of Bacuna but I have bugbear about the too often low standards of refereeing and them being totally insulated from any criticism or seemingly any sanction. Why can't they be charged by the FA for not doing their job properly?

Proved his many detractors wrong again tonight. Great attitude and commitment.