weedman

I'd love to see a gif of this! Good performance, great result against one of the most in-form teams in the country, without the appauling refereeing it would have been far more comfortable

OK I have no booking history this season (going to game V West Ham but that's not until after) - 1 or 2 games last season only. Had a season ticket a few years ago when I lived in Leicester but since moving down south its just too much to continue with it...so I am strictly a booking history only customer and no chance of getting up to Birmingham to que for a ticket - when would they go on sale for me and would I be able to call up about it you reckon? I tried to find info on the official website but couldn't find anything past 5 game 2014/15 history?? Any help appreciated! I'd be doubly gutted after seeing us lose twice at Wembley a few years ago if I missed us winning there this time around!

Am I the only person that thinks Austin - who scored the third goal - should have definitely been sent off in the second half?! Even if tackling another player studs up into their shin isn't a straight red these days, wasn't it also him who made the deliberate hand ball in the first half which should be a yellow all day long? Cant believe it hasn't even been mentioned by anyone! I think we played well first half, should have been a few up and weren't at it in the second, they nullified Benteke somewhat by surrounding him with giants, then played long balls forward which our makeshift defence struggled with, especially down their right (Phillips). All in all we could have won, probably just about deserved to, but a draw isn't the worst result in the world - we still have 3 points on QPR and have a little buffer to the bottom 3. I firmly believe games in hand mean little in the relegation places, the title race where they should be winning every game, but points on the board are far more important than games in hand for the bottom teams IMO. I think 5 more points will be enough and I think we'll get them

I would have though the only time Benteke and Kozak would play together would be in the last 10 minutes of games we're chasing and just plan on lumping balls forward, other than that I think it's one or the other with either Gabby or Weimann alongside, not the worst front 4 in the league! Hoping he's back soon, I didn't really rate him when he was playing but liked him for the nuisance he was to defenders then suddenly he popped up with goals too! Shows what I know!

Wait, are you suggesting, with devilish subtlety, that first impressions do not ... in fact ... matter? Ah you caught that then...fantastic, I was a little worried I was being too subtle...

I like Lowton, he's not the greatest defender but full backs arent proper full backs anymore (come on, Man Utd have played Young and Valencia as "full backs" this season). I think he's a good player, good enough for a bottom half PL team I think, we could do a lot worse - its a shame for him that Hutton has been so good this year so he's unlikely to see too much game time, unless Sherwood plans on keeping him on at left back even when Cissokho and Richardson are back?

I do sometimes wish that people would understand that FIRST IMPRESSIONS DO NOT MATTER. Gil looked amazing when he started for us and scored a worldie, he's looked good with quick feet but he has never been anything special throughout his career, anyone think that maybe, just maybe he's not all that special? I understand that as an unknown entity and having made a spectacular start we all hope he'll be the next Silva, but lets not forget Emile Heskey scored a brilliant goal in his debut for us as well, Milan Baros too, Stephan and Luke Moore both looked like being superb players when they first broke in. It is possible that Gil is simply not good enough - I hope its not the case as I have been really impressed when I've seen him play, but it is definitely a possibility that he is worse than N'Zogbia who has also had a few spectacular games in his career (more than Gil, in actual fact) Why not wait and see how he goes? Rather than simply deciding he is the best player to grace the VP pitch in years and our manager is obviously deluded for not playing him?

Well said mate..... He also played a part in setting up the penalty! You just cant please some Villa fans.....win, lose or draw, they love to moan. Makes you wonder why some of them bother! Exactly I did forget to add, those saying he could have been sent off do realise he wasn't even booked for the tackle... Which makes his conduct worse and less worthy of the praise some are giving him over it. He makes a stupid, pointless challenge, and instead of walking away and thanking his lucky stars that he was still on the pitch, he decides to get involved in afters and gets booked. If he'd got booked for a regular foul of course we wouldn't be discussing it the same way. It's precisely the fact that it wasn't a booking through a regular foul, a mistake or mistimed challenge that I, and others, are pissed off with him. Both the challenge, that he should have walked for, and the afters that he got booked for were unneccessary and avoidable. I'm delighted that he put the cross in that led to the penalty. He's been one of the better players this season and I want him on the pitch, playing. I'm surprised that some are applauding him for doing something that didn't benefit Villa in the slightest and is instead detrimental to our chances against West Brom & Sunderland. Alternatively.....he could just have left the Albion player to waltz around him and net the winner.....there's no pleasing some people! Is there not some kind of middle ground between completely polaxing another player with a petulant and rash kick out that could easily have resulted in a 3 match ban (and still on 9 yellows so a further 2 game ban possibly to follow soon after) and just walking off the pitch and giving up? No? No middle ground at all? He couldnt have....oh I dont know, tackled the player then continued playing without the kick or any afters? No?

You mean apart from the first 3 quarters of this season? He was immediately better when he came off loan. Isn't that part of the point of a loan? Get them off the books for a while and hope they find their form and come back? And he was awful when he was bombed out, not one person complained about it - not one - and he went off, got some game time, found his form and came back a better and integral player for the team, you could argue Lambert played the Hutton situation absolutely perfectly

I try and explain this to my Mrs and she just doesn't get it. Oh well, her loss!

Wasn't happy with the lineup today, but it just goes to show - sometimes managers do know more than the fans! MOTM to Benteke simply because I don't think there's a single striker at the bottom 10 clubs in the country who would take a penalty like that under that much pressure, coolness personified! If it wasn't for that it's Gabby or Delph imo

If N'Zogbia scores a hat trick all assisted by Gabby would that make Sherwood a genius or the luckiest man alive? I've defended Gabby a lot on his thread but I don't get him or N'Zogbia tonight. At home against a team that will park the bus we don't need pace, we need guile - one of them and Gil or none of them and Gil and Bacuna would offer more of a threat against this sort of team....still what do I know, Sherwood gets paid to do this, lets hope he knows what he's doing! COME ON VILLA! 17-0!!

Your kidding right???No. Which part of my post sounds like I'm kidding? I agree, I'd play him over Weimann all day long. Is it a coincidence that every manager since he broke into the team has consistently played him? He's been dropped a couple of times, but he has been a major player under every manager we've had since MON, if memory serves even DOL played him a fair bit at the tail end before MON came along. There have been fans consistently throughout this entire period claiming that he "is not a PL footballer" and "wouldn't get into a Sunday league team", so what are we to think? Has every manager he's played under since he arrived at the Villa youth team been clueless and the fans right? Or maybe the fans are wrong? Reminds me a lot of Heskey, so many people couldn't see the good that he brought to teams and were blinded by his lack of goals but the professionals, the managers could all see it, and he always played. For me it's been the same with Gabby the last few years, this year has been largely terrible which is a great stick to beat him with, but so has everyone else on the team so it's hardly fair to single him out as the player that needs to go, when he's performed no worse than anyone in our attack this season

How the hell haven't we scored here? We're down, absolutely nothing falling for us

Everyone said the same of Newcastle when they went down. Crap owner, firesale of big name players, no experienced manager in charge etc. What happened? They kept hold of some of their better players, blitzed the Championship came straight back up and have stayed up since. That season is now thought of as a minor blip in their PL existence. There's no reason to believe that we would "do a Leeds" anymore than we would "do a Newcastle" - and that's only IF we go down. There's still only GD in it and 12 games to go

If everyone that has been poor this season was dropped we'd only have 3 players starting and they'd all be in defence. I like the look of the lineup, a bit hesitant with Richardson, but Tims clearly gone for attacking intent and Richardson has been a lot better going forward than Sissokho, fingers crossed it pans out

If you remove the first 4 games of the season (in which we massively overachieved) from the equation how does Gabby's contribution to results look like? I think you will agree that the those games are in no possible way a reflection of our season. And Gabby hasn't come back from a bad injury. Well sure you can remove the stats that don't suit your argument all you want I suppose, still doesn't make them any less valid. I agree with the injury excuse, but it is still an excuse, same as the poor tactics or no service or mismanagement excuse. With Benteke all people look for is excuses as to why he isn't playing well, with Gabby all people see is that he's not playing well and instantly hate him for it, even though you could easily argue that Gabby has a lot more valid excuses than Benteke does. Again I'll clarify, I'm not saying I think he's better than Benteke, I'm simply saying he's putting in far more effort and currently performing far better than Benteke and gets nothing but hate for it. Give me a choice of a world class player like Ronaldo sulking around doing piss all every match or a bang average grafter like Harewood running his arse off and at least doing his absolute best every match I'll take Harewood every time (especially if his recent record is actually better, as Gabbys is now). A player can't really control how good/crap they are, what they can control is the effort they put in, that's why I'll defend players like Gabby and Weimann. They don't pick the team, they can't suddenly make themselves as good as Ronaldo, but they do their best for the team. Benteke? When he starts putting some effort in I'll defend him too It's not that they don't suit my argument, it's that it's a case in which the WHOLE team overperformed and isn't a fair reflection of the situation. You can take a brief spell of games to prove anything you like, it's as if back then you said that we were the second best team in the country just because we were second in the league. If Heskey managed to score a hattrick against Bayern, that wouldn't be enough to make him a prolific striker, and that's all I was saying.Ok but I'm looking at stats over the course of the whole season, not picking and choosing the best or worst ones throughout it. And I'm not trying to prove that he is a prolific striker, because a) he rarely plays as a striker and he is clearly not prolific. I'm simply saying he is bringing more to the team this season than Benteke. Is it not odd that in a team where everyone except the defence has been crap we as fans will put that down to "poor management and tactics making them under perform" with players we like (Delph, Benteke) and "crap players who are playing at the top of their game and are just rubbish" with players we don't like (Gabby, Weimann, Cleverley). If ALL the attacking players are playing rubbish that's down to tactics, in the same way that all the defence playing well except Lowton and Richardson that's not down to tactics, because they're fine for everyone else, it's just Lowton and Richardson not being good enough. If everyone attack minded was playing well and Gabby wasn't, that's not a tactical thing because it's working for everyone else, but that isn't the case, they're all playing badly and therefore they all get to use the same excuse, not just the ones that everyone likes Sure, but I hope you will agree that it's very likely that had we had Benteke in those games instead of Gabby, the way the whole team played would have made Benteke's stats look better. Thing is, using team stats (I realize you also used individual stats) to make a point about one or 2 players doesn't really work. If you look at Gil's stats in the PL games he played they won't look all that good. Sure, that could have been the case, but we'll never know for sure and Benteke has been so poor many times this season I firmly believe he has been a large hindrance to the team. I wasn't putting the stats up to prove Gabby has been great, I don't actually think Gabbys been any good at all this season, in previous years I've always thought of him as an important player as he does so much selfless work for the team, his goalscoring stats have never been great, but that's not his game (bit like goals were never Heskeys thing but he was still excellent for every team he's played for). I do think though that this season he has suffered in the same way the rest of our attacking players have, so to single out him or Andi for not being good enough while allowing Benteke off the hook because of tactics is a cop out. They've all been playing under the same conditions and all playing poorly, at least Gabby and Andi have put some effort in

Welcome Tim, its a gamble but he could turn out to be really good for us, given what else was available and our complete lack of any kind of coaching set up to fill the void he's probably the best we could have gotten. He seems to win against the "lesser" teams and play some very attacking football. Despite our league position we have a stronger first team than a few around us so fingers crossed we can get some wins against the teams around us and score some goals in the process! Not getting into a player debate on here, but how can someone be considered "stealing wages" by playing poorly, but subsequently not be considered to be "stealing wages" when they earn the same wages and dont even play?

Because a 0-0-10 formation would see us relegated? Is Guzan gay or something?! You don't include the keeper in formations ... Surely you would if they were playing up front?

Because a 0-0-10 formation would see us relegated? Is Guzan gay or something?!

That cant be true...can it?! I dont live in Birmingham so I dont get to experience the rivalry but that would be hilarious if it happened

I like the idea of Sherwood, it's a risk, but everyone is. The experienced managers out there either already have top jobs or have hit a ceiling where they can't get any higher. Short term that may get us out of a relegation zone, but long term we'd just hit the ceiling and cease to improve (I wouldn't say no to Fat Sam for example, but he's now playing exactly the same as MON did with us, you'd have to imagine his ceiling will be the same - Europa League spot) An unproven manager has no know ceiling, for all we know he could come in and get us Champions League next season, or of course he could be crap (far more likely), let's just wait and see before jumping to judgement eh?

Well in the context of my post it made sense...to me at least! Although off topic but I kind of miss Harewood, it was always funny watching him bundle around the pitch, you could generally see what he was trying to do he could just never pull it off, reminded me of myself when my Sunday league team gave me a go up front once (normally in goal) got a wondergoal at Anfield A goal? Ah, those were the days ! Fun fact, Marlon Harewood scored more Premier League goals in his first season in the league than Aston Villa have in total this season, and his tally of 5 from his first season at Villa would make him their current seasons top scorer

Well in the context of my post it made sense...to me at least! Although off topic but I kind of miss Harewood, it was always funny watching him bundle around the pitch, you could generally see what he was trying to do he could just never pull it off, reminded me of myself when my Sunday league team gave me a go up front once (normally in goal)

I've seen it all now.Ok so you'd rather have a player in the team doing less and playing worse just because they're thought of as "world class" than a player in the team playing better and contributing more because they're not a big name? Sadly that doesn't even surprise me. How good a team looks on paper is worthless, it's what they do on the pitch that counts. If we stepped out on the pitch with a world class player in every position worth £50 million and were finishing 10th, would you not rather having a team of grafters worth 20p each finishing 1st? Judging by how you responded to my previous post I guess not, it's all about the names I literally have no idea what you're talking about Which bit aren't you following? Following on from my Gabby or Benteke rant I stated I don't care about the quality of the player I care about who is performing better for the team, hence, picking Harewood over Ronaldo if he was performing better (Harewood and Ronaldo were meant to be more extreme examples of Gabby and Benteke) ...apparently this is a ridiculous thing to say?