robby b

"WIP..... thats what we are." Wobbly impatient penguins? Wombles in prison? Winter in Penrith? Etc... No, none of these seemed to fit the context, so then I looked for it on the internet: work in progress. It's just as well we have Google these days, I could have been trying to work it out all night otherwise! There seems to be a lot of acronyms these days!

I think it might be a bit harsh to say Hourihane missed a 'sitter' with that header... apart from the keeper there were also three defenders in front of the goal. Anyway, at least it hit the bar, it was very close! By the way, someone earlier said that's all he did in the game but I thought he put in a great cross for Hogan's shot which their keeper saved very well, tipping it round the post.

Today's a special day because, if I've worked this out correctly, today's result means that not a single team will have doubled us this season!!!!!!! Not one! Hoorah! I mean, when did we last manage that?! Maybe about 25 years ago or longer, I'd guess. Well done lads. But there are still my other two hopes, that we won't concede more than three goals in a game in an entire season and that we won't lose by more than three in a game in an entire season... . That can't have happened for many years either! Come on Villa, you can do it! Nearly there now!

Ok so my prediction was quite a wide one: that we might not score or, and here I had a bit of faith, that we'd score one or two. Well, I was right... we didn't score 3 or more, we're just not that good. Burton dominated both halves and deserved to win, very harsh on them. In some games we're not bad or even quite good but today it was poor again, a return to the Norwich game, sigh : ( When have we scored more than three in a league game this season? We haven't. And now that's exactly half way through. Well, thankfully we just about sneaked another win anyway !

Oops, just realised the word no-one contains a hyphen (curse those sly hyphens !) or can be two seperate words: no one. Anyway, no team has scored more than four against Burton in the league this season, and we haven't exactly been prolific scorers so I predict that on Monday we'll score one or two or... zero ! (Boo).

For a start, noone's scored more than four against Burton in the league so far this season. They have conceded four but only once and that was way back in August, on the opening day at Forest. Apart from that, they've only conceded three twice. So yeah, if we win it may well be by just one goal. Hope they don't play as well as they did against Birmingham !

I'm happy that we've won five of our last eight league games... five of the last eight ! Yay ! When did that last happen? Maybe with Martin O'Neill, I don't know. Tim Sherwood went close, he managed four out of eight, in his first season. So apart from the first 15 minutes, the performance was poor overall but against Brighton it was good and there have been two or three games where overall it was quite good, or at least not poor anyway (I'd suggest Reading, Blackburn and Cardiff).

Aston de la Villa is now the team which has had the most French managers in the Premier League era: two. And there have only been six in total.

I just had a look again at our sad league results this season, still hanging onto a glimmer of hope that it's all a bad dream (a strangely long dream) and that I'll wake up in a minute. It's just a vast collection of defeats! Maybe they could be put in the British Museum?

Yes. I hope so! I just edited my original comment from relegation looking 'very likely' to quite likely because I don't want to give up all hope just yet! And you never know, I suppose a Villa win on Sunday is a slight possibility if Man City get a red card and we get an own goal or a deflection or something flukey like that, fingers crossed.

Although he did well with Lyon and comes across as calm and articulate and all that, we're still in so much danger, so here's my question... If we do get relegated, which looks quite likely, do you think he'll stay next season to try to get us out of the Championship straight back into the PL (assuming that he makes us better and that Fox and Lerner want him to continue as the manager)?

A bit harsh, really I think it's more like 2 goals scored because Traore made that brilliant run all the way to the byline and put in a fast, dangerous cross. When a team scores an own goal it's often because the opposition did good work to force them to score it. But yeah, we haven't been good enough overall, I'll agree with that. If only Guzan had kicked up field instead of giving Amavi such a dangerous pass with just three minutes to go, noooooooo ! : ( "I can't stand it, I just can't stand it"

If they score five goals then we need to score at least two... I can´t stand it when we lose by more than three goals because that´s when it becomes embarrassing. For example, I'll never talk to Olivier Giroud again. Well, I mean, I won´t talk to him if I ever meet him. Actually, I probably will say hi and engage in a bit of polite conversation, but that´s besides the point. It´s going to take me a few years to forgive him. "I can´t stand it. I just can´t stand it" (Charlie Brown, Villa fan)

You´re right, the fact they have better players matters, a big factor against us. There have been some games where we´ve seemed scared of them though, just too meek and mild. The players have to have some agression against Man U, some fight ! Having said that, we actually went close last season, didn´t we. Falcao, if only you´d headed wide, you terrible man.

Yikes, that´s harsh Yes that is cruel fate, you´ve just got to hope that the landlord prefers Coronation Street to football or that there´s a quiz or karaoke on instead, which can serve as a decent distraction. Unless of course we do somehow pull off a win then wow what a place to witness it

The trouble is, the longer the run goes on the harder it gets to break it because the players are conscious of it, it´s in the back of their minds. Having said that, maybe it won´t prey on the new players´ minds as much.

I´m 41 now and just trying to eat a bit healthier, do a bit of exercise, cut down a bit on the old beers and wine, and then, who knows, I might just make it into my 80s or 90s to live to see us finally break this ridiculous and centuries-old, horrific hoodoo with a flukey deflected goal 1-0 home win in the league against a nine-man Man United (sent off in the 4th minute for fighting each other). If I´m lucky. Actually it´s twenty years now, just the twenty : ( "I can´t stand it. I just can´t stand it" Charlie Brown

Sorry about that. I just needed to let it out. I´m going to have a lie down now, in a darkened room.

P.S. Hate´s a strong word but as well as suddenly hating Arsenal I basically hate Manchester United too these days, as in the club as a whole rather than on any personal, individual level, because whilst generally trying to get through life and keep my head up, this stupid yearly fixture of doom really doesn´t help. I hate the way it just sits there arrogantly on my calendar for weeks in advance, gradually creeping closer, curse you Man United! : ( I really, really, hate this ******* fixture, even more than I hate the Villa v Arsenal fixture. Aaaarrrggh !!!! If only I could swap my addiction to football for gardening instead. Damn. Can anyone tell me a few beginners tips for planting azaleas? Please !

Curse you Man City for just knocking us out of the Champions League places, boo : ( So maybe we won´t be in next season´s final against Barcelona afterall ! Drat. Half-time: WBA 0 Man City 2 So come on West Brom, two goals in the 2nd half and don´t concede again, please, so we can have our rightful 4th place back and cling onto it with all our might for the rest of the season.

Saying this, and then saying "good reason to bash" is lol. I would say pundits were pretty spot on. Run a sim on this game over 1000 times, and i bet we would lose more than we win. We looked so so poor majority of the game. Again. stop thinking results orientated on one game whether to media bash or not. I think "so so poor majority of the game" doesn´t sound right because hardly anyone in this thread or in various media reports or BBC livetext writers have gone that negative in their assessment... poor sounds like a fair description of the first half, maybe very poor (with only two shots and neither on target, for example, I was really pissed off!) but the first half is only half of the game, not the majority. It sounds like we were quite good in the second half, at the very least ok (five shots, three on target... much better).

Yes, this is so true ! Supporting Aston Villa is like Groundhog Day. (except that rather than just one day it´s a whole football season... "It´s Groundhog Season !")

I wouldn´t take that. That´s because a point will not guarantee safety. I won´t be surprised if Hull beat Spurs and then if we´ve only drawn we´ll suddenly be right back in big trouble again. On one hand teams tend to try hard to win their last home game of the season but on the other hand do Spurs want to qualify for the Europa Leauge?

Smooth : D

: D A walk in the park? A roller disco? A teddy bears' picnic? A dollies' tea party?