spacemanscott

Listen lads, you can call that unlucky if you like but if we didn't play so shockingly bad for virtually the entire game it wouldn't have come down to that.

i don't know how that just happened.

how come gabby and carew never realise they have a man who is about to nick the ball off them?

carew has slowest footwork i have ever seen

young has been poor tonight.

i'm really bored...but wait...here comes sidwell!

go on son, i really wanna see this kid. i hope to god he doesn't **** up now.

this is geting me very angry.....to say the least. we should be 1-0 up.

why are you angry?

therapy might help 8)

i need some too.

great corner milner. if that was torres through on goal it's in the net.

NRC looking excellent tonight, Petrov looking shocking now.

Bit OTT. NRC is looking OK.

If O'Neill doesn't change this he's a mug.

This is shit.

NRC has definitely been one of our better players, although he still lets himself down with a badly weighted pass every now and then. That said, they've all been guilty - but the weather conditions are making it tough.

Liverpool haven't been great but they do show the kind of movement we completely lack - we simply have nowehere to go when we get the ball as everyone is virtually stationery.

OK, just reiterating what I said in the main thread...

I'd go:

Friedel

Young, Cueller, Dunne, Warnock

Albrighton, Petrov, Milner, Downing

Gabby, Heskey

I think Albrighton can offer as much as Ash going forward but he will need to tuck in a bit more against Liverpool to allow him to cut more things out in the middle. The only thing I'd be wary of would be his positional sense when tracking back but if it doesn't work we'll always have the option of changing things around by bringing on NRC or Sidwell.

Well, there's no need to go over the top but there's also no point in having a forum if we can't analyse where we went wrong, so...

MON: 3 - got it wrong today. It was fine to start 4-4-2 after recent results, and the first half wasn't too bad, but in the second half it was clear we were being absolutely dicked on. Wave after wave of Arsenal attacks through the middle should have seen another body put in there instead of bringing Carew on.

Friedel: 7 - fine

Defence: 6/7 - OK but too may long balls at times

A. Young: 4 - continues to be our poorest player of the season, regardless of the fact he's put in couple of crosses that we have scored from

Petrov: 4.5 - OK first half, got lost in the second

Milner: 5 - much like Petrov but possibly a little more involved

Downing: 4.5 - decent at times, nowhere to be seen at others

Heskey: 7 - played really well, seemed to be everywhere

Gabby: 7 - more great hold up play but didn't have support from midfield

subs:

Carew: 3 - offered virtually nothing; way to slow to react to anything

Delph: 5 - positioning was a bit suspect at times but clearly has something in his locker that will hopefully be released soon

An OK performace against a team that worked like a roman army and also managed to produce some decent football.

I think we were looking well on top before Heskey went off. He was dropping off and producing some great touches and one-twos, and after we lost him I thought things went a little downhill. Carew was ok, and fair play for the goal, but I just think at times he's not good/quick enough, or strong enough (as silly as that seems), on the ball with his back to goal.

Special mention to Cueller, who I honestly thought was 10/10. I haven't seen a player read the play so well and cut out so many passes/runs since God was on the payroll.

Sorry General, I think you missed the point of my post. It's ridiculous that, a) Stoke is a Cat A game and you can only check ticket prices and buy them online with a booking history.

This excludes loads of fans who have tickets bought for them or get their tickets on matchdays from a kiosk, and therefore have no booking history.

The fact that you can't even check ticket prices on the club website unless you have a booking history is crazy! It's things like this that deter the floating fans from going down the game.

Incidentally, I'll be leaving in 15mins to buy a ticket down there - but many wouldn't bother.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

If there were Stoke fans in the Villa sections (which you would have if you opened tickets to those without a booking history), this thread would never hear the end of it.

General, I've quoted Levi for the sake of clarity (you stated your agreement with Levi in reference to his post). Forgive me if I'm wrong but were tickets not available to anyone from the ground a couple of hours before kick off? (I did go to the game but, in the end, was fortunate enough to borrow a player's season ticket - I have a pal who is a good friend of one of the players).

General Krulak here:

3. spacemanscott: Stoke is at 32,600 right now...including the Stoke fans. We need to get on this. Stoke is not a pushover....they play a very tough, rugged, game and we will find them a challenge. They have had a full week to rest up and we are playing 3 games in a week. Fans DO MAKE A DIFFERENCE. They fire the lads up and we will need it this weekend. Spend one night of the holidays out of the pub and come to the game!!

Sorry General, I think you missed the point of my post. It's ridiculous that, a) Stoke is a Cat A game and you can only check ticket prices and buy them online with a booking history.

This excludes loads of fans who have tickets bought for them or get their tickets on matchdays from a kiosk, and therefore have no booking history.

The fact that you can't even check ticket prices on the club website unless you have a booking history is crazy! It's things like this that deter the floating fans from going down the game.

Incidentally, I'll be leaving in 15mins to buy a ticket down there - but many wouldn't bother.

Hello General

Thanks for all your superb work, it has created a great feeling amongst the fans. I'm chuffed to bits that Martin has finally found a good balance in the centre of the park and has us playing some attractive football - it'll definitely help with filling Villa Park.

The stoke game is approaching and I understand ticket sales aren't brilliant, which is understandable considering the time of year, high unemployment in the area and the fact it's Stoke. With this is mind, I think ticket prices are a little high but I also can't understand why only people with booking history can buy online right up until the game. This surely stops many floating supporters who have never been to VP, or perhaps only ever been when others have bought tickets for them, from making impulse purchases. You can't even view specific ticket prices unless you have booking history! This must have an impact on attendances for games like these.

I know there are ongoing improvements being made to the website so you may wish to advise your web team to take inspiration from the Newcastle website (nufc.co.uk), which looks excellent and shows prices and availability for individual seats - which I think is great. I sat near the front of Holte against Wigan and could barely see a thing; the £32 I paid was way over the odds for such a poor view (although the game wasn't really worth watching anyway!).

Well done to the lads today, they all played their hearts out so 10 out of 10 for effort. Skillwise:

Friedel: 6 - did a few basic saves but messed up on the goal and did a really lame punch at one stage

Warnock: 9 - positional sense it excellent, seems to block everything and is always looking for a pass

Dunne: 9 - Superb!

Colins: 9.5 - the only slight error was allowing Drogba to turn away for the goal, but it was hardly in a dangerous position. Otherwise, his positioning, heading, tackling and blocking were simply immense.

Cueller: 7 - slightly ropey at times in the first half but some great challenges

Young: 6.5 - deliveries from goals were good and tracked back well. Open-play passing and running with the ball both well below par.

Petrov: 8 - ran the show in the 1st half but faded a little in the 2nd. In fairness he was up against the extra man in midfield.

Sidwell: 7 - again did the simple things well

Milner: 8 - great composure, always has the confidence to try and make things happen and made one or 2 great tackles when tracking back. Wish he'd shoot more.

Carew: 7 - held it up quite well and battled hard.

Gabby: 7.5 - was everywhere in the 1st half but not so involved the 2nd. Final touch still lets him down a little a times.

you are absolutely right. someobody who can take a good corner is always going to merit his place in the side...

actually our most potent weapon is gabby - he is fast, strong, scares opposition and has scored five goals already this season. ash is contributing very little at the moment (despite his gold plated gift wrapped corners of course) and it is painful to watch. it is not through a lack of effort - that is obvious to anyone who watches him. i'm not the only one saying it, and he has very quickly slid off the england radar at the moment too - i personally think that a couple of games out would do him good - you are welcome to disagree but playing him every week seems to me to be the footballing equivalent of flogging a lame horse.

So you dont think that Ash's right boot being involved in 8 out of the 12 goals this season as our most potent weapon, because he's not playing well? Jesus open your eyes will ya.

ha ha - open yours - he is only posing a threat from corners, thats IT! we are only scoring goals from corners full stop - and that is because there is fk all service coming in to the forwards from open play - and it is ashs job to provide that service. if we just need someone to swing corners in all game so the centre halves can score all of our goals we may as well bring back sid - get milner to push him around the pitch all game in a wheelchair until we need someone to hit a dead ball!

lets drop it eh? you dont see it the same way that i do - or fabio capello for that matter.

have a good night out and lets enjoy the win...

Ok then Fabio who would you suggest comes in then? I can't wait to here this.

I don't know why you're saying that like there couldn't possibly anyone else!

We could bring in Albrighton or Delph and Milner can go left or right.

Any ideas for a chant for Petrov? He's our player of the season yet we never even sing his name.

I can't help thinking that Robert Palmer's 'Addicted To Love' kind of fits in with his name...'Might as well face it you're Stylian Petrov'

No? Maybe not then.

hello, everyone - i'm an American Chelsea supporter with much respect for Villa... while watching the match this weekend I thought of a chant that Villa supporters could sing for Gabriel Agbonlahor. I apologize if this had already been thought of, it seems like such a natural fit I'd be surprised if someone hadn't done it yet, but I saw that your chant message topic had 145 pages and I couldn't find myself slogging through that for the next 4 hours before posting this! If this chant had already been used, feel free to delete this post and again, sorry for the intrusion...

To the tune of "To All The Girls I've Loved Before" by Julio Iglesias and Willie Nelson

To Gabriel Agbon-lahor

All he does is score and score

I'm glad he came along

I dedicate this song

To Gabriel Agbon-lahor

cheers all -

I like it! It's the slightly camp ones which crack me up.

He's a good player, undoubtedly. But I've said it many times now, I think we could almost benefit from not having him here. He limits the way the team plays because he's too good not to play but he's not a player that'll do what the really top class CMs in this league will do, Gerrard, Lampard, etc etc. He's not that big of a goal threat, he's capable of playing good cutting balls but almost never does. He's not defensive enough to tackle and go to be an out and out DM, he needs someone next to him doing some of that work. He's got a great pass and can link up fairly well with everyone else in the team. He's the kind of player that with a bloke next to him doing alot of the donkey work, and a guy just in front of him who can score a few he could link with would thrive. He's just awkward to really get the best out of imo.

But because he's good enough, you've got to play him and it limits the way you have to play. I can't help thinking that if he left, yes we'd lose a very good player, but we'd not feel that need to have to play this way. Petrov can do everything Barry can I reckon, and if we had someone else in the centre that knew how to go forward and score a few and link up with the front men, we'd be a completely different prospect. Barry doesn't play that way (arguably I'd say can't, not fast enough or tricky enough and his shot's not good enough), so we get left with Barry spraying a few balls round, inevitably to Ashley Young, and not really achieving a whole lot with nothing coming from the CM to threaten goal.

I don't think I've ever agreed with a post as much as I do this one.

I genuinely believe that as good a player that Barry unquestionably is, we could be a better team without him (I say 'could' because it obviously depends on his replacement).

I sometimes think people forget that it's about having a balanced team rather than simply having good individual players - at the moment our centre midfield is completely unbalanced.

To the tune of 'Hookie Street'...

They've got some half price turnstiles

But no-one round for miles and miles

No TV or premier league, a few fudged expenses fees

Boring games, forget their names,

What's his name but at a push

The only player they've ever had is Trevor Franics' ugly mush, mush, mush, mush, mush, mush, mush...

No income tax, no VAT

No money back, big agent's fee

Black or white, rich or poor,

Karren Brady is a whooooore

God hates the Small Heath,

We all hate Small Heath,

No-one likes Small Heath,

It **** reeks in Small Heath...**** reeks in Small Heath...in Small Heath