PaddytheVillan

How shite have the refs been this season? Going back to Chester's red, hand of Rod, Mings red, El Ghazi red, many more that I can't think of off the top of my head. If we do go up, the best thing will be not having to put up with these shite refs.

El Ghazi out for 3 games, Steer, Mings and Kodjia all potentially injured, and McGinn with another yellow. Really couldn't have gone much worse for a dead rubber. Respect to Bielsea but Klich, Bamford and Jansson, absolute f****** *****

I think I agree with this. This is his third season with us, and the only time he's performed badly. This was clearly linked to the fact that Bruce left us with Chester as his only CB, so he was forced to 'manage' his serious injury. And playing alongside Jedinak or Hutton at CB won't have helped him. It's a toss up between Axel and Chester for the playoffs. If we do go up, it's anyone's guess.

Mings played 17 games in 4 years at Bournemouth because of constant injuries, Elphick is in and out a lot because of injury, Hause was injured quite a bit at Wolves too, and as you say Tuanzebe has come off a lot at Villa. You're right that Chester is rarely injured. It really disrupts a team when a CB is constantly injured - the amount of times we had to haul Baker off a few seasons ago was a real issue.

And you've left out Elphick, who I'd put above Jedi. The problem is most of those CBs are injury prone, so there hasn't been a consistent partnership. But I think our CB pairing (if fit) for the playoffs will be as you say Mings and Tuanzebe, with Chester as first reserve.

I don't think we need to rest all of our players. Grealish (obvious), McGinn (card count) , Elmo (age) and Taylor (as our only LB) would be my choice. Steer Hutton Mings Elphick Hause Hourihane Whelan Lansbury Kodjia Davis Green Not the strongest team but still decent. Gives the fringe players a chance to show what they can do, as they may be called upon as subs etc during playoffs.

Excellent. Just hope Tammy is back soon as we miss his work rate and lethal nature in front of goal.

Of all the teams I want to avoid, Boggies are top of the list. Johnstone, Gibbs, Hegazi, Phillips, Rodriguez and yes, Gareth Barry, are all top players at this level. They were far better than us at VP when they won 0-2. Add to that the unpredictability of derby games. I'd also want to avoid Leeds but I strongly suspect they'll go up in second.

Phenomenal performance - we are miles better than Bristol and should've won 7-1. Their keeper played a blinder. And it shows we can win without our talisman. COME ONNN!

I mean we have 5 CBs (bearing in mind Bruce left us with 1) and 4 are out....Hause injured, Mings suspended, Chester and Elphick disappeared off the face of the earth... Combine that with Grealish out and such a huge game, we really have the worst luck. Fortunately, we still have SJM!

Imagine if the hand of Rod had been disallowed and we beat Wet Bum. There'd be a three point swing in our favour, meaning a one point game instead of four... I think four points is too much considering our remaining fixtures, but I'm glad we've got close.

Remember when earlier this season our best centre-back got sent off and conceded a penalty when we were 2-0 up at home, and then we capitulated to Preston? That was under Bruce. Today, our best centre back got sent off at 0-0 and conceded a penalty, and we end winning 2-1 away. Incredible. This is under Smith.

Superb - we were second best throughout the second half, but one moment of pure skill from Grealish to set up Kodjia (with rebound followed in by Adomah) made all the difference. Props to Steer for a big save against a penalty that should never have been. I'm a natural pessimist...but I'm starting to believe. COME ONNN!!!

Seriously that banner....WTF? You can see most of their faces clear as day. If SHA ignore this and sweep it under the rug to try and “move on”, then their previous words mean nothing. More Lifetime bans, surely?

Great performance. Need to win all our games up to the final two to have half a chance of scraping sixth. But nice that we can talk about it as a very outside chance again! Lolley is great - would have him at Villa if/when McGinn goes.

Never ever going to happen. We were excellent today, but Derby were also terrible, and we have no history of consistency over 10+ games at this level. Plus no Elphick now which means Taylor...

Kalinic Elmo Elphick Mings Hause Whelan Grealish Bjarnason Kodajia Abraham El Ghazi

He's a better option than Elmohamady. Who is our only other choice at RB. So this is a big blow.

It feels like every summer is an 'overhaul' summer. But the truth is, we are going to have to keep some of the mediocre players. We'll lose Tammy, El Ghazi and Tuanzebe, as well as Grealish and possibly McGinn. We'll clearly rid ourselves of some of the ageing high earners (Whelan, Jedinak, Hutton etc) as well as the likes of Richards and McCormack. My question is, aside from Grealish and McGinn, who do we really want to keep who is currently a Villa player not on loan? I'd say Green, Chester, Kodjia, maybe Hourihane and Bjarnason. But there's not many. My point is: we might not have a tonne of money with FFP this summer, and we'll probably lose our five best performers this season. Smith needs to find a way to make it work with some of the current players. We can't sign an entirely new squad.

Poor, very few chances created. Sliding down the league table toward relegation.

How many more points do we need to avoid relegation? We're heading one way only.

Laughably bad. Each performance is worse than the last. El Ghazi is appalling and should be sent back immediately. I back Smith, but we are heading closer and closer to relegation - if it becomes a scrap at the bottom he has to go. I don't think we'll win another game this season. How many points do we need to survive (genuinely)?

As well as not being able to defend, we now can't score goals. 4-0 to Stoke.

So much worse than just two months ago when we played them last. The worst team in the West Midlands. Lowest moment for me supporting Villa since the early 90s.

Bizarre you'd give a player that age on that salary a 3 year contract. He's hardly going to get poached off you by a Premier League club. Whelan is better as is Birkir, that's not saying much at all.