Only2McInallys

This has been a remarkable season. The bond between fans and players has not been better for many many years. This group of players have given their all(110 %)and its great to see players who haven’t featured much recently caring so much. Relegation overall has been good for us.The fans have rediscovered their love of Villa,we have played some of the best football I have seen for a long time(Brian Little team?)and we some so many players we can be proud of. Dean Smith has done an amazing job he has taken a group of players who were struggling ,got them playing attractive attacking football and promoted to the premier league .Incredible.

I hope Grealish,Mings Mcginn are sound asleep by now and wake up tomorrow with huge amounts of energy.

Hopefully Mings will win his Aero battles and Mcginn will continue with his crunchie tackles

Let’s hope there’s no flakes in there

Just looked at weather forecast for tomorrow will be bit cloudy and not too hot. Could be an important factor with Elgazi and Elmo on ramadam

Another disrupted night sleep ahead.Whelan or Hourihane ?Green or Adomah?Jack or Henri ? This has been a painful time.Some worrying thoughts come into my head .We have conceded the first goal for the last 4 games. The first goal in this game is going to be vital.We are going to be more nervous than Derby because we have greater expectation and more pressure.Although many in the media are tipping Derby and Lamards rise is a great story and this may help us. An early goal could settle us and allow to to play to our potential.I can see a scrappy goal from a corner in my imagination. I can also see Mount or Wilson scoring a screamer from 30 yards but I am trying to forget those images.

Another disrupted night sleep ahead.Whelan or Hourihane ?Green or Adomah?Jack or Henri ? This has been a painful time.Some worrying thoughts come into my head .We have conceded the first goal for the last 4 games. The first goal in this game is going to be vital.We are going to be more nervous than Derby because we have greater expectation and more pressure.Although many in the media are tipping Derby and Lamards rise is a great story and this may help us. An early goal could settle us and allow to to play to our potential.I can see a scrappy goal from a corner in my imagination. I can also see Mount or Wilson scoring a screamer from 30 yards but I am trying to forget those images.

Some difficult decisions need to be made .Whelan or Hourihane. How big a threat are Derby?If manager thinks they are a big threat he picks Whelan.In a way it tells us how Worried he is about Derby’s attacking qualities.Who played in the game in March ? Green Adomah or Kodja ? Kodja has the ability to produce a Savo moment of genius or he could have no impact and provide no defensive cover.Who would Derby least like to see?Probably Kodja especially with his height at set pieces . Just some thoughts to keep us thinking during the night.

I think we need to be careful about putting Derby as underdogs and our 2 convincing performances against them as proof this is easy. Derby beat Norwich away ,West Brom away(4-1)and Sheffield Utd at home.They beat Man United away in the cup and have in the last 4 games beaten Leeds , West Brom and Bristol away. I think this game is 50:50 .They have been in the top 6 for most of the season and seem to be able to raise their game above their basic ability and have a a lot of momentum going into this game. Lampard portraying us as clear favourites puts pressure on us on top of the general pressure of the game is a master stroke. If our players play to their maximum and we play like we were playing during our great run we will win.I am concerned about our right side,Abraham’s fitness (I think he dislocated his shoulder against Bolton),El Ghazi and Ramadan,Hourihane or Whelan. This is giving me sleepless nights. Delivery from set pieces could be essential for this game where Derby have weaknesses in this area.

Just wonder if the media circus that surrounds Frank Lampards Derby might help to take some pressure off us. We are expected to win .They have underdog status and combined with the young players they have, who probably will have much less pressure on them compared to Jack.They reached the playoffs by the skin of their teeth and they probably feel lucky to have got this far. Can we take our recent league form and play like that at Wembley .Its not guaranteed.I am feeling nervous about this game ,what must Dean and Jack be feeling.Is it going to affect their performance? This is the biggest game Dean,Mcginn Elgazi,Steer and Axel have been involved in.Lets hope they can handle the pressure.

The Beatles could reform and combine with the Rolling Stones and we would still come last

Does everyone in Europe hate us? Our song is not that bad.We are not liked and this has been the case for last 10 years. Not sure why.?

I think him coming on as a sub in that game in the 100 th minute tells you everything. His recent form has been very good and we were desperate for a goal. Something has happened for Smith not to trust Kodjia.I personally can’t understand it ,he is extremely gifted but maybe doesn’t do tracking back that Smith requires.

I hope the fans forget about our previous games against Derby. This is a one off game bit like Wigan v Man City in FA cup. The setting ,the occasion and the pressure can affect normal performance levels .Some of our players have not performed well recently will Wembley inspire them?I do worry a bit about Wilson and Mount etc that they are so young they probably won’t feel the pressure that some of our older players might feel and perform well. Our players have shown great resilience recently eg Rotherham,Leeds and WBA that even if things begin to turn against them they have the confidence to persevere.

Derby beat an injury affected Leeds no Roofe ,Jansen , Douglas etc.Leeds had lost momentum,had injuries and had an anxious home crowd which we can relate to . A full strength Leeds side would worry me and I think Derby is a better playoff opponent for us.Derby has some really good young players and have been bolstered by their run in and their cup runs make them potentially difficult.Their players probably think they can beat anybody.And they can. We have reached the final by beating WBA.I think they had the best squad in the division and we were fortunate they sacked their manager and didn’t replace him.Their game plan against us especiallly in the second leg was flawed.If they had not resorted to GBH I think they would have got to the playoff final.The indiscipline of Robson Kanu ,Gayle and Brunt was a godsend to us.If they had been more offensive against us and had 11 players on the pitch they would have caused more trouble.Our discipline over both ties was amazing .Because Mcginn and Jack were able to keep calm from such blatant intimidation is creditable. Our performance levels have dropped a bit and maybe the close marking of Jack has affected our play.We have areas where we are showing weakness especially on right side Green and Adomah are not playing with confidence.Why was Smith so reluctant to bring on Kodjia .Has something happened.? Derby in the final is as good as we could have wished for.We need to play to the level we can and we can win.Stange things can happen and 1 bad challenge ,one mistake from a player or referee can cost us the game Hopefully we can stop doing those shitty short corners.

There might be a few Hourihanes they need to steer clear of

Think we need to keep calm .Another West Brom goal would kill us.1-1 from this game wouldn’t be the worst result.

This season has been bizarre.We started well under Bruce then faded then we started under Smith with incredible performances and then had a huge drop in form when play offs seemed unlikely and we end the season with an amazing run. We have spent very little time in the top 6. Leeds and West Brom have been there all season and Derby have been there for the majority of the season. We turn up right at the end of the season and we think we can beat anybody.Maybe we can.Maybe we have timed this to perfection and we are playing our best football when it matters most . I hope so.

Very apprehensive about this. There will be goals and tomorrow I would take 1 goal lead into the second leg. I think there will be a lot of tension in the air and wouldn’t be surprised if they score first. Their results show they are unpredictable(they have beaten Norwich and Sheffield Utd away and thrashed Leeds 4-1 at home) We have been playing some of the best football I have ever seen from Villa and just hope the team can continue their recent form. I hope the coaching staff have been studying Johnstone from what I remember last year his big weakness was dealing with corners that are delivered on his 6 yard line.

Does anybody else think it’s better to end the winning run before the play offs start? Winning 15 in a row is ridiculous

Watching Leeds v Brentford wonder if it is better for us for Leeds to win and the race for Automatic to go to last game . The team that misses out on last day of season maybe affected more and makes them perform poorly and gives them no opportunity to rest players. Do we start resting players now or try to keep momentum going?

Getting back to playoffs I don’t think we can take anything for granted. We haven’t beaten any of the top 4 this season(WBA have beaten all of them Norwich Sheffield away and beaten Leeds 4-1 at home) We are playing extremely well and beating teams outside top 4 with relative ease.Can we do the same against the top 4? We probably won’t know until the playoffs start as our last 2 games may be meaningless. Last season when we beat Wolves we all thought if we can beat the best team in league easily we can beat them all.We won’t know how good this team is until playoffs.

He was the wrong manager at that time.There was a huge squad change coupled with the loss of Delph and Benteke.We needed an experienced Premier League manager.

I am more concerned about West Brom. There squad is full of premier league players.The year before they were relegated they finished 10 th .They have added Gayle and Johnstone to that squad.They have been inconsistent this season otherwise and that’s why they have not achieved automatic promotion. Beating them over 2 legs is going to be more difficult than Leeds or Sheffield in my opinion. Maybe it would be better to finish 6th.

I think our main threat to playoffs are now Middlesbororugh and Derby.I can see boro winning there 3 remaining easy games giving them 76 points.Derby have 3 winnable games including WBA on last day where Albion will have nothing to play for and will probably rest players for play offs.Derby do have that tricky game against Bristol.If that game is a draw that gives them 74 points or a win 76 points. We need to beat Millwall and get a point from Leeds or Norwich