Mammoth10

22 hours ago, Grasshopper said:

I 1st went to VP in our relegation season to Div3.

So I witnessed the rise to the top

Div3 title

Promotion to Div1

League Cups 75 & 77

English Champions 81

European Champions 82

Intercontinental Champs 83(?)

League Cup 94

LC 96

What a lucky one I am

Come on DrT, lets do it all again.

 

Erm a few typos in here or have I missed something! Nothing major like 

1 hour ago, Xela said:

Absolutely gutted

The first Villa manager I remember and still the best. What he did in his first spell here was astonishing. Took over a wreck of a club and got us promoted at the first attempt after a poor start. First season back in the top flight was a season of consolidation (but we put 13 past small heath in 3 cup games!) and in his third season we nearly won the league. We were the best team in the country for a long spell that season and was only inexperience and a lack of a goalscorer which cost us. McInally had been sold to Bayern Munich in pre season and we went into the season with Ian Olney (youth striker) up front before Cascarino was purchased with 10 games to go (rumours are he wanted Sheringham but Doug wouldn't pay the fee). We lost to a Liverpool team packed with stars like Barnes Beardsley, Aldridge, Houghton, McMahon and a returning Ian Rush. Our team was a rag tag bunch of discarded older players (Paul McGrath, Derek Mountfield), canny lower division signings (Stuart Gray, Chrissy Price, David Platt, Ian Ormondroyd) and youth (Ian Olney, Tony Daley). GT purchased all of them and also a young lad from Trinidad and Tobago called Dwight Yorke who he spotted on a beach! 

We spoke about club legends recently and I mentioned the 3 players who are the best I have ever seen down the club - all three were purchased by GT. Platt, McGrath and Yorke. Plus he brought Cowans back home from Bari. The vast majority of his signings worked out well. Am I right in thinking he purchased Rambo McInally as well? What an eye for a player! 

He was an absolute legend for what he did here between 1987 and 1990 and he's up there in my eyes with the likes of Ron Saunders, Eric Houghton, Jonny Dixon, George Ramsey, William McGregor and the other giants in our wonderful clubs folklore. 

What is staggering is that it won't just be us Villa fans dishing out plaudits like this. If anything his achievement at Watford was even greater! - fourth division to the first in five seasons and runners up in the league and FA Cup. At Watford! GT is a legend for 2 clubs and there aren't many people who that could be said about.

RIP Graham. You made me love Aston Villa and football when I was a snotty nosed kid on an Erdington estate and I will always love you for that.

Would appear we are of very similar age/background as I could relate to every single word of that, but not have put it quite so eloquently....bravo and RIP Sir Graham 

10 hours ago, VILLAMARV said:

It's almost as if losing 1-0 at Oldham to a bloody Ian Olney goal had nothing to do with it eh?

I always thought those Bruce headers were against QPR too. shows what I know.

Maybe the Mrs is right after all

It was Nick Henry, I don't think I'll ever forget that name 

SOLD OUT

https://www.avfc.co.uk/News/2017/01/04/brentford-allocation-sold-out

7 minutes ago, philgetaway said:

Totally agree with you pal. I was at the game, he came on and offered something we didn't have in the first half - strength up against Cardiffs centre halves. But he had a shot at goal ffs, playing against a bottom of championship Cardliff side.  Their keeper fluffed the save if anything.

I was at the game too, I saw him have 2 decent efforts, both producing good saves, gave us a physical presence along with Tshibola that we lacked in the first half, I can't stand the bloke given the previous 2/3 seasons, but credit where it's due this season.

not nearly good enough for wheee we want to be I'll add...

3 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

I'm so glad at the reaction in here. Judging by the people around me in the Holte you'd have thought Ross had an absolute stinker!

THought he did well today. Some of his flicks and through balls are very very intelligent.

If we can work him into a role where we can use that he can still be a big player for us.

Not sure where you sit in the Holte but the number of retards in L7 that slate him is beyond belief, yes he's not reached his full potential (with us) but he's clearly got ability and as others have said is probably too clever (like Grealish) for many of his teammates, very good, mainly second half today; hope he can kick on from here.

10 hours ago, fightoffyour said:

Aston Villa Premier League Boxing Day Results: P21 W3 D6 L12

 

Sat 26th Dec 2015: Aston Villa 1-1 West Ham

Fri 26th Dec 2014: Swansea 1-0 Aston Villa

Thu 26th Dec 2013: Aston Villa 0-1 Crystal Palace

Wed 26th Dec 2012: Aston Villa 0-4 Tottenham

Mon 26th Dec 2011: Stoke 0-0 Aston Villa

Sun 26th Dec 2010: Aston Villa 0-1 Tottenham

Sat 26th Dec 2009: No match

(Sun 27th Dec 2009: Arsenal 3-0 Aston Villa)

Fri 26th Dec 2008: Aston Villa 2-2 Arsenal

Wed 26th Dec 2007: Chelsea 4-4 Aston Villa

Tue 26th Dec 2006: Tottenham 2-1 Aston Villa

Mon 26th Dec 2005: Aston Villa 4-0 Everton

Sun 26th Dec 2004: Chelsea 1-0 Aston Villa

Fri 26th Dec 2003: Leeds 0-0 Aston Villa

Thu 26th Dec 2002: Man City 3-1 Villa

Wed 26th Dec 2001: Aston Villa 1-2 Liverpool

Tue 26th Dec 2000: Aston Villa 0-1 Man Utd

Sun 26th Dec 1999: Derby 0-2 Aston Villa

Sat 26th Dec 1998: Blackburn 2-1 Aston Villa

Fri 26th Dec 1997: Aston Villa 4-1 Tottenham

Thu 26th Dec 1996: Aston Villa 0-2 Chelsea

Tue 26th Dec 1995: No match

Mon 26th Dec 1994: Arsenal 0-0 Aston Villa

Sun 26th Dec 1993: No match

Sat 26th Dec 1992: Coventry 3-0 Aston Villa

Remember the relatively successful run in the late 90's well, Collymore putting in a performance vs Spurs, Dermot Gallagher cheating us v Blackburn the year after when we were top and they were bottom, and then a great win at Derby with plenty of wasted beer in the away end, think even Boateng scored in that one!

Can't believe the last 11 years

1 hour ago, Demitri_C said:

Watch the interview mate very bizarre comments from elphick there

Should have added I've not seen it first hand so will have a peek! Apologies if I've jumped to conclusions!

5 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

Oh my!! elphick was just on ssn and just admitted they didn't follow Bruce's instructions

unbelievable what absolute clowns. Now we see why Bruce and xia are so angry

I don't think that means they deliberately ignored what he said, more like they failed to do what he asked, there's a difference for me. Any we all know footballers aren't the brightest lot. You make it sound like they're trying to sabotage him/get him sacked.

16 hours ago, AJ said:

That was last season's game against Norwich, which we won 2 nil. Gabby scored too!

I really don't recall this game being televised, pretty sure it was a Saturday 3pm, but willing to stand corrected. If I'm right though I don't think we've won on TV since Small Heath in the cup last September and vs Leicester in the league back in December 2014, which is even more shocking! As said willing to be told otherwise.....

As for this one I like Markavfc40's line up and fancy a 2-1 away win. 

10 hours ago, andykeenan said:

Yeh received mine last week 

Yeah same here, easily a week plus now...

20 hours ago, Mammoth10 said:

We might as well win the FA Cup 3rd round to mean a league game will be rearranged after January when we are back to full strength ;-)

Oh and as an added aside, I'd like to **** the FA off by getting to the cup final and the play off final to see how they flap it then.....just cos we can!

4 hours ago, Demitri_C said:

Would rather just go out the fa cup, needless being in it. League all the way

We might as well win the FA Cup 3rd round to mean a league game will be rearranged after January when we are back to full strength ;-)

2 hours ago, sidcow said:

I had hoped for a better overall performance and we never really looked like we were going to dominate until they went a man down. 

But then it's not a surprise, literally everytime we got the ball we were fouled. Cardiff totally disrupted our play over and over again with foul play and because the ref let them get away with it we just couldn't get going. 

But even with the number of fouls he ignored there were just so many that he had to take action and it seemed inevitable that at some time they would have a man sent off. 

I cannot recall another match where a) the opponents fouled us so much full stop and the ref let so many fouls go. 

If ref reffed properly they would have been 1 man down much sooner and probably ended up 2 or more players down and we would have won by a country mile. 

Oh well a good result at the end regardless and finally with some clear daylight between us. 

This completely sums up my thoughts on the match, thought we were pretty much in control and stopped from getting into any rhythm by Warncocks spoiling tactics (his prerogative of course) but we did, at worst, a professional job. Grealish motm for me, unplayable at times, but loved seeing him put in a couple of great challenges when he had lost possession. 

24 minutes ago, TrentVilla said:

 

Well didn't see that one coming...

Amazing timing with the game this evening, could work either way I guess. Odd given his time spent with Houghton.

As for why he is coming, huge difference in the size of the clubs, the facilities, finance and ambition. Let's not sell ourselves short.

Liked him as a player in his brief time here, he was just what we needed at that moment.

 

Very interesting development, wonder how long his gardening leave will last?!

Liked him as a player too, seem to remember us signing him when we were short at the back and on a pretty poor run, helped us steady things up. 

26 minutes ago, Woodytom said:

What points did he do well in 90 minutes?

He was lucky to stay on the field the way he barged over idiotically into the grealish incident having already been booked.

Did he put the penalty away ok? Or was it not quite good enough?

42 minutes ago, villarocker said:

He's a good player but that not passing to the wide man in the second half was f***king criminal 

Kodjia not squaring to him in the first half was far more criminal. 

You'd have to pay to upgrade it to a standard adult ticket, the lights on the turnstile flash different colours for the type of ticket, so they 'should' notice. Best check in with the ticket office. 

1 minute ago, dounavilla said:

I think you just need to come inside.

Any issues, could slip round the back doors

5 hours ago, AJ said:

What were the results for the other 220 games?

He ordered his players to leave the pitch.

3 minutes ago, BOF said:

What's this about required win rates for the new manager?  Let's take a looksee.

Points required to get into playoffs in past 7 seasons
15/16 - 74pts
14/15 - 78
13/14 - 72
12/13 - 68
11/12 - 75
10/11 - 75
09/10 - 70

1. Maximum - 78pts
2. Average - 73
3. Minimum - 68

Games left - 35
Points so far - 10

To at least reach the points required in the above scenarios
1. 68pts required (17 wins = 51pts + 17) = 48.6% win rate
2. 63pts (14 wins = 42pts + 21) = 40.0%
3. 58pts (12 wins = 36pts + 22) = 34.3%

So even in the most difficult year to reach the playoffs, 14/15, at this point in the season we would not have needed a 50% win rate.  That's not to say it will be remotely easy to do.  Just that it's not quite as insurmountable as is being made out.  Plus I still probably foolishly think this squad once it is used right will steamroll sides too. 

Isn't that not losing a game though? Or have I misread....Surely most teams will end up with at least 7/8 defeats. 

1 minute ago, jon_c said:

Just read this on David Wagner:

 "Wagner took his players on a bonding tour of Sweden, where they had to survive with only basic equipment for a few days"

Gabby would not make it back alive.

Get him in!

4 minutes ago, Rodders said:

 

I hope not. The advantage of this window is we'll get a new manager in before that. I'd not expect Clarke to have more than 1 game in charge of us. 

Beat me to it!

7 minutes ago, It's Your Round said:

Clarke's interview is on the pitch in the next few games. 

I really hope it's not, we need to appoint whoever it's going to be in this international break, Clarke should not get a sniff, he's involved in the shite we've put up with this season...

5 minutes ago, avfc456 said:

He was most definetly at fault for the second , a typical Westwood moment losing a 5050 battle 

Epitomised his for me, held onto the ball trying to be stronger than his opponent, should have laid it off to the equally as inept CB (not sure which it was) to hoof it clear, it failed, it killed the game off.  Moments later smashed one of their players from behind in a nothing challenge, to maybe show he was trying, this bloke is a disgrace, I can pass a ball 10/20 yards back and sideways, I can definitely kick someone in the air, I can't however influence a football match at this level, same as this fraud! Get him away from this squad.