VillaAndLoyal

I don't know about others but how I feel is that the likelihood of it happening is increasing to a level that worries me a lot. No, we're not favourites to be the third team to go down, and we're probably gonna get 6-7 more points and that's enough, but at this point all we need is one howler on Saturday and Sunderland winning, and then we're in real pressure while Sunderland get their miracle confidence boost (like Leicester and Hull). In this situation one bad game, one mistake, one unlucky bounce is staring to become too important for my liking. I think we'll stay up, but it's not really that unlikely that it'll happen either. Someone said odds are now 9/1. I guess that's accurate representation of the likelihood it happening and to be that's likely enough to be very worried. Wasn't that always going to be the case though. You do remember when we lost at Hull, we had a terrible manager, couldn't score, couldn't win and were 2nd bottom. Most people didn't want Sherwood and didn't think he'd be any good so I'm a bit bemused why people are now demanding we should be 10 points clear of the bottom 3 and already finished the job, we're not that good yet. Me personally I'm just happy that after playing Spurs and the two Manchesters away in April we're out of the bottom 3 and still have a 2 point buffer over the zone. That's what I wanted and to spin it the Spurs win was massive given how the results have since panned out. I would be a lot more negative if we'd lost that as yes then things would be looking very dodgy indeed and we would be relying on favours and teams not winning. To me the only way we don't stay up now is something like Benteke gets sent off for violent conduct on Saturday so would be out for the last 3 games or he gets injured. Then I'd be seriously worried. In the form he's in he'll be scoring goals in the last 4 games, match winning goals. I don't think it looked like that was gonna be the case anymore before Leicester started (or continued) winning, palace lost to wba and hull and hull won today. I felt much more confident after the spurs win and thought we were safe. Now it feels like everything goes wrong and it won't stop. That's true. I always thought Leicester had a good run in but thought they'd be too far adrift for it to make a difference, it dosen't look so bright now all of us on here celebrating them beating WBA in the last minute. They have enough to stay up now. Hull I must admit with their fixture list looked in real trouble but there you go that's the benefit of playing teams like Liverpool and Palace who are mentally on the beach. We need to do the same when we play West Ham and Burnley. I just look at Sunderland and think they're a very poor team. I've thought that all season, more so when we demolished them in March and Advocaat has limited quality to work with. They struggle to score more than one goal a game and anyone with pace destroys O'Shea as Bolaise did last week. I would be amazed if they got another 6-7 points in the run in which is what they'll need to finish above us as long as we win another game or claim 3 draws. I do agree with you about them being a poor side etc. That said, I think they've played fairly decent a couple of times recently, picked up a good point at Stoke last game out. At this stage of the season it's not really about how good your team is - a lot is about how much they want it and confidence levels. If they were to win on Saturday, they'd have momentum going into their final 4 games and that is a dangerous prospect (shit side or not). Remember they have a good fan base and, like us, I can't see them going down without a fight. We just have to better them. It sounds like I'm being negative - I'm not. We're more than capable of putting this to bed. I just think some are perhaps underestimating the unpredictability of the end of season run-ins. It rarely goes how you expect, as Hull showed tonight. We'll know more come 5pm Saturday.

If tonight has taught us anything it's that every team down at the bottom is fighting now and it doesn't matter if "on paper" it looks like a hard game; the 3 points are there for the taking. I think we've got to stay above Sunderland. My predicted run-in for them (being as generous as possible seeing as they will surely be as fired up now as us): - Southampton (H) - Win - Everton (A) - Draw - Leicester (H) - Win - Arsenal (A) - Draw - Chelsea (A) - Loss Many will slate me for predicting they could pick up another 8 points but I honestly think it's possible. More than 8 points is extremely unlikely imo. That puts them on 38 points with a similar goal difference to ours. Therefore, we need to win (minimum, I feel) 50% or two out of four of our remaining games. Another point elsewhere taking our total to 7 would make it certain. For me the key ingredient now is our nerve/confidence. We're playing terrific football but I still believe we are pretty fragile confidence-wise, particularly in front of our home crowd. Will the results others are picking up translate on to the pitch? I dearly hope not but it's possible. The first 15 minutes against Man City we looked very nervous and it was only when the game looked lost at 2-0 that we really came into our own. We CAN'T afford that in these last 4 games. We need to cut out the mistakes and be clinical - play with freedom but be disciplined at the same time. Everton will be extremely tough - if we win that I'll be very confident we can stay up. If we draw, it cranks up the pressure a notch but it's still very much within our grasp. If we lose, we'll all be looking for that Sunderland-Southampton score and (were they to win) it'll be squeaky bum time and we won't be able to make any further slip-ups; which will be made all the more difficult by the fact that everyone will probably panic and start getting on the players' backs. Whatever happens; just remember this: if the unthinkable happens, it won't be Tim Sherwood's fault in the slightest. The fact there's been such a remarkable turnaround under him and we're still deep in trouble just paints a picture of how awful things were under a certain Mr Lambert... Anyway, we need to stick together and roar the lads home! UTV.

It will be tougher as our home form has been far worse than our away form for the last 4 seasons. I'd rather we had 3 out of the last 4 away tbh. Need to get the home form sorted asap or we are in trouble. Yeah I agree. I'd have more confidence playing Southampton away than Everton at home to be honest.

I think it's almost impossible to predict these end of season relegation run-ins that we've become so used to. Reason being, a team with what looks like a hard run-in (Hull) on paper, could actually be playing these so-called top sides when there's nothing left to play for. Chelsea, for example, will probably wrap the title up with 2/3 games to spare. Quite a few of the top 7 have been dropping plenty of points of late. So because it's so unpredictable (I mean, who thought we would win at Spurs) we really do just have to focus on our own games and get behind the lads 100%. I actually think our hardest game is this weekend against Everton, who love playing us and are one of the form sides in the league. A point there and a point at Southampton would mean a win in either the West Ham/Burnley game will see us safe. It's definitely doable - especially with how we've been playing - but I just pray we hold our nerve.

This will be tougher than Spurs away, of that I'm sure. We need to put in another good performance and possibly get a slice of luck. No reason we can't win but Everton are one of the form sides in the league and seem to enjoy winning at our place.

That's what we did for the semi-final. Just wait until you can see they've started selling behind the goal then ring up.

Grealish looks like he hasn't got the confidence!? Huh!? He's been gliding past, and dictating the game against, some of the best midfielders in the Premier League for the past 3 games. If he had any more confidence his head would explode...

Haven't a clue how this game will go. Everton usually start strong and then fizzle out during a season. This year they seem to be doing the opposite and with players such as Lukaku, Mirallas, Barkley and Osman they have plenty of match-winners in their team plus a healthy recent record against us. Will their good form mean they continue as they left off today or will it mean they take their foot off the gas? The pressure is on us and I hope we can continue this level of performance. The pessimist in me keeps thinking that we've played very well for 3 games in a row now, surely we're due a bad game? But the problem is we cannot afford one. A draw wouldn't be a disaster, a loss would. But we HAVE to go for the win. Nervous already!

It's my 'right' to sing the teletubbies theme tune for 45 minutes but, if I did, I would more than likely get some very strange looks (and rightly so). We're still in a very precarious position in the league and we were holding our own at the champions, yet you have "no strong opinion" on a sizeable number of supporters (I agree with your estimate of up to 100) singing a chant on and off for 45 minutes about a player who may/may not have committed a crime but has absolutely nothing to do with Aston Villa? There's not even a tenuous link. I've never heard such a bizarre and ill-thought out chant in all the time I've been following us. People are very quick to jump on negativity from the stands when it rears its head, yet this seems to have gone unnoticed. How was that chant meant to be helping the team? And from a moral stance, since when was somebody guilty until proven innocent in this country? I guess this comes down to a far wider issue concerning social media and the boundaries it has blurred.

Crucial to who? Yesterday wasnt where our season will be defined at all. Our home games are where we will stay up, and you are criticising people for having prioritise when we also have to spend money on tickets for the final aswell? How 'crucial' a game is is purely down to personal opinion. I'd argue they are all equally crucial as we've proved under Sherwood we can beat anybody. I've not criticised people for having to prioritise at all. I know the ticket price for yesterday was ridiculous. I have criticised: - People who slate the opposition fans when it is entirely hypercritical to do so. Nobody I know that went yesterday has even mentioned their fans. Why? Because they were actually fairly loud. If somebody that watched on TV thought their support was "pathetic" then obviously the microphones didn't accurately reflect what was actually going on inside the stadium, as can often be the case. But because it's "money bags" Man City it's very easy to slate them, call them all "plastic" fans and assume all of them started supporting the club post-2008. It's a pretty unfair sweeping generalisation to make and, should we be bought by a rich Chinese consortium in the summer, it could be a generalisation made against our own fans in future. I wonder how many would be irked by that if it were to happen. I certainly would be. - The few dozen morons who thought backing the Villa in this "crucial" game involved singing another club's 'Adam Johnson song' throughout the first half. - I've also explained, linked to the point above, how I think some (not all) of our song choices are very unimaginative at times. And that many Villa fans seem to think our away support is better than it really is. It's strong most games, no question. So hardly "panning the fans", just not being a sheep in thinking everything is absolutely rosy. Funny the reaction I get on here though when I dare to raise anything other than "Man City's fans are shite".

David? ...and what exactly should the moderators be doing about people expressing their opinion? Where have I said anything about people not being allowed to express an opinion? edited by mods - please read the guidelines re commenting on moderation. The motives behind this post are driven by politics, not Aston Villa, and politics has no place in football.

So apparently it's too much to ask for to have an adult conversation nowadays? And because we "out sung the famous scousers" the week before I've got a cheek to raise a few very valid points a week later? It's laughable. I've not "panned" anyone. I've simply said it's very hypercritical to criticise their fans when we didn't out sing them and could only shift 1,000 tickets for what was a very crucial Premier League game. It's astounding just how touchy you all are when I dare to say anything about our away support, it really is. As I said in my second post, take your claret & blue tinted specs off and you may come up with some reasoned responses instead of making ridiculous false claims such as I have an "agenda", I've "panned" the fans etc etc. Man City did create an atmosphere yesterday and we contributed to that. How can you say they were "pathetic" Stefan when you weren't even there?

I don't know where to start, really. I just found it genuinely odd that you dedicated two posts to complaining about our levels of support yesterday. Manchester City were terrible regardless. You don't know where to start? Well how about answering my questions? That would be a great start. If you read back again, my first post noted what a fantastic performance it was yesterday and went on to talk about some morons who seem to think singing about a player which has zero to do with Aston Villa Football Club is a great idea whilst we're in the midst of a relegation battle!? I heard it twice before the game and that was cringeworthy enough but for it to then be sung 5 or six times during the first half is, well, inherently stupid. It was my second post which questioned our levels of support and that was borne off the back of reading several posts mocking Man City's support. As I said, pretty ironic. On the pitch I agree, Manchester City were terrible. We were brilliant. Off it, they were nothing special but certainly nothing to mock either. They out sung us. You'd hope so, outnumbering our fans by over 10 to 1 Oh dear. You're clearly not aware then that in the vast majority of cases nowadays, away fans regularly out sing their home counterparts? "Outnumbering" as you put it, has nothing to do with it I'm not sure what atmosphere the television microphones picked up but your comment that "you can't buy decent fans" is pretty embarrassing for the reasons I've already stated. Man City have just as many 'decent fans' as us, and they also know what it's like to be shite. Some people have incredibly short memories (or started watching football circa 2008).

I guess it has only taken until page 2 of this thread to reveal the REAL agenda behind this post starting in the first place: "You are right that in "the grand scale of things" it is of little significance but anything negative against the Tories suits me." Political point scoring on the main Villa Talk forum? Really!?!? [edited by mods] in reality this latest drama the media has latched onto has nothing to do with Aston Villa Football Club. The only people who are 'bothered' about this are those who wish to exploit it for their own political gains. As is evident in this thread. It was an embarrassing slip up, nothing more. And Cameron is clearly a Villa fan, regardless of how much you wish he wasn't.

I don't know where to start, really. I just found it genuinely odd that you dedicated two posts to complaining about our levels of support yesterday. Manchester City were terrible regardless. You don't know where to start? Well how about answering my questions? That would be a great start. If you read back again, my first post noted what a fantastic performance it was yesterday and went on to talk about some morons who seem to think singing about a player which has zero to do with Aston Villa Football Club is a great idea whilst we're in the midst of a relegation battle!? I heard it twice before the game and that was cringeworthy enough but for it to then be sung 5 or six times during the first half is, well, inherently stupid. It was my second post which questioned our levels of support and that was borne off the back of reading several posts mocking Man City's support. As I said, pretty ironic. On the pitch I agree, Manchester City were terrible. We were brilliant. Off it, they were nothing special but certainly nothing to mock either. They out sung us.

So I tell a few home truths and all of a sudden I have an agenda?? I go to every away game and when we're good, I'll say we're good. More often than not, we are. But, at the same time, many Villa fans seem to believe this bizarre notion that we somehow have the best away support in the league when we simply don't. What did you think of the idiots singing the Adam Johnson song? You're quick to retort anything I dare to say about our support yet make absolutely no reference to my point about that. You were at the game like me, did you not find it completely bizarre and inappropriate? In terms of the song selection - we do come across pretty thick sometimes. For example, singing "your support is f***ing shit" when we can't even come close ourselves to selling out the initial allocation!? We're just asking to be laughed at. And then when we sang "Where were you when you were shit?" (as we do every season) they usually come back with "we were here when we were shit" but yesterday they mixed it up a bit with "beating you when we were shit". Nothing award-winning and I think they're arrogant clearings in the woods but I do think it's rich us having a pop at their support when some of our own is so poor.

Oh and I do find it funny the number of Villa fans having a pop at the atmosphere today. I can confidently say they outsung us all game, without question. That little corner to the right of our away section was singing fairly loudly for most of the game and what's more, they seem to come up with some original chants unlike our boring "where were you when you were shit?" and "you're the shit of Manchester" chants which are so bloody predictable it's untrue. Seeing as Villa Park is like a library 95% of the time and that we managed to fill just two thirds of the initial allocation today (6 days after taking 32,000+ to Wembley) I don't think we are really in a position to criticise anybody else's fans. Anyone who disagrees with the above should try taking their claret & blue tinted specs off...

Fantastic performance by the lads. So proud that we went 2-0 down at Man City and still bossed the game & passed them off the pitch. Yet again undone by individual errors (Guzan needs to be dropped) and an incompetent Mike Dean and his officials who always manage to ensure we lose. Worst referee by a country mile, and that takes some doing. Well done, Mike. Finally, a special mention to the absolute neanderthals in the Villa end today who were singing Newcastle's 'Adam Johnson song' before the game and throughout the first half. What on EARTH has a Sunderland player got to do with Aston Villa Football Club and our relegation battle!? And what happened to being innocent until proven guilty in this country!? Said fans should probably spend less time on YouTube and more time learning the great Villa songs of old so we no longer have to endure the likes of the Paul McGrath song etc. Absolute morons and a complete embarrassment. UTV.

Here here. I've read some absolute drivel in this thread and elsewhere on the internet this evening. We really do have some absolute moaners amongst us, don't we? Never, ever happy. Yes, it's disappointing to lose like that again, but some of the over-reactions are hilarious. Suddenly our performance was "shit", "shocking", "bad" (some of the adjectives that have been used). We actually played pretty well against a very good Swansea side - a Swansea side which are up at the top end of the table on merit and who are renowned for their slick passing game. They definitely edged the first half but I'd say we edged the second and it was a free-flowing game with numerous openings for both sides. We're just unfortunate they stuck one away and we didn't. When you factor in the injury problems we've got and we actually did pretty well. That's what we're going to get from Sherwood - fully committed for the win right until the end and sometimes (like today) it'll cost us at the other end but I'd MUCH rather this approach than the negative, uninspiring dross we had to put up with under Lambert. It's ironic that on the day Brigada accuse the media of overreacting to the pitch invasions, a large part of our fan base overreact to a late goal and revert to being in a blind panic once more. Some of you need to remember how poorly we played at Hull City last month and then reflect on today's performance. It was committed, gutsy, positive and just lacking a cutting edge/bit of luck. We created plenty of openings, if not clear cut chances, how many times could you say that under Lambert?

If we match them for desire and application, then I think we've got a great chance for all three points. If they're more up for it, we're in for a tough afternoon. On paper I'd say we're the better team and we're full of confidence now so why can't we win it?

Tuesday was definitely the more important of the two however tomorrow's match is also huge, both in terms of the FA Cup and our confidence for the rest of the season. A derby double in the space of 5 days would surely give us the springboard confidence-wise to pull clear of the relegation zone not to mention the exciting prospect of a Wembley semi-final. I still worry that this new found confidence is very fragile and although we're on a high at the moment: lose tomorrow and it could again be shot to pieces. I implore everyone going tomorrow to sing loud and proud because Olebuyun sure as hell will be and we need to drown them out. I'm feeling a mixture of nerves and excitement - we cannot lose this!! Up the Villa boys!!!

Let them pop up. I dare them.

I am just so happy - Tim Sherwood's Claret & Blue army!!!! The Sandwell lot are really biting tonight... boing boing splat!

We did it!!! The players and crowd were magnificent tonight and we really stuck by the lads when our backs were against the wall. This changes everything now! One more win on Saturday and we've turned our season around Love to you all - more of the same at the weekend! UTV.

This is a call to arms for all Villa fans - young and old, big and small, rich and poor, negative and positive: WE NEED YOU! Everybody is hurting right now. Nobody wanted to see us slide this far and things undoubtedly look grim. But what are our options? Run away and die? Accept defeat and relegation with 11 games of football still to be played? Or do we, the fans, the lifeblood of this grand old football club, come together as one? Do we become resilient and unmoving in the face of this increasingly desperate situation? As Aston Villa fans, we've always done the latter - through the good days and bad. Football is a funny old game and this next five days could prove instrumental not just for the rest of this season but for many years to come. Win the next two games of football and we'll be out of the relegation zone and into a Wembley semi-final. We'll have beaten our rivals twice in a week and the whole mood of this football club will have shifted from one end of the spectrum to the other. That's all it will take to change things dramatically: two wins. Everybody is taking shots at us while we're down. Newcastle fans, Albion fans, Blues fans, Wolves fans. You name it, they're relishing the prospect of us completely and utterly falling apart this week. Do YOU want to give them that satisfaction? Villa Park can be a noisy fortress on its day. Unfortunately a succession of extremely poor seasons has gradually drained every last ounce of positivity from our pours. We need to forget about that now - put the negativity to one side and focus on being the 12th man. If you're debating about whether to attend either game: please do, your Club needs your support now more than it ever has done before. And for those of you already going: sing and chant until your lungs can't take any more. Back the lads and the manager 100% for 180 minutes this week - whatever the circumstances. Leave your negativity at home and ensure the lion roars. We are the famous, the mighty Aston Villa. Our past glories mean so many people would love to see us fall. We, as fans, have to play our part in ensuring that does NOT happen. So I ask my Claret & Blue brothers and sisters: spread the word. Tell everyone you know. Encourage every Villa fan you've ever come into contact with to get down to our magnificent stadium tomorrow and Saturday and play your part. It's now or never - we sink and fall or battle back and soar. WE CAN BE THE DIFFERENCE. MAKE IT COUNT. UTV.