VillaAndLoyal

I wish I could have voted for all of those moments to be fair. However, for pure, unrivalled, utter uphoria, it has to be Gabby's injury time winner at the Sty in 2007. Although the one in 2009 was just as good. It was the first time i'd ever stepped foot in the Sty, and to score in the last minute, in-front of our fans, fans on the pitch, the whole end just exploded as we once again showed who is Birmingham's Numero Uno. What a bloody feeling!

I bloody hate mancs 8) Would rather us play the Cockney's if i'm honest, i just couldn't take losing to ol' Fat Arse.

Steven Gerrard is a pissed up thug who should be behind bars. James Milner is a teetotal work-a-holic who is fast becoming a star.

I honestly couldn't care less WE'RE GOING TO WEMBERLEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For all of the ups and downs, the uncertainty, the below par achievements of recent years, TONIGHT made it all worth it, and is why we follow the Villa through thick and thin. It was a truly joyous moment at the end, standing in the Holte Upper, singing with the thousands of fans down on the pitch. What a game, typical Villa, but we got there in the end!!! Elated is an understatement. One of the best days of my life, and i've already watched the full game back on the BBC WE'LL BE RUNNING ROUND WEMBLEY WITH THE CUP, WE'LL BE RUNNING ROUND WEMBLEY WITH THE CUP, WE'LL BE RUNNING ROUND WEMBLEY, RUNNING ROUND WEMBLEY, RUNNING ROUND WEMBLEY WITH THE CUP, PISSED UP!! WE'LL BE RUNNING ROUND THE BULLRING WITH THE CUP, WE'LL BE RUNNING ROUND THE BULLRING WITH THE CUP, WE'LL BE RUNNING ROUND THE BULLRING, RUNNING ROUND THE BULLRING, RUNNING ROUND THE BULLRING WITH THE CUP, PISSED UP!! THE CITY IS OURSSS

TELL ME MAA, ME MAA, TO PUT THE CHAMPAGNE ON ICE, WE'RE GOING TO WEMBLEY TWICE, TELL ME MAA, ME MAA!!!! COME ONNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :x

I have butterflies already just thinking about it. God knows what i'll be like approaching kick-off :shock: First part of the game and indeed the first goal is massively important and will ultimately determine whether we go to Wembley or not. I just hope the players want it as much as the fans...

I can't believe three people thought Gabby was the best player on the pitch Nice to see humour isn't dead!

You ruined an excellent post by adding this sentence Yeah, fair enough, everyone is entitled to an opinion. But i've read people on here giving him 3's out of 10 and saying he was one of our worst players, which is almost as silly as O'Neill using tiredness as an excuse for today.

Right, first of all, I cannot get my head around the fact we played the exact SAME ten outfield players as Thursday. We have had a good couple of weeks rest, so tiredness SHOULDN'T be an issue at this moment in time, however, with two such important games in the League Cup, this was a perfect chance to make a few changes. Especially given the fact that West Ham had no recognised striker up front and it was blindingly obvious they were coming for a point. I am assuming that Cuellar was moved to right back on Thursday to counter Blackburn's attacking presence, and I am expecting a similar set-up for the return match, so surely Luke Young would be back in the line-up today? But no, same back four which seems very unfair on Young. Heskey is in better form than Carew at the moment, so will probably start on Wednesday, so today was a brilliant chance to hand Big John a start and say "prove to me you deserve to be in the team" but yet again, Carew has to settle for a cameo appearance. Reo-Coker has played brilliantly in his last two games, today against his old club was a great chance to play him instead of Petrov who gets easily worn out, again, nothing? Not even on the bench? If Nigel has any sense he will be looking for the fastest ticket out of here, because he'll never get a fair crack of the whip under O'Neill at Villa, that much is obvious. On to the game, people who are saying "we played **** shite, absolute dire all game" stop talking out of your arses. We came up against a very poor, negative West Ham side and spent practically the whole game camped in their half trying to break them down. When an away team comes with such obvious intentions (to see out a 0-0 draw for a point) it is bound to dictate the pattern of the game. However, I thought despite the wrong line-up starting the game, once we woke up after 15 minutes we completely dominated the match and it is one reason and one reason alone we didn't win the game: our strikeforce/finishing. We had 16 corners, which are supposedly a strength of ours, yet nothing came of them. Around half were shit deliveries and the other half were either not attacked or wasted (Dunne and Collins both wasted good headed chances in the second half). Milner was brilliant in the first half. The amount of times he darted into brilliant channels and pointed where he wanted the ball, but the rest of our team are on a completely different wavelength to Jimmy; he is far too quick-thinking compared to the rest of the team. By the time the player with the ball noticed him, it was either too late or Milner had been closed down. Granted, in the second half, Milner tired badly which probably isn't surprising given the fact he's still only just recovered from an injury and the amount of running he did in the first 45 was bordering on insane. Stuart Downing, who I have been quite critical of recently, was by and away the best player on that pitch today, by a country mile. Anyone who says different is talking rubbish. He showed energy in beating players through the centre as well as round the outside, he switched play with pinpoint passes (using both feet) which were Beckham-esque, he set up Gabby with a brilliant chance in the second half as well as Milner's chance which hit the post, if Carew had stayed onside it was his right-foot shot which would have led to the winning goal, and he EVEN made a couple of decent tackles. Not to mention his on the ground passing which is, on the whole, very good. Agbonlahor worries me. He has the potential to be a very decent player, and I like him; when he's on form he's brilliant. And it's an obvious problem for goalscorer's that when a barren spell occurs, it is quite easy to lose that bit of confidence. However, with Gabby it just seems to be an extreme form of that very common scenario. When he's in form, fine. But as soon as he goes just a couple of games without a goal, and say he misses a couple of chances, you visibly start to see him wilt. He had at least four cracking chances today, all in different areas of the pitch. He had the turn and shot in the first half, which was very well brought down, but then he should be firing them low into the net. Anywhere above waist height is always going to give the keeper a chance, and it was indeed saved. Second, Downing's ball into the penalty box, he's only a few yards out but yet again his first touch let's him down and another brilliant chance is wasted. Third, Green gets caught knapping by Carew, ball lands at Gabby's feet with Green out of goal, in short- BLOODY SHOOT. But instead he wants too much time and looks scared of having a go. And lastly, the one-on-one, supposedly the kind of chance Gabby thrives on. And the thing is, the ball was already running towards the goal (there was no need for a heavy touch) a striker should instinctively know how far out he is, all it needed was a slight touch to knock it onto his right foot and then BANG. But again, he seems nervous as hell. For someone who talks about bulking up over the summer he should forget the muscles and focus on growing a pair of bollocks, because a striker who seems too scared to shoot is never a good thing. If he shoots and misses, then at least he's had a go, which is why i'm not too critical of his first chance which was saved, at least he got that one on target. The rest? No excuse, he should be better than that. Much better. Finally, when I started reading this thread I read what was a tongue-in-cheek comment made by 'Villianusa' about Martin O'Neill blaming tiredness for today's two dropped points. I had a little chuckle to myself because I tried to visualise MON actually coming out and using that age old O'Neill excuse after his decision to play the same team, and then only using one substitution. I was obviously unsure whether I was dreaming or not when I then clicked onto Skysports of my own accord to find that O'Neill HAD made that exact excuse :? It just completely beggars belief, I had to blink twice as I thought it was a joke! The journalist even asked him if he felt like that, then why did he only make one substitution? And the answer was just completely side-stepped by Martin. How can he possibly even begin to try and defend himself when he makes these decisions, and then says we were tired? It's just utter, utter lunacy. He's a good manager, but it seems like he is just far too stubbon to ever learn from his mistakes. I just want to slap him and say "MARTIN, how can you possibly blame today on tiredness when this was the first League game in 2010 for most of our first team? Plus, you now have a squad, one that you always harp on about having, yet you're seemingly still seem reluctant to use it? Christ, wake up man!"

All about the meat & potato pie mate 8) You know what they say, when in Rome...

Blackburn have won 1 away match in 16 Premier League games and are without a win in 12. There is only one thing standing between us and a place at Wembley now, and that isn't Blackburn Rovers, it's complacency on the part of ourselves. If we play like we did last night on Wednesday then I have absolutely no doubt we will make it. But we have to start the game well, that is the key.

Absolutely this! It's all too easy, when Villa mean so much to all of us that when the opposition team has a decent spell in the game, to all go quiet. I suppose it's a natural reaction and I myself am guilty of it. However last night, when Blackburn were getting corner after corner and bombarding our penalty box, the atmosphere was STILL simply electric. Everyone jumping up and down, waving scarves- I wish we'd all adopt that attitude more often because it sounds and looks bloody amazing and more importantly, it helps the team SO much. That's why I previously likened our support last night to that of Rapid Vienna's when they came to Villa Park and outsung us all night. I really wish we'd do this more often and I hope the supporters adopt a similar approach on Wednesday, and then at Wembley :winkold: By the way, 'mtb_wm' cheers for the highlights, they're brilliant!

that was quality in the Fernhurst!

Just got back, what a bloody day! Brilliant result, yes it should have been more, and by all accounts we should have had at least one penalty as well, but hey ho. Our support tonight was absolutely superb, everyone jumping up and down and waving scarves for the whole of the second half. It reminded me of Rapid Vienna's away support, just brilliant! If only a goal had been scored at our end and I am sure the roof would have well and truly been blown off. Blackburn deserve nothing, they're a shit team with a shit support. It is ours to lose now. We have the advantage, we have the away goal. We have a rocking Villa Park to finish Blackburn off in, so no excuses now, we should be in that final. "TWO BALLS! YOU'VE ONLY GOT TWO BALLS!" 8)

Ash...........some nice twists and turns please, little dinks in and Gabby to drive home. I thought you were talking about a new series of Strictly Come Dancing then UP THE VILLA!

5,500 of the Claret & Blue Army taking over Lancashire! Colours? They'll be more of us there than them! Heineken chilling nicely in the fridge, absolutely buzzing now! Come on the Villaaaa Boyssss!

http://www.blackburn.ac.uk/webcam2.html

Anything other than a loss or a 0-0 draw. Although we have to be positive, if we play well, we can finish this tie in the first leg.

Funniest post i've read on here for a while!

Sounds very promising Let's just hope it does rain like predicted.

Utd-Leeds is completely different circumstances, like I said, for the following reasons: -Leeds were on an amazing run and fielded a full-strength line-up. -United had been on a pretty dismal run (by their very high standards) and fielded an under-strength team. -The lower league team had a striker (Beckford) who had been linked with some pretty high-profile teams and this was a perfect chance to raise his stock further in front of the watching media. -That was a 3rd round FA Cup tie, and as United's team proved, they had very little passion for beating Leeds. Ours, on the other hand, is a Semi-Final so what's at stake is completely different. -It was a one-off cup tie which is far easier for an "upset" to occur, than a game played over two legs. -The Leeds-Utd game is arguably one of the biggest derbies in English football. And as Leeds have had such a torrid few years in the footballing wilderness, they were always going to relish playing their big rivals in a cup tie, with effectively nothing to lose. And that showed on the day, they wanted it far more. And, despite it being a fantastic result for a Leeds fan, I can't say the result was entirely unpredictable going by the factors I have stated above. Yes it was an upset, but not a massive one. So, no, you absolutely cannot compare our two-legged Semi Final with Blackburn, with a 3rd round FA Cup tie between Leeds and United. Of course, football is football and it is very unpredictable at the best of times. I didn't say I thought we were already in the final, I merely stated we would absolutely never have a better chance. And surely no-one can disagree with that?

I hate to tempt fate, but: 1. We have MUCH better support (sorry for stating the obvious). 2. We have a FAR superior team. 3. They have key players injured, we have no fresh doubts. 4. We have more players in our first team that have never reached a final (therefore in theory, more determination to get there) 5. We play away first, then take them back to ours (which is the favoured scenario). Quite simply, we will NEVER have a better chance of getting back to Wembley. And if we can't beat this pathetic club over two legs, then we don't bloody deserve to get there! Come On You Villaaaaa Boyssssss 8) Mmmmm See leeds utd at OT... Massively different circumstances to be fair though mate. You can't really use that as an example.

I hate to tempt fate, but: 1. We have MUCH better support (sorry for stating the obvious). 2. We have a FAR superior team. 3. They have key players injured, we have no fresh doubts. 4. We have more players in our first team that have never reached a final (therefore in theory, more determination to get there) 5. We play away first, then take them back to ours (which is the favoured scenario). 6. We beat them a couple of weeks ago, and they have just come off the back of a demoralising loss at Eastlands. Allardyce has been quoted as saying that some of his players have jepodised their chances of starting the Cup Semi because of their poor performances (which is hardly inspiring confidence in his team or their own chances). Quite simply, we will NEVER have a better chance of getting back to Wembley. And if we can't beat this pathetic club over two legs, then we don't bloody deserve to get there! Come On You Villaaaaa Boyssssss 8)

This is why there is a very strong chance it will be on. Blackburn, as was said earlier in the thread, have got several diggers etc. to remove snow that could potentially fall and such. Doesn't sound like a team that wants it called off to me. Even though they're chasing the impossible dream of undermining the integrity of every two-legged draw in world football? Some people don't half come out with some rubbish! The game will be on anyway, so this shouldn't even be an issue.