wilko154

Still playing Spider-Man on PS4, it's brilliant if not a bit repetitive. I'm finding swinging around the city collecting the various collectibles more fun than the main storyline. Once I'm done I'm going to return to The Last of Us for The Last of Us: Left Behind which I can't wait to play. Then onto God of War.

Brilliant day yesterday, paying for it today with a headache and a hangover after getting back fairly late from Manchester. Highlight of the day was singing 'You're not famous anymore' to the United fans leaving Old Trafford early. Once again we pulled a performance out of the bag; first half we were magnificent, second half a combination of showing them too much respect and tiring let them back into the game. However pulling ourselves back into the game after conceding was a massive statement for the team. Defensively I was a little worried in the second half, notably Mings made a few errors but then made up for it with his goal. The full backs and Konsa were fairly solid throughout, and Heaton was brilliant once again. The midfield worked hard, Luiz was good, Hourihane was good in patches, McGinn looks like he needs a rest. If we can get McGinn back to his best the midfield could really start clicking this month. Both El Ghazi and Trezeguet are proving to be dangerous, and Wesley did enough yesterday to prove there some potential there, he just really needs another goal. And once again Jack Grealish was majestic. He is now the complete the footballer that so many thought he could become when he first become known about in the youth team. He drags the team by the scuff of its neck and creates things out of nothing to get us results. Absolutely phenomenal footballer and a privilege to watch each week. Bring on Wednesday!

Absolutely not. He's world class but he's only recently signed a new deal. There's going to a wage structure in place at Villa that will slowly increase year on year as the rebuild continues, each season we can push up his wages if needs be. If we go all in with offering him 200k a week now suddenly all our players will be demanding pay rises, the long term financial stability of the club will be fractured and Jacks drive and desire may be dented. It's working as it is, no need to change anything right now.

I actually said this to my missus the other night as I drove to Stansted. It's almost as if they are leaving their full beams on.

Went for the job interview last Monday, decided on a shirt, trousers and tie. Feedback the next day was good, pending an approval for an increase in the salary to match my current salary. All sorted on Thursday and the job offer was received. Looking forward to a few beers and an away day to celebrate tomorrow.

The difference with Wesley and Abraham is that Abraham has a huge desire and drive to score goals. If Abraham picks up a ball outside the box and lays it out wide to El Ghazi, he is busting his balls to get back into the middle of the box to be on the end of the cross. If Wesley picks up a ball outside the box and lays it out wide to El Ghazi he waits for a second to see if the ball is coming back, he then strolls towards the area. This is what Smith needs to work with him on; and come January we need a player with a similar goalscoring drive to Abraham to come in and support Wesley.

I wish we could have Scott Hogan back for the next two games. Not because he's good. Just to show the fans what an ineffectual striker actually looks like. Wesley does far more than he's given credit for, he was drawing 2 centre backs towards him at times which allowed the midfield the space and freedom to play. His hold up play needs to improved and I don't think it was his best performance but he did enough to cause them problems. If he had of finished his chance at the end of the game we would most likely be calling it a good performance. The chance was actually not as easy as it looked, the pace on the ball and the close proximity to the goal didn't really allow him to place his shot, the keeper pulled off a decent save.

Great performance and a massive win ahead of a difficult run of fixtures. First half we were brilliant, Newcastle sat back with two banks of four in a way that we have found hard to break down in recent years. But with our patient build up play we always looked likely to score, the key to it having Grealish in and around the box playing passes and drawing fouls. Hourihane did Hourihane things with two exceptional free kicks. Second half we started off slowly and didn't deal well with Newcastle's pressing. Slowly we got a foothold back into the game and missed a string of chances. The substitutions were slightly strange with McGinn tiring and Wesley not in the game towards the end; however it seemed to work out well. Credit to Konsa & Guilbert who were both fantastic, Saint-Maximin was a real handful at times (with no end product) but they managed him brilliantly. Heaton once again proved why we brought him in to be our No1, two brilliant saves to bring the 3 points home. Luiz did really well in midfield, battled hard and passed the ball well. At times he can be a bit casual on the ball and is caught out with a man on. And Jack Grealish. I'm running out of superlatives for him. He finds passes that no one else on the pitch can even see. At times he creates chances for players that don't even realise the ball can be played to them. The weight of his passes, the timing of his passes, the way he dribbles through a defence; he's an absolute pleasure to watch. It seems from flicking through Twitter that he's now starting to pick up some recognition for his performances, and that England call up is now on the horizon. Onto Sunday, I just hope we turn upto Old Trafford with no fear and really take the game to them. UTV

Get Mitrovic in, exactly what we need up front. His movement is something we are really lacking.

Random... However it's all about the development of a player. Enda Stevens has now developed into a fantastic left back, I watched him yesterday and he was superb. He would currently walk into our side. Lowton has developed into a very good right back for Burnley. Taylor won't improve. We now have to hope Guilbert and Targett can develop to become brilliant premier league full backs for us.

Good to see you back mate!

Next meeting could we mention the pricing structure for the Carabao Cup fixture against Liverpool. In my opinion the club have got it completely wrong and we are likely to see a lot of empty seats for a game that should see a packed out Villa Park. a) The pricing doesn't match the away fans £20 per ticket b) It is overpriced for what will likely be a second string match c) If we had drawn a Colchester, Oxford or even Everton the ticket price would likely have been £15-£20 d) During December we have 8 games. For me 4 of these are away games and now one is a cup game that I have to pay extra for; I know it's my choice to go to these games but do we not think about the fans anymore?

£35 million in the bank for Villa to replace him with a quality midfielder. City don't buy him and we continue developing him and get the best out of him. He's young, he's not played in the PL before, it will take him time to settle. I think he's shown glimpses of quality, again much like the rest of the team he benefits from having Grealish in the side and McGinn on song.

Looking to go for a Mazda 6 for my next car. Does anyone own one? What are they like? Nice to drive? Reliable?

They are finally updating the Villa squad!

Fairly certain Lewis won't be winning after these tweets following last weeks show

If I hadn't looked at the lineup prior to kick off I wouldn't have even known Rice was on the pitch. No way near good enough for the England side yet; Henderson should be in that role (as much as I don't like him) for his experience and leadership at the least.

The prices to this game are not far off a disgrace. I've been to every game this season, home and away. For £30 to watch a Carabao Cup game with two reserve sides I think I'll miss my first game of the season. £20 would have been a fair price during the Christmas month with a stack of fixtures coming up.

I thought Mings was shaky last night, but I wouldn't go as far as calling him poor. Ultimately the midfield let down the defence last night, Rice didn't provide any movement for an out ball into the midfield and it made Mings job a lot harder trying to play out from the back. As someone else mentioned Maguire seemed to keep giving Mings the ball when he himself had no options on. It's a shame that Mings got the call against Kosovo and not Macedonia, because John Stones would have been all over the place against Nuhui last night. Mings handled him fairly well.

Just finished The Last of Us. What an incredible game, I didn't want it to end. I now completely understand the rave reviews, it's up there with one of favourite ever games. I've just watched the trailer and some gameplay for The Last of Us 2 and that looks on a different level, can't wait. Going to play through the Last of Us: Left Behind before moving onto Marvel's Spider-Man which arrived from Boomerang Rentals today.