Laivasse

Lucky deflection but I love that he had the confidence to take it on his right from 20+ yards.

GO ON DOWNING!

I don't think there was anything wrong with the length of time played. There's nothing that says a ref has to blow exactly on the turn of a minute, and 4:29 of added time is still 4 minutes rounded to the nearest. As someone may have already said, the free role thing for Young has been happening since the start of the season, even under the pre-season friendlies that MON was still here for IIRC. GH might be reluctant to swap Young back out to the wing for fear of upsetting him, but I doubt it. I think it's just that in the face of Young's enthusiasm for the position, it's been difficult for the reality to sink in (that he isn't as good played central). I've even heard commentators describe Young as having been 'so effective' for us so far this season played behind the striker, when we have little to show for it as evidence. Hopefully we see him moved back out wide before long...

A good showing from a youth-centric team. We defended very shakily in the 1st half and thought that we had improved hugely in that regard in the 2nd, until we chucked it away in the 94th minute, so you've got to be disappointed... Also this was A. Young's worst showing in ages. Albrighton got my MoM for the goal, despite conceding the late free kick, which was mostly gamesmanship from Duff and should have been defended better. Bannan was good, showing flashes of brilliance (including the setup), but I felt his contribution was being a little overstated by the commentary and in the match thread - he started slow and was trying to do too much with some of his more wayward passes. I'm still not at all convinced he should be starting over a fit Ireland, who, in 7 minutes on the pitch, made three excellent link-up passes to Downing which produced two good chances and one half-decent one. Not taking anything away from Bannan, though, great showing.

Two fantastic creative passes from Ireland to Downing since he's come on. This is stuff that often gets forgotten post match since we don't have the finishing firepower.

Those tackles weren't similar at all. Carr's was a foul because he touched the ball but only in a very glancing way which left it in Gabby's control, then took Gabby out physically. Luke Young just solidly got the ball from Salcido, which means it was a fair tackle as long as it wasn't dangerous play like waving studs in his face.

Pretty sure it means the latter, V4E. I'm interested in FM2011, and I think SI do a solid enough job to want to support their endeavours, but I'm skeptical that 2011 is going to be enough of an improvement to justify buying FM three years on the trot for me. One thing I'll be interested to see is how Villa's finances are represented... Before the first patch for FM2010, Randy's loans to the club were treated like a standard kind of bank loan, which annoyed people because it would mean that player sale income would randomly get swallowed up by the debt instead of going to the transfer kitty. That got changed in a later patch because it was believed that we were financially better off than that... Now it could be all back to how it was for the next database update.

I wouldn't be particularly displeased if Bradley ends up at Villa. The US national team has been impressive for me in the Confed cup and the WC, looking well motivated despite a dearth of real quality. If he could similarly inspire some of our journeymen then it could minimise our potential plummet down the table. The only concern is having Villa become a wholly American owned and run franchise, both tactically and financially... something about that doesn't sit right with me. Sven can sod off (but mercifully I doubt we could afford him anyhow).

If Football Manager has taught me anything, it's that Salifou is going to come on and turn this mess around.

Seems a bizarre rule to me if a draw against Benfica gets decided by past shootout record. Surely a direct shootout with Benfica is a fairer measure of performance than our respective records against teams we beat in regulation play? I know it's not like this pre-season stuff is important, but just saying...

Ok, now THAT one was Sidwell :shock: Lovely strike.

Was that in from Sidders' cross? NEVER LEAVE US, LADS ( )

It was coming towards him much lower except for Cuellar's touch.

I'm not too concerned about the defence. I mean I know it's shocking today, but we know we can defend well when we're up for it and Dunne's not sleepwalking. What worries me more is the lack of creativity in possession, which is a bit of a perennial problem. Petrov or whoever will come too deep to get the ball, no one else shows for it, he gets pressured then hands it back to the defence - rinse and repeat until someone fluffs an over-ambitious pass. Better movement off the ball needed, maybe the temperature's playing a part.

Carew just bonked one in from an Albrighton cross according to http://www.extratime.ie/liveupdate/

It's off air atm and judging from the other posts it has been since kick off. I dunno about a virus, it seems to be a clean link... I'm running Kaspersky and not a peep from it.