Ulver

Sober thoughts on the game, the morning after 1. The first half was the worst performance i've witnessed in a long, long time. And that includes Newcastle away. There was absolutely nothing in that first 45 minutes to cling onto going into the break. The passing was dire, we created nothing (apart from the chance Ash had) and all in all it was truly shocking. 2. Downing is wasted on the right. Ash now looks half the player wide as he does in the free role to my eyes. 3. Carew has had it. His sharpness/desire is shot and he's of no threat to the opposition at all. 4. I love Ciaran, I love his composure and ability to not rush anything. He reminds me of a young Barry in that respect. BUT he's not a midfielder. He never will be either. He doesn't have the body for it. He doesn't move like a midfielder either. But that lad has the ingredients to be a fine centre back given time to learn his trade. He will make mistakes, but thats all part of the learning curve. 5. I love wee Barry. The lad has the talent and heart to be a great player. BUT he was understandably found out yesterday. Maybe if he'd been alongside a dogged/defensive partner (and I mean a proper midfielder) then he could've propored more. Alas Arsenal are sublime with their passing/movement and better players than ours will be destroyed by them this season. 6. The defence. At times yesterday, Warnock and Young played as bad as i've seen fullbacks play for a long time. The pair of them want a good kick up the backside and to realise what their jobs in the side are. Getting forward is all very well, but first and foremost they are DEFENDERS. And they should remember how to play as a back 4 and quick. Dunne still worries me but played a bit better, Collins looked all over the shop. The concentration levels between them is AWOL at the moment. They need to get back to basics and become a UNIT again. 7. Ireland. For once he looked interested, well half interested. He can keep the ball and not give it away, which is exactly what we need. The problem is he's shown nothing to make me trust he'll do it game in game out. At one point yesterday he played a lovely little pass wide, and instead of then moving to make himself available again, he casually just stood and admired his own pass as if to be saying 'did you see that?' Stephen, that just isn't good enough mate!

Low - Drums And Guns

I could be wrong, but I think I saw some some in the club shop earlier. Might be worth giving them a call

Cheers General!

General As it seems impossible to contact the actual club shop these days (I keep being out through to the Villa Direct people) can you tell me if free home shirt printing is still open to shirt buyers in person at the club shop? I ask because its a 20 mile drive over to VP and there's no point in me doing so if not. Thanks!

Can anyone confirm if the club shop are still offering free printing or not ?

a couple of observations from the armchair 1. Ireland's attitude stinks. A couple of nice lay offs will not make up for looking like he couldn't give a toss or be prepared to break sweat for the team. Sorry Stephen, as much as I wanted you at Villa if thats 'giving your all' you can get your coat now. It's either shape up or ship out. 2. We've seemingly gone from being 'too direct' under O'Neill, to 'too fancy' under Gerard. We're now (at times) passing for the sake of passing to my eyes. In fact my Villa mad (of 40+ years) Auntie called me up up after the game and said 'why are we making 3 passes when 1 will do?'. And I knew exactly what she meant. It's not about how many passes you make, it's about how good they are. Where's the eagerness to have a shot, or to break your neck to get on the end of a cross ?. Everybody just wants to pass, pass, pass now. Irritating. 3. Bannan was once again an absolute credit to the team and himself. The effort that lad put in for 90 minutes was a joy to behold. And he wasn't the only one putting in a good shift. 4. I never thought at the beginning of the season that i'd be mourning the fact Albrighton was missing more than any other player. That lad adds something HUGE to our side this season. And once he's missing we have nobody to fill in that gap. 5. I appreciate Gabby has been injured, and needs minutes to build up his fitness levels. But he never looked remotely like getting anywhere near a goal today. Surely all these '2-3 week injuries' must be close to being back available ?

Can anybody tell me if you can still get free name/number printing on the home shirt in the club shop ? Also, my 8 year old nephew wants the mini kit for Xmas which i'll happily buy him. Its £35 in the club shop but only £25 in JD & JJB stores. But their stock doesnt have FxPro on the front. For me that'd be ideal, but for the little un he wants it like the players. Why the club charge £10 extra for the shirts though i'll never understand.

and awesome as ever they were

why be jealous ? plenty left i'm sure its not even 'Kyuss' as such

LOW this Wednesday in Coventry

10-15m

Good luck Hoggy

Its a crap song though Why hasnt the muppets one taken off yet ? far more fun BARRYBANNAN dur dur dur dur BARRY-BANNAN dur dur dur dur BARRYBANNAN dur dur dur dur, dur du dur du dur etc etc

Ireland was absolutely chronic when he sauntered on last night. I think I counted his first 3 touches/passes and they all went tits up That simple ball he should've played to Downing which went out for a throw in just about summed him up Bad attitude at the moment. If his career goes down the pan he'll only have himself to blame

Naive? Maybe you've forgotten how ropey Gabby's finishing is Players being out for a while suddenly become far better than they actually are When it comes to finishing, I wouldn't say there's anything between Delfouneso and Gabby at all

Plenty of positives, and plenty of negatives. But all that maters is we won. And praise be for the spirit that took us to that winning goal after being floored a few minutes earlier Rock on.

Come off it. If he plays like that for the full season some bigger clubs may take note He hasn't done anything yet

Always FOR the use of whatever neccesary when dealing with terrorists. They leave their human rights at the door when they start putting innocent lives at risk Chop things off for all I care. But best leave their head til last obviously

Morning General Nothing too serious to ask but here goes. Who's decision was it to go with this purple clothing range this year ? Purple has always struck me as one of those colours nobody wears, and judging by what I see on match days, most people tend to agree. Have sales of the purple items reflected this ? Liking the new black items though, and the retro blue/claret Nike track jacket which seems very popular. Ta Ulver

Cheap Trick last night in Wolverhampton. CLASS

Yeah. A handful of clearings in the woods don't ruin an otherwise great day Its those fly by nighters that appear every now and again that put the mockers on some away days. But not this one

oh and another thing. those moronic tracy andrews songs came out again its not big and its not clever. it just makes the singer(s) look retarded

You wouldnt say that if you had to stand/sit by the bellends!

GREAT away day, and my first trip to Fulham after years of saying i'd go. Our fans were in good voice but my lasting impression of this particular away day will be of how many bellends we actually have amongst our support. Not trouble makers, just gobshites of the highest order. Our seats were pretty near the front/corner flag and we had to put up with a vast amount of complete rocket polishers around us. The kind you'd instantly label clearings in the woods if they were from another club. I'm sure you know the type. All big talk, macho posturing with humungous gobs on em. As is getting sadly predictable, they're all way too old to be acting the clearing in the woods too. There's something incredibly sad about looking at a middle aged bloke, standing alone, purple training shirt on loudly claiming to anyone that will listen that he's had '3' pints and is 'pissed' (the mind boggles) and singing alone any old random shit at the top of his voice for nothing but his own ears. The bloke was about as amusing as a blood stool and the only laughs he was getting were of the 'at you' not with you variety but still he ploughed on alone with his 'songs'. We just looked on and felt embarassed for the bloke. Then there was an incident when a Fulham player sent Ashley flying near the corner flag, que a few boneheads running down steps in comedy menacing fashion towards the pitch as if they were going to do something only for them to stand at the edge in comedy 'hold me back' fashion with face grimaces and looking like prize **** bellends. They were about as menacing as Boyzone and the stewards just rolled their eyes at the scene. But even those couldn't spoil a great away day (last seconds apart)