Player Match Ratings: 9 points from a glorious sixth!

[John]

Aston Villa have the look of a thoroughbred racehorse that is moving up swiftly and unnoticed on the rails as the tiring horses in front labour and stumble towards the finishing post. Their jockeys are casting worried glances behind them at the fast finishing claret and blue clad horse that had been written off as a no hoper too soon continues to make an increasingly strong finish and move through the field. Do you want to bet against us?

A fifth consecutive home win and clean sheet last night brought Villa another point closer to a sixth-place finish. The gap between us and the final play-off place continues to shrink and is now down to single figures with six games remaining. The improbable dream continues to become less unlikely with each win that we achieve.

This is the first time since 1983 that we have won 5 consecutive home games without conceding a goal. Kodjia’s winner was his 7th goal in 7 games for us and it takes him to 18 goals for the season. We have taken 21 points from our last 8 games. Our target which looks more realistic each week is now another 6 wins. That would bring us to 75 points and hopefully to sixth position which would give us a crack at the play-offs.

Hitting the post and opening the scoring in the first 5 minutes often suggests there will be further goals to come but that was not to be last night and instead our visitors enjoyed more than their fair share of the possession. They looked a decent side last night other than when they reached the final third of the field where they posed us little threat.

There always remained a worry that they might create a clear goal scoring opportunity before the end of the game and at times we were defending with our backs to the wall but their clear chance never quite came. Instead we kept another clean sheet and in truth looked the more likely team to score on those occasions that we got forward. At the end of the day Villa go marching on and add QPR to the list of teams who have left Villa Park feeling aggrieved at not coming away with at least a point.  

We have the means to win games like this one. It is not always pretty to watch but we can see out games and claim the points as we did last night so it is effective and battling performances such as this might just see us make a late run for promotion.              

My player ratings from a game that left our current promotion odds ranging from 66/1 to 200/1 today are:

Sam Johnstone – 6 – Punched away a couple of balls that he might have been better catching but still looked confident and played his part in securing another clean sheet. Got down at his post in the 83rd minute to deny Luongo.         

Alan Hutton – 6 – Got forward more often than he could do at the weekend and was solid enough at the back. Made a terrific 81st minute run but his cross was misplaced just behind Hogan at the far post.             

James Chester - 7 – Another solid performance alongside Baker. These two are indispensable and are the central pillars on which our clean sheets are built.    

Nathan Baker – 7 – Tidy no nonsense defending again last night. Had a 56th minute effort that ran to him from a Lansbury corner deflected wide for a corner.     

Neil Taylor – 6 – Solid enough at the back but his 22nd minute attempted back pass was too risky and Johnstone did well to reach the ball first and put it out for a corner. 

Albert Adomah – 6 – Unlucky to see his 3rd minute shot from near the edge of the box strike the base of the post after he had picked up the ball from a Lansbury header. Hit a 51st minute effort well wide of the post having been found by a nice ball from Lansbury.

Henri Lansbury – 7 – Had an 84th minute from outside of the box deflected just over the bar and worked ceaselessly.

Mile Jedinak - 7 – Another solid display.       

Leandro Bacuna – 6 – An unexpectedly early return to first team action. He produced positives along with some negatives last night. Hit a low shot on the 39th minute that Smithies gathered at his near post having claimed an assist for the winner.     

Jordan Amavi – 6 – Not quite as effective as he was on Saturday but he looked good when going forward and gave us another defender when we were under pressure at the back. Was off target with an ambitious effort from wide of the goal when a cross might have been more likely to produce a better result on 81 minutes. Made a nice run on 71 minutes but his cross failed to reach the waiting Kodjia in the middle of the box.    

Jonathan Kodjia – 7 – MOTM – Hit our winner on the 5th minute. Exchanged passes with Bacuna before running into the area, leaving the defenders in his wake and hitting the ball sweetly past Smithies and into the centre of the net. His goals are vital for us.       

Substitutes:

Scott Hogan – Replaced Adomah on 77 minutes. Nice to see him back so soon after leaving the field with a knock at the weekend. Scott was not on quite long enough to earn a rating.       

Andre Green – Replaced Amavi on 85 minutes. Made a run into the box on 89 minutes but his effort was blocked and ran out for a corner.      

Tommy Elphick – Replaced Kodjia on the 91st minute to strengthen our defence in the last couple of minutes but he was not on long enough to gather any rating.

Up the Villa!

John Lewis

Edited April 5, 2017 by John

[villaglint]

6 hours ago, John said:

Aston Villa have the look of a thoroughbred racehorse that is moving up swiftly and unnoticed on the rails as the tiring horses in front labour and stumble towards the finishing post. Their jockeys are casting worried glances behind them at the fast finishing claret and blue clad horse that had been written off as a no hoper too soon continues to make an increasingly strong finish and move through the field. Do you want to bet against us?

While all this is true it ignores the fact that when firing gun went this horse in Claret and Blue started OK soaring over the jumps only to curiously clip the end of every fence causing it to lose stride each time and further ground to the pack. It then picked up for a short while and made a mid race charge only to fall badly. It ran in circles while the rest of the horses finished the race. As the doctors loaded the gun the horse inexplicably seemed to understand and sprinted off to show it had been fine all along. It is now making almighty pace but the race is in the final stretch and we are still on the last bend. 

The fat lady hasn't sung yet but if she sings for us it'll be a race none of us forget for a long long time. 

Edited April 5, 2017 by villaglint