Ratings & Reactions: Play Off Final v Fulham

[flamingsombrero]

Good job watching in a pub in cradley heath you're not suddenly with half the cast of a Davo diary... yeah that happened... sad words removed.

 

[maqroll]

I'm fearful of Xia deciding to pack it in if we fail next season too.

[Ponky]

2 hours ago, StefanAVFC said:

Watched the stamp over and over again. How does NOBODY see it?

It was directly in front of the fourth official, our old mate. 

[Lerner's Driver]

The older you get as a Villa fan, the more you get used to the disappointment of defeat.

Supporting Aston Villa helps you to remember there's a lot more to life than football... until the next game of course, when it all starts again. 

As some have said, the game was indeed a microcosm of our season and yes, ultimately Bruce has failed, so he could feel no surprise if he loses his job.

We are in the cack now, for sure, but we'll survive.

Goodbye Jack and thank you for finally proving an exciting Villa youngster can make it and prosper in the first team.

His emergence and possible departure probably shows the way forward for our club on a tight budget and therefore also a compelling reason for ditching Brucey.

If he does go, he deserves our thanks for righting the ship - no small feat.

[Vincenzo]

I hoped that the occasion would get to the Fulham players and they’d bottle it but our players did instead.

Absolutely criminal when you look at the experience and leaders in our squad. Well that’s not the first time they’ve bottled it...QPR, Bolton & Norwich when again they just threw away a great opportunity.

I’ve got no real faith in this team to deliver consistently when it matters

It will be interesting to see if the Doctor sticks or twists?

For what it’s worth I think we need a long term plan...get Dean Smith in and build for the future

UTV!

 

[Robtaylor200]

Got back at midnight last night. After the match it was a sombre walk back to the coaches   I was Gutted absolutely gutted,

Now its done and its gone. 

WE will start another season with a changed team, Who do we have to let go. who will stay; who will be in charge and will Dr Tony still be with us.

One thing that stays the same is us  The fans 

VTID

[PompeyVillan]

We got what we deserved, but Fulham didn't. Blatant red card in the first half. 

Mind you, we looked less likely to score when they went down to 10 men.

[tom_avfc]

8 hours ago, The Duck Of Death said:

Blimey, some of you guys are a bit harsh on your manager and your team aren't you?

Fulham are a good side, but in the second half Villa came out and gave it a right go.

I'm a Fulham supporter yes, but I saw a couple of things from Fulham players today that I really didn't like.

Forget Odoi, I thought Fredericks stamping on Grealish was way out of order, and Kamara's theatrics for the second game on the trot, trying to con the ref for a penalty doesn't sit well with me at all.

For what it's worth I thought we should have ended up with 9 players on the pitch, and you lot 10, because Grealish's challenge on Cairney was also way out of order.

It was a scorching hot day, and Fulham make other teams work hard, so I think some of you should be a bit more forgiving of your team. You're not the team you were a few years ago, and neither are we for that matter.

I'm not going to gloat about the result, instead I would like to wish you every success for next season. You guys won't be down for long, you all know that.

I have a feeling you'll all enjoy next season, just as we have this time after losing in the play offs last season. Fulham on the other hand, are going to find things tough.

I honestly feel for your supporters, it was always going to be tough on whoever lost. Best of luck to you all.

 

Great post and agree largely with everything you’ve said. We gave away one goal in a game where neither team looked particularly like scoring. 

The 20th minute red card may have changed the game but we do have a history of terrible decisions against us at Wembley and that one can be added to the list. 

Congratulations on promotion and all the best in the Premier League! I think you’ll do fine and I’m sure you’ll be spending a good amount of money too! 

[John]

7 hours ago, Wolf man said:

Let’s be brutally honest , that was simply a terrible performance. Fulham deserved the win and  have a better team to cope in the premier league , where your team would most certainly be relegation canon fodder . Where you go from here who knows. FFP  will play a big part in that outcome I guess , with who stays , goes and comes in . Maybe and just maybe if Bruce , tony xia and Keith would have concentrated more on getting it right with villa rather than sticking there nose in the way other  championship teams run there clubs , then maybe there would be one more midlands club representing in the premiership next season . Good luck for the future  

You just wouldn't let it lie would you? I agree what was said by our club officials then would have been better left unsaid. The EFL decided they were able to live with your arrangements and that should be the end of the matter yet you raise the subject once again.

There has not been the sort of animosity between our two clubs that we reserve for Small Heath and that you reserve for the Baggies and now is not the time to gloat about our playoff defeat it's not big to do so. We know it was grim yesterday and that our club's future is at least in the short term outside of the top flight (as has your clubs been for more years than I care to mention in the past). You went up as champions and deserved to. What happens next season is open to debate I suggest something between mid table and the certain relegation fodder that you felt was destined for us is more likely next season than the push for the title that some of your fans are smugly predicting. I would have liked us both to have been promoted but it was not to be. I do not wish Wolves any ill next season. I wish them good luck for the future and they just might need it.    

[Paul33]

The most depressing thing for me yesterday was not losing to Fulham but hearing Bruce talking about being here next season. If the guy had any integrity and any consideration for the future of this club then he would do the right thing and resign immediately. He has failed on so many fronts and yet he plans to do it all again. Dr X absolutely must get rid of him before he does any more damage to our club !

 

Edited May 27, 2018 by Paul33

[Robtaylor200]

On a lighter note lads. Many of us were in block 239. we chat on here and could have sat or stood next to each other and not realised

I was in row 12 seat 282 Hi

[Hanky]

1 hour ago, PompeyVillan said:

We got what we deserved, but Fulham didn't. Blatant red card in the first half. 

Mind you, we looked less likely to score when they went down to 10 men.

Too true. Why we decided to take off the midfielders (know hourihane was injured) and a right back and shove on all the attackers. It has never worked for us in the past. We panicked far too early. 

[Hev]

It still hurts like hell this morning.

[thunderball]

This was always going to happen, this is another “MON of-the-moment” type team, and if we did go up we would be faced with a different set of problems. 

On the positive side: we have our confidence back as a club, we are so much stronger than the team that we became under Lerner. We have some useful young squad members but not enough.

For me we replace Bruce, it’s a project that has failed and Bruce is the last of the old generation of Managers. Let’s look forward.

We need more pace out wide, younger legs at the back and a better front line. We need more pace and penetration. If we can keep Grealish, build the team around him as the fulcrum. 

The Championship isn’t so bad, we have to emerge a better club after this period.

[Brumstopdogs]

Obviously it is a diffcult result for us to take and is a real kick in the teeth. However, I think it is important we take what ever positives there are and build for next season.

Fulham lost in the play offs in the 16/17 season and they managed to improve the following season and ultimately gain promotion. It won't be easy but it is not impossible for us to  gain promotion in 18/19.

Let's dust ourselves off and in the words of Paul Lambert "go again" next season.

UTV.

 

Edited May 27, 2018 by Brumstopdogs

[Dr_Pangloss]

For all our 'experience' what a soft touch we were. Fulham excelled in the dark arts yesterday, why couldn't we do the same? Why couldn't we have more of a 'plan' to take out the likes of Cairney and Sessegnon? 

[TheMelvillan]

You know what. I've come to terms with it surprisingly well. For the past few weeks I thought that yesterday's game was the be all and end all but then i got up this morning, the sun was shining, the earth was still turning and everything's okay. Villa still exist. They are rubbish disappointments but they exist.

Onwards and upwards. The championship is a goddamn fun league and another season will make promotion all the sweeter. 

[thunderball]

We look and feel a bit out dated, we are a team in the image of our Manager. I am ready for change and it’s inevitable risks

[Robtaylor200]

All depends on money and what we plan to do with the little we have £14m parachute and FP rules

If we stick with old experience, free transfers, Bosman rule players and sell off talent like Jack and Chessie. Then Bruce is still the man for it

If we reduce our spend by going with youth and a more attacking style , Then he has to be replaced too

Edited May 27, 2018 by Robtaylor200

[Harry]

Fulham deserved to win and good luck to then because I think they will need it. For me they are a very well organised and disciplined Championship side. They did everything right; they keep it very tight in midfield, were in our faces from the off, they targeted our best player very effectively and fouled him shamelessly and were lucky to have a very forgiving referee and their youth and organisation shone through, Their manager called it precisely right as our 'experienced' and ageing ex-Premiership players laboured in the hot sun.

This game exposed yet again Bruce's shortcomings as a manager; the total absence of an effective game plan and the total inability to change the game by having anything near a Plan B. In reality we should not have been there. Our late season wobble against QPR, Norwich and Bolton cost us dear, three p*ss poor sides we gifted three point to. We should have had our feet up yesterday watching probably Fulham and Cardiff slog it out in the POF. I was happy with Bruce in the belief that his experience could get us up and we could worry about the Premiership once we got there. Sadly there is a major rethink required. Fortunately we say goodbye to the expensive loanees most of whom were found wanting yesterday and will have to rely on our youth which is good enough as Fulham proved with theirs. Given that is what we will have to do Bruce is not the manager to do that. Maybe Dean Smith is the man but we do need a younger manager with fresh ideas like the Fulham manager.

I think we will keep Grealish for another season and amongst the experienced players we should keep Kodja, Adomah, Chester, Bjarnasson, Jedinak, Hogan and Hourihane The rest either return to their parent clubs or should be moved on. That represents the core experience around which we blend our youth either already bought in like Bree or have come through the Academy like Green.

I wish I had not gone yesterday and followed TRO's example. I hate the place. The infrastructure is woeful. You can build as many hotels, shopping centres and flats as you like but the road system is a joke and the parking worse. Our coach wandered around for about 45 minutes trying to get to the coach park and failed. It took well over an hour to travel the, what, three miles to the A40 after the game. World class stadium with third world transport links.

Edited May 27, 2018 by Harry