Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Newcastle

[tomav84]

Cracking result. Would've liked to have had some fresh legs on about midway through 2nd half and should've put at least 4 past that lot but overall very happy. Jack and Conor brilliant, Wes improved but jury still out, special mention for guilbert too, had Maxim in his pocket all game

[andym]

39 minutes ago, flashingqwerty said:

Felt we were good forst half, credit to DS, think he sent them out the right way and the right selection. 1st half got him a v good rating.

I dont know what he said at half time, but half the team switched off and a few of them were dead on their feet come 60 minutes.  I feel we only didnt concede due how bad they were rather than us doing well.  He really could and should have made changes at that stage as players were flagging and newcastle were well on top.

Then when carroll came on and we looked dreadful defensively, and couldnt handle him, DS still did nothing.

Poor game management and use of subs YET AGAIN and for me, we are very fortunate to have survived it.  I dont understand brining lansbury on after 91 minutes.  Pointless.  He gets a very poor for the 2nd half, as i feel that there were plenty of great options on the bench to address the balance of play, and he did nothing.  It worked on this occassion, but hasnt on many others, and i really feel it was dumb luck, not skill.

I'm delighted with the result, but DS frustrates me massively.  I really dont see anything from him to show he's learning.

Aside from a sloppy 5 mins immediately after the restart, we were still the better team and created the better chances the second half. Carroll won one header then spent the rest of the game falling over.

Fortunate to have survived? Newcastle were fortunate we didn't stick 4 past them given Konsa and Wesley both missed after being unmarked 6 yards out.

[flashingqwerty]

23 minutes ago, PieFacE said:

Some very harsh comments about Wes tbh. Thought he played well when he dropped deep.

Should he have scored? Of course.

Was he "**** shit"? Absolutely not. 

No, def not shit.  But still not good enough for me, and i dont think his strength match our style of play.

Seen someone say he should have been played in more, and wasn't cos our midfield likes to shoot.  I think they dont play him in cos they know his finishing is poor and theyve a better chance of scoring themselves

[NurembergVillan]

42 minutes ago, terrytini said:

To the big mouthed prat behind me in the Upper Holte who decided to verbally assault me....

Yes...I was shouting at the players to sharpen up at the start of the Second half. Because it’s our Achilles heel.

But in between that I was singing my heart out, as I do, for 90 minutes, every game, Home and Away.

If you see this Post, look back at my several thousand Posts on here and see how rarely I criticise,

You spoilt my night, as you know, because I left after 55 minutes. I felt sick after that confrontation.

The first time I’ve ever left a game early

And whilst I will continue to go to the Away games, I’m not going back up the Holte as long as there is a possibility you will be there.

Sorry to read that mate, I really am.

I was at Bolton, on my own, in the McLeish era (oh, the glory days) and in the khazi before the game someone asked me about how I thought we'd get on.  I said we needed to win because we'd got some hard games coming up but that this wouldn't be easy.

Some other fella overheard and went mad at me.  "We're the Villa, we should be beating anyone.  We don't need people like you here," amongst other things.  I didn't go to a match for a couple of years after that.

I've never shared that story before.

[Kiwivillan]

OMG just remembered Lawro picked us to win 2-0. The curse is broken!!

[Keener window-cleaner]

Steve Bruce:  "I always thought we were in the game" 

That was as comfortable a win that I've seen.

[briny_ear]

Good win and much needed.

Particularly pleased that AEG and Hourihane had key roles in the win. They come in for a lot of criticism on this site but if we are going to stay up, these guys will play a big part.

Not much going points-wise now until the games over Christmas so it!s good to have bagged the points here.

[Lerner's Driver]

1 minute ago, NurembergVillan said:

Sorry to read that mate, I really am.

I was at Bolton, on my own, in the McLeish era (oh, the glory days) and in the khazi before the game someone asked me about how I thought we'd get on.  I said we needed to win because we'd got some hard games coming up but that this wouldn't be easy.

Some other fella overheard and went mad at me.  "We're the Villa, we should be beating anyone.  We don't need people like you here," amongst other things.  I didn't go to a match for a couple of years after that.

I've never shared that story before.

Brain dead morons whose whole identity is defined by whether or not their team wins or loses at the weekend - sad. I mean we all get involved and it matters more than it should, but there are way more important things in life than a game of football.

[flashingqwerty]

26 minutes ago, The Other Mat said:

What? Address the balance of play? What makes you believe bringing on subs would have improved our performance any further? Subs don't always change games for the best. Anyway we were still trying to score with 1 minute left on the clock. They had a decent few minutes at the start of the 2nd half, but we were the better team for the rest of the half and should have score more. Smith set us up perfectly and we won, bearing in mind it's the first time we've beaten them at VP in 9 years. 

Maybe it was the sloppy passes, maybe it was the laboured breathing, but mcginn and guilbert were clearly struggling after 60 mins.  

I could equally say, if he brought on elmo and nakamba we'd have scored two more due to a better engine and fresh legs but we'll never know.

Point being, on more than a few occassions, we've been a goal or 2 to the good, players have visibly tired, and as a result started making unforced errors, DS has done nothing and its cost us points.

It could easily have done so again today as they had succificient quantity and qualiry of chances to score a couple, yet DS didnt change anything.

History has shown, not making changes until 91 minutes will cost you more often than making changes early.  Until DS learns this lesson, we'll stay in a relegation fight.

[LondonLax]

Comfortable win. Everyone played well except Mings for some reason. 

[flashingqwerty]

8 minutes ago, andym said:

Aside from a sloppy 5 mins immediately after the restart, we were still the better team and created the better chances the second half. Carroll won one header then spent the rest of the game falling over.

Fortunate to have survived? Newcastle were fortunate we didn't stick 4 past them given Konsa and Wesley both missed after being unmarked 6 yards out.

Carroll won at least three: one where he should have scored himself, but heaton made a good stop, and two where he laid it off, for i think it was jowlinton to fire horribly off target.  All 3 were very good chances.

[AntrimBlack]

Good game. We were decent first half, and good the second half, apart from those first 10 minutes of the second when we were sleepwalking. Happens quite a lot - what do we do at half time? We just do not come out switched on and prepared.

Hourihane MOM for me; Grealish very good; Konza and El Ghazi also very good.

I do not see what others see in Wesley. If we wanted a false number 9 or an advanced midfielder, we should have bought one. What we needed, and now still need, was a goal scorer. 

That has got to be addressed in January. The chances we make, I think a guy who could put those chances away would be having a field day.

 

[nokesy]

Steve Bruce said he’s going to roll his sleeves up. Don’t miss hearing that every weekend 

[MotoMkali]

I was at the game and I thought wesley was great the defenders couldn't handle him he had a bit of a strop at about 60 minutes and should have scored at the death but 9 times out of 10 the keeper dives to the back post and wes' shots is an easy goal quite unlucky.

Aside from that my only real criticism aside from the continuous ones nor subbing early, lack of movement etc. Was grealish and mcginn both could have played wesley in 3 or 4 times for 1 on 1s and he is pretty good at them.

Once again villa fans scapegoating a goal scorer and a good performance by wesley. Very disappointed really our 2 worst players were easily mings and mcginn but everyone is complaining about 2 of our better performances. Think grealish makes all the difference for them as well

[HanoiVillan]

Good, but not great performance. Overall we looked the better side. Grealish and Hourihane have a really good understanding, not just with the goal but across the park IMO. I gave MOTM to Hourihane because at the end of the day, he was the one delivering the knockout blows, and I marked Grealish down a little for spurning 3 or 4 really good chances to put the game to bed in the second half. Shooting is still the weakness in his game, and once he gets better at it, he'll move to yet another level.

It was probably an obvious choice for Smith to bring Hourihane back in in place of Nakamba against a Newcastle side who are allergic to possessing the ball, but he still had to make the call and it was the right one so credit for that. But I agree with those who say his reluctance to use the bench is silly. You could see players running on empty, and Newcastle could still be playing and they wouldn't have scored, so why not get fresh legs on the field?

[sidcow]

[CosmicVillan]

Vital 3 points with andother tough triple header to follow. Heaton made 2 fantastic saves, that's the difference between it being 1 point or 3 

Still think we need someone who can stick the ball in the net up front , imagine how much better off we'd be with a Tammy Abraham. We need options. 

[turvontour]

1 hour ago, andym said:

Good win, grealish, hourihane and targett the standouts

Guilbert too.

[BleedClaretAndBlue]

Much needed win

Heaton was faultless, some top saves tonight. So good to feel secure with your goalkeeper. Something we’ve lacked for some time.

Guilbert wasn’t great; few sloppy passes, hit the first man too often with his crosses, but always available as an outlet.

Konsa was excellent, looked a lot more assured than Mings tonight; who improved late on after a casual sloppy start.

Targett very good again; good understanding with Grealish & Conor down our left hand side.

Douglas was good on the whole; sometimes wants a second longer than needed despite 40000 telling him of a man on.

McGinn had an off day, not much came off for him but he’s indispensable for me as you know he’s more likely to play a blinder than not despite these last 2 performances.

Hourihane superb. Delivery tonight was top class and yet another goal and assist.

Grealish MOTM. Is to us what Gerrard was to plop. Ran the show, completely different side when he plays.

El-Ghazi with another good performance. Looked like he was playing as a striker at times, got his goal and had some good moments.

Wesley- shame he didnt notch, put himself about tonight but things arent clicking for him at the moment. 
 

5 points off 5th, 4 points off bottom 3. Its been a decent start considering the circumstances, lets hope we can spring a surprise or two in the coming weeks. UTV

[Thug]

I’ve been a huge critic of Wes, but genuinely thought he put in a lot of effort tonight.