PL: Portsmouth a Ratings & Reactions

[Ponky]

I thought the players really seemed to lack effort, desire & belief today, which was pretty disappointing.

I thought Ashley and Downing were pretty good with the ball but the crossing was abysmal. And how many times did Warnock give it back to the opposition?

Defence looked like Swiss Cheese at times.

James was in superhuman-against-Villa mode again and saved at least 3 from point-blank and one penalty, albeit he was very lucky to not concede one and earn a red card.

Really super pleased for Delfouneso for his first League goal and credit where it's due Heskey played well today and worked hard.

And it's starting to get very hard not to believe there is some sort of anti-Villa conspiracy among the refs at the moment. We have been on the rough end of the stick on too many occasions since the Carling Cup final.

[Pilchard]

Regarding performance, it depends how you look at football, I guess.

Me - I look at chances created (shots) and goals. We struggled to generate these and it was a similar tale of struggling when a team sits back and lets us attack them. Over to Downing. Cross. Over to Young. Cross.

Good finish by Carew, could tell he'd miss the penalty from the run up though. Fair play to the Fonz for the goal - positioned brilliantly and Heskey may not have done anything else, but he won that header so well done to him too. Gabby didn't look interested, and we had three other very blatent penalty decisions turned down. Seeing how poor our referees have been, I'm suprised we managed to get the one. Their goal came from a foul on Gabby during the period Mr Probert refused to give fouls against Portsmouth.

Friedel my man of the match - a couple of great instinctive saves and commanded his area well.

Friedel 8

Warnock 6

Collins 5

Dunne 6

Cuellar 6

Young 7

Milner 6

Petrov 6

Downing 6

Carew 6

Gabby 5

The Heskey sub may have been an obvious one, but fair play to MON for having the bollokcs to take Gabby off and put The Fonz on.

[andy1989]

dear god i can't belive the negativity! we won. we played spells of good football, and tbh pompey rarely threatened. should have scored a couple more but let's be happy for a change!

Good football, overhitting cross after cross?

If you say so.

spells of good football. some of the stuff we played to get into the positions to hit the crosses was good. i really don't see why some people take every possible opportunity to turn positives into negatives

[Maradona10]

Don't know what game people were watching it could have and should have been 6 or 7! Gabby was shite!

[shambles]

MON picks the same starting 11 making hard work of it again. Thank god the Fonz pulled our nuts out of the fire. Would like to see him start with Carew against Hull. Also, Petrov needs this week off if he's to get through the Blues game.

[lmarsha_926]

At this stage teams need to win games, look at United yesterday did not play well but got 3 points. We can play better but at this stage I dont care as long as we win.

[briny_ear]

Not for the first time after a match, I had to check I was on Villatalk and not a SHA messageboard! There is SO much negativity here about Villa, it is unbelievable. If people don't like the team, why bother to watch them?

Well done Villa. Dominated the game, had a fairly average day in front of goal but fought through in the end. We are now up to sixth - ABOVE LIVERPOOL* - and still making those Manchester and Tottenham boys look over their shoulders just once or twice.

And well done Nathan Delfouneso for SCORING YOUR FIRST PREMIERSHIP GOAL* - hopefully the first of many.

* These are the sorts of things I thought people might be celebrating, not droning on the usual dreary stuff about how Villa were shit, etc. Should have known better by now.

[Guest Ricardomeister]

The penalty shout on Agbonlahor was stonewall, he gave the second one, the Young one was a bit enhh because he basically lost control of the ball to another player while standing still hoping that somebody would foul him, and Petrov was playing for that penalty so hard he basically stuck his leg out and bounced it off James while falling over.

I agree. For me the only stonewall pen was the foul on Gabby. The one that was given was probably a pen although there was minimal contact. The Ash one was not a pen imo as he went down way too easily again...there was more contact on the possible Pompey pen. As for Petrov that was more of a dive than a pen, imo, as he had lost control of the ball and was looking at which bit of James he could fall over.

[dounavilla]

i would start with heskey and the fonz on wed !

[jimbojames]

At this stage teams need to win games, look at United yesterday did not play well but got 3 points. We can better but at this stage I dont care as long as we win.

Totally agree. Points win prizes and at this stage of the season any sort of win will do.

[Mark8691]

More awful football.

I pray to God O'Neill does walk, but doubt it.

And hope Randy Lerner can see this man's limitations..Same one dimensional crap, same tired players, same problems.

[andym]

Don't know what game people were watching it could have and should have been 6 or 7! Gabby was shite!

bit harsh on gabby i think. missed a great chance but i thought his hold up play was pretty decent. he made a brilliant run to set up carew who should have scored and a great turn and run which should have been a penalty.

also did he go off down the tunnel after he got subbed? looked like he was limping a touch. maybe hes still not fully fit?

one who really struggled was warnock, though given he was a doubt before the game i doubt hes fully fit. should really be rested, as should a few others midweek.

[The_Steve]

The penalty shout on Agbonlahor was stonewall, he gave the second one, the Young one was a bit enhh because he basically lost control of the ball to another player while standing still hoping that somebody would foul him, and Petrov was playing for that penalty so hard he basically stuck his leg out and bounced it off James while falling over.

By the latter of the law, James caught Petrov's leg bringing him down, should have been a yellow card and a penalty - neither were given. If you're a goalkeeper you have to come out and collect the ball, James didn't and took the man out even if Petrov was looking for it. Young was tripped clearly in the box, I don't care if people say it was dramatic it was enough contact to warrant a penalty.

[andy1989]

Not for the first time after a match, I had to check I was on Villatalk and not a SHA messageboard! There is SO much negativity here about Villa, it is unbelievable. If people don't like the team, why bother to watch them?

Well done Villa. Dominated the game, had a fairly average day in front of goal but fought through in the end. We are now up to sixth - ABOVE LIVERPOOL* - and still making those Manchester and Tottenham boys look over their shoulders just once or twice.

And well done Nathan Delfouneso for SCORING YOUR FIRST PREMIERSHIP GOAL* - hopefully the first of many.

* These are the sorts of things I thought people might be celebrating, not droning on the usual dreary stuff about how Villa were shit, etc. Should have known better by now.

this!!!

[Annoyman]

We're basically a terrible team who can't play good enough football to create clear cut chances, and we also have terrible strikers who clearly can't finish as evidenced by the glut of clear cut chances they missed today

[Mantis]

Not for the first time after a match, I had to check I was on Villatalk and not a SHA messageboard! There is SO much negativity here about Villa, it is unbelievable. If people don't like the team, why bother to watch them?

Well done Villa. Dominated the game, had a fairly average day in front of goal but fought through in the end. We are now up to sixth - ABOVE LIVERPOOL* - and still making those Manchester and Tottenham boys look over their shoulders just once or twice.

And well done Nathan Delfouneso for SCORING YOUR FIRST PREMIERSHIP GOAL* - hopefully the first of many.

* These are the sorts of things I thought people might be celebrating, not droning on the usual dreary stuff about how Villa were shit, etc. Should have known better by now.

Couldn't agree more.

I did say that unless we won this game by 3 goals or more people would still be attacking the team and the manager. Looks like I was right.

Typical VT, Villa overcome a spirited Pompey side and grab all three points and the majority of people are moaning as if we just lost. Pathetic, absolutely pathetic.

[The_Steve]

Boo boys out in force again, yes it wasn't the greatest performance, the game had an end of season feel to it, today could have been a banana skin and it wasn't. Doesn't matter how you do it as long as you win.

[paulanddonya]

Well I think we got out of jail , but I'll take it - it was all about 3 points today.

The football was dreadful and the lack of tactical nouse again was ridiculous. Petrov couldn't walk and yet again is left on.

We are getting a bit of luck at the moment, and long may it continue.

I think 4th has gone, but Man City are catchable. I'd take finishing 5th if Man City and Liverpool are behind us to be honest.

I think they call it "a professional performance !"

[Cj-fitz]

Good result. Downing was awful and Warnock was poor at best.

[Alpaywasawesome]

Honestly.

We never looked like winning the game.

Apart from Milner's customary outside-the-box shots every game, we hardly work the opposition keepers with strong shots on target.

Our version of threatening is lofting balls into the box. And it really is not that threatening.

We need more shooting from our team in general. If you don't ever shoot you will never score. Hoping to profit off a cross all the time is silly. We shouldn't work the cross all the time, we should try working the shot.

Credit where's credit due, I did see some effort in trying to play people in rather than going out wide and hopelessly crossing the ball into the box again and again.

But we still look very toothless upfront and shaky at the back.

Not a good combination.