PL: Portsmouth a Ratings & Reactions

[lmarsha_926]

For People who say we dominated the game and we should of won by 5 or 6, we only had more possesion than them they had more shots and corners than us.

Possession

* Portsmouth 45%

* Aston Villa 55%

Attempts on target

* Portsmouth 12

* Aston Villa 9

Attempts off target

* Portsmouth 4

* Aston Villa 3

Corners

# Portsmouth 7

# Aston Villa 6

[beasley14]

Were making hard work of every game atm. At least we won though.

[Hanky]

Stats never tell the tale.

I thought we played well today. Our crossing was poor though and we did play a few stray passes. It was important to get the win and that is what we did. I thought we had two stonewall penalties not given as well as the one that was. Also Gabby and Carew should have buried the two chances they had.

?

Also I don't get the criticism of MON today. He has made two subs that have been involved in the goal and won us the match?

[mykeyb]

Throw Ins: Do you remember when we used to look for an unmarked player infield who would then look to build an attack rather than our usual lets have 3 players down the line who might get a flick on which might go to one of our players but might not.

Remember when our strikers used to make a run towards the near post to try and get in front of the defender rather than just run towards the penalty spot whether there is a space there or not.

Remember when we used to make tactical substitutions before the 70 minute mark?

Statistics are a wonderful thing. We may well end up with more points than last season, more away wins than any other premiership team, we may end up with the best defence. Why then after watching the match tonight do I feel in such a bad mood.

I will back MON for another season if we finish with a points tally higher than previous years total. I will live in hope that he will try different formations, different tactics, rest players occasionally, give some players a fair chance and buy a decent striker and a little bit of creativity for the midfield.

However I will be surprised if he does.

[AVFC-Prideofbrum]

Best players:

Milner, Gabby (although missing in second half) and probably Young.

Worst players were probably Warnock and Petrov today.

[GordenGekko]

Watched the game on Sky and thought i'd got the wrong channel. Thought i was watchin one of them Charity games that you see from time to time. Couldn't believe our players were strollin around the pitch like they were already on holidays. Someone should remind them that the fans pay good money in these hard times to watch them play. Really was disgusted at there lack of urgency, with fourth place still up for grabs.

We got the win, but the Ports gave us so much space to play in and we struggled to take advantage. Downing played one cross field pass that was good but that was it and i hope he plays better next season than this, or we have another Heskey on are hands. Young couldn't beat a 17 years old full back and had another stinker in front of Capello. Collins looking to the heavens for some help described his performance and Warnocks passing was all askew. Petrov was mr sideways as usual and although Milner tried his bloody heart out, was mainly inaffective. Gab did alright and big John took his goal well, but missed one or two chances that me missus would have stuck away. Sorry Harry. Great to see young fonzy gettin a goal and he and Gab might just save us a few pennies in the future.

If we play like this against the lads down the road, then we are in for a long afternoon, but hopefully the tradition of the derby, will see us playin a bit better. We will sure need to.

[slowandlow]

just back, 3 pts is 3 pts but we will need to improve to beat the blues imo

delfonso needs to get more game time, he should be brought on for 20 mins in every game for the last couple of months, lets hope he gets on more in future - it was a proper strikers goal that gabby doesnt seem to get many of

carew with another goal (took it well imo), but disappointing pen and a sitter

gabby did ok but missed a sitter

heskey had a positive impact when he came on - i dont think he is any good and he is not a patch on carew imo but while he is wearing a villa top he should be supported, the reaction when he came on was terrible by some

warnock was dodgy again, he has had more poor performances than good performances since xmas imo

[Banger75]

3 points won against a side that has nothing to play for in the league and has managed to get themselves to a FA Cup Final. Move on people, next please.

[parisvilla]

For People who say we dominated the game and we should of won by 5 or 6, we only had more possesion than them they had more shots and corners than us.

Possession

* Portsmouth 45%

* Aston Villa 55%

Attempts on target

* Portsmouth 12

* Aston Villa 9

Attempts off target

* Portsmouth 4

* Aston Villa 3

Corners

# Portsmouth 7

# Aston Villa 6

it would help if these stats were actually correct.

[sellyoakvilla]

I thought we played really well, what's with all the negativity on here?

Thought Young had his best game in a while and Gabby, Milner and Delfouneso were good aswell. Really pleased for Delf as that may be the confidence boost he needed to push on...great to see him scoring.

Also thought Downing had a better game (kindof) but defence was poor at times. Especially Warnock as his passing and judgement was woeful. Obviously carrying an injury.

Six points off fourth place with Hull on Wednesday...who knows.

UTV

[BigCarew]

I share your views selloakvilla, although with Warnock being my favourite player along with Carew i'll take a different view about Warnock

Thought Collins was slightly dodgy today though. Stan did look knackered on about 70 minutes. A win is a win and I really don't think we played badly at all. We've played alot better and lost!

[brummybloke]

friedel - 7 - seems to have lost his dependable tag, i fear its downhill from here for him

cuellar - 7 - i still dont like him at right back, we have a right back for that but he shows glimses of skill and is a better defender than collins

warnock -7 - did some crap like passing straight to their players a few times but was also involved in our attacks and was a little unlucky for their goal as he had actually made the tackle, the ball just bounced nicely for their player

collins - 5 - error prone, he looked awesome in the first half of the season but since being out and coming back has not looked the same since, should be dropped for cuellar and young brought in.

dunne - 7 - a few fcks ups but normally makes amends with a covering tackle , he needs cuellar next to him

a young - 7 - saw a lot of the ball today, shame he has forgotten how to go aound his player, some decent work but he really does need to work on his crossing

downing - 5 - he doesnt look fit, no confidence and his skill looks poor at the moment

petrov - 6 - looks good for the first 65 minutes then ....boom or rather pffffff, goes to a very average tired player

milner - 8 - neat play but i think he is getting tired, looking for long balls far too often almost like he is out on his feat

gabby - 6 - another penalty not given, works hard and is a great threat but the stats show he is pretty much toothless after january each season

carew - 7 - great goal and had to come short quite alot, dont know whether he had an injury ? some good saves from james other wise it would have been a carew hatrick today

subs

heskey - 6 - actually ran around when he came on, something he hasnt done in **** knows how long, header for the winner

fonz - 7 - scored the winner, he has a habit of scoring, a nice habit that. lets see him get 25 minutes each game for the rest of the season

[Milfner]

friedel - 7 - seems to have lost his dependable tag, i fear its downhill from here for him

You say that, yet you give him a 7? :?

FWIW, I thought he had a very good game, commanded his box well and made a couple of handy saves.

[Brumstopdogs]

Went to the game today and here are my ratings!

Friedel 8/10 solid performance

Cuellar 6.5/10 good defensively, little threat the other way

Dunne 8/10 Commanding performance

Collins 7/10 Few mistakes

Warnock 6/10 One shocking hospital ball could have lead to a goal!

Young 8/10 Very impressive - really got forward and created problems

Petrov 7/10 Tidy but not spectacular - CM is certainly a position we will need to improve on to get to the next level.

Milner 8/10 Always lively and put in a real shift!

Downing 6/10 Frustrating when on the right hand side and 100 times out of 100 comes back on his left foot - just so predictable!

Carew 7/10 - good goal, poor penalty and otherwise acceptable performance

Gabby 6.5/10 - not his best game but created a few chances and should have scored. He's certainly stronger than last season!

Great to see the Delf coming on and scoring - hopefully a future Villa legend!

Decent result on the whole and 3 points which is key. Well done Villa

[Mantis]

friedel - 7 - seems to have lost his dependable tag, i fear its downhill from here for him

What? He was his typical reliable self today, particularly in the last 10 minutes or so.

[Hanky]

Went to the game today and here are my ratings!

Friedel 8/10 solid performance

Cuellar 6.5/10 good defensively, little threat the other way

Dunne 8/10 Commanding performance

Collins 7/10 Few mistakes

Warnock 6/10 One shocking hospital ball could have lead to a goal!

Young 8/10 Very impressive - really got forward and created problems

Petrov 7/10 Tidy but not spectacular - CM is certainly a position we will need to improve on to get to the next level.

Milner 8/10 Always lively and put in a real shift!

Downing 6/10 Frustrating when on the right hand side and 100 times out of 100 comes back on his left foot - just so predictable!

Carew 7/10 - good goal, poor penalty and otherwise acceptable performance

Gabby 6.5/10 - not his best game but created a few chances and should have scored. He's certainly stronger than last season!

Great to see the Delf coming on and scoring - hopefully a future Villa legend!

Decent result on the whole and 3 points which is key. Well done Villa

This sums it up for me. I thought Downing had a good game but that crossing really needs to be worked on. Then again he wasn't the only one guilty today.

[carlitobrigante]

Well that was a enjoyable game. Open and end to end almost, good stuff for the neutral.

Warnock again was poor, has been pretty shoddy in general since turn of the eyar, looks our weak link defensively....

Downing tried but again his final ball was most often poor, seemed to want to cut inside every single time he got the ball on the flanks and so made it very predicatable for his marker.

We tried to keep the ball down and pass it on the deck. It was the same against Everton and you can see that something was said or done by MON / Coaches ref our passing as you can see Cuellar, Dunne, Collins etc have cut down on the punts upfield. Cuellar in particular has looked half decent at RB in the last cvouple of games and tried to get forward more. His crossing / passing was better than Warnocks anyway!!

Collins looked the weakest centre back for me and id look at getting Davies, or Cuellar in there to try them out alongside Dunne, and get L Young and Beye some time on the pitch.

Petrov had a rare poor day where the game seemed to pass him by. Agbonlahor was decent enough and Carew once again scored and could have had a couple more. Great to see the Fonz grab his first of hopefully many Villa Park goals.

So basically we were better going forward, but still look shaky at the back, we just dont press hard or close enough until its normally too late. Its becoming more and more obvious that Petrov / Milner in a 442 isnt going to trouble the big boys out there, that Dpwning / Warnock are majorly off form, that Delfounso can do a job for now, and that one of Luke Young / Beye will ask to leave in the summer....and we could lose both if we arent carefull....

[paddy]

Had a great weekend staying with my mate in Portsmouth, topped off with a nice win in the sunshine. Good atmosphere from us lot, really disappointing from them considering their reputation.

Won't do an in depth analysis but I'd say Ashley was my MOTM with Milner a close second and Downing was poor But starting him on the right didn't help. Improved a bit on the left but really didn't have a good game.

Journey back took best part of 6 hours thanks to signal failures, but always seems shorter after a win.

edit: Just remembered the awful cheerleaders (they'd recorded their own chant before they danced (if it wasn't live, which I'm pretty sure it wasn't) and the Carson Yeung ate my dog chant

[villa4europe]

friedel - 7 - seems to have lost his dependable tag, i fear its downhill from here for him

What? He was his typical reliable self today, particularly in the last 10 minutes or so.

agree made a couple of good catches and IIRC a good punch from a corner, also had the chance to role / throw it out to get a break on but killed it instead of rushing, the last minute shot might have been straight at him but it was still a strong hand and he was straight on it

[brummybloke]

friedel - 7 - seems to have lost his dependable tag, i fear its downhill from here for him

What? He was his typical reliable self today, particularly in the last 10 minutes or so.

agree made a couple of good catches and IIRC a good punch from a corner, also had the chance to role / throw it out to get a break on but killed it instead of rushing, the last minute shot might have been straight at him but it was still a strong hand and he was straight on it

today he was ok, however his performances of late have been lacklustre to say the least, earlier on in the season i was confident of his abilities, however as time has gone on he seems rooted to his feet or flapping where as previous he was confident.