PL: Portsmouth a Ratings & Reactions

[kurtsimonw]

Yet another disgrace of a performance from the ref. I used to remember the days when there was the odd ref you wanted to avoid and the rest were fine, now I'm struggling to think of a competent one.

Dominated the game and the score realy flattered Pompey. No-one really stood out for me but I don't think anyone was awful either. Congrats to the Fonz on his first league goal.

[Annoyman]

Villa have the highest cross completion rate (23.6%) in the division this season

Guardian ^^

[euro_kings_82]

Great result!

Warnock had a mare in the first half! Milner very good! Can run for days! If only we had someone who could pick out some of the runs he makes. He gets into some great positions.

Downing! Can't find the words for the frustration he creates! I really feel we have not been the same team since he was brought in before Christmas.

Hope delfonseo gets a start before the end of the season.

[JB]

I'm obviously delighted with the 3 points, but the performance is a different story. I'm just not enjoying watching Villa anymore. Before every game, I let myself get excited and up for it. And then every time, we're subjected to the same predictable line-up, tactics and performance. Over-hit cross after over-hit cross. That seems to be the extent of our game plan. Yes, we won, but only because Pompey were so hopelessly awful. Anyone else would've held us out IMO. Pompey were there for the taking.

I was crying out for some incisive play, or semblance of passion and desire from our players. They barely even bother celebrating goals anymore. I really think they have the quality to produce a better, more effective style of play but seem set in the old cross, cross, cross routine. We've become very predictable and easy to defend against.

Until now, I been a huge supporter of MON's and one of those who found all the critical, "negative" posters to be annoying, and to be honest, full of shit much of the time, but I have to say, after another performance of this nature, today was the day that I think I lost my faith. I can't see how we will move forward. There are no excuses for not rotating or not strengthening in January. Because of our failure to do these things, our players are on their arses. I genuinely think we'll lose to Blues now. We just don't seem to have to the desire or ability to find a plan B to compete in a derby at the moment.

I feel sorry for Carlos. He's a quality CB who I believe would've had a genuine shot at going to the World Cup, but he's been consistently played out of position as an ineffective RB. Most of his good work comes when he moves into the middle and he gets involved in defending in the box.

I've been holding off posting this, as I didn't want to make a knee-jerk reaction but, when I thought about it, this has been the case pretty much since the new year, with the odd exception.

I don't want MON sacked but I'm desperate to see something else from this group of quality players, be it passion, desire, aggression or even a different way of getting the ball into the box.

[stato]

I could understand people's frustrations had we not got a winner in this game...

[Pricey_1984]

we won....although you wouldnt be able to tell that from this thread.

Milner MOTM

Cant really be arsed to comment much in a thread were some reactions I just dont understand, i thought we played some good stuff at times.

As for people moaning about crossing into the box, wasn't that how the winner came about?

[sellyoakvilla]

Surely that's what we want to be doing? Crossing into the box? We have the highest cross completion rate in the league and we won yesterday at a tough place against a team that just got to the FA Cup final after beating Tottenham.

We go into a game against Hull with a higher confidence level considering we won a game and hopefully will take the 3 points and be 3 off fourth place...this is going to go down to the very last game of the season

[roonst83]

we won....although you wouldnt be able to tell that from this thread.

Milner MOTM

Cant really be arsed to comment much in a thread were some reactions I just dont understand, i thought we played some good stuff at times.

As for people moaning about crossing into the box, wasn't that how the winner came about?

Agree. You would think we lost the game the way people are reacting. Seriously its embarrassing complaining about when we win, some of our fans really let our club down at times. We dominated the game from start to finish - Undoubtedly we should have had more goals - but Gabby, Milner and Carew (penalty) all went very close and should have done better. But we've gone from moaning about not creating many chances atall in recent games to moaning about creating plenty by crosses - wothout these "crosses" we wouldnt have got the point in midweek against Everton. At home teams often come and try and put many men behind the ball (Wolves, Everton, Sunderland etc) and this makes it difficult for us to break down - I agree we struggle here and is something we need to improve on - however, our strengths lie in our ability to cross - and yesterday Ashley Young put in some fantastic crosses - we are blessed with wingers who can put a decent ball in - sure, some are over hit - but alot of them are excellent crosses which have led to many goals. Away from home seems to suit us better as its ultimatley down to the home team to try and dictate play - often allowing us to play more of a counter attacking style of play -whcih with Gabby, Young, Milner etc - can suit us.

Talk of "no plan B" for us has been mentioned alot recently - yet Delfoneso has come off the bench in the last two games and made a great impact in both - im not suggesting he is the answer to our life-long struggle to find a natural goalscorer/finisher - but he got the winner yetserday - and im excited to see more from him - provided we don't throw the weight of the world/expetaions on his shoulders.

In a nutshell - we won yesterday, had plenty of chances and were mostly in control of the game. We should be pleased.

[sellyoakvilla]

People are moaning about us making too many crosses yet if we were playing down the middle you would be moaning that we didn't make enough crosses. Just to remind you our second goal was from a cross.

[LondonLax]

People are moaning about us making too many crosses yet if we were playing down the middle you would be moaning that we didn't make enough crosses. Just to remind you our second goal was from a cross.

People enjoy moaning at the moment.

It is because we faltered and Spurs have hit form so they are taking their frustrations out on the forum. Refusing to acknowledge any positives is a bit much though...

We dominated that game and should have won by 4 or 5, James was on fire as usual against us and the ref decided he’d only give us 1 of the 4 penalty shouts. Still we came away with 3 points against a side who beat the mighty Spurs in their last match.

Roll on Wednesday...

[Pricey_1984]

nice to see a few sensible posts from people who look like they actually watched the game yesterday

[Jon]

nice to see a few sensible posts from people who look like they actually watched the game yesterday

i watched. I thought we were woeful.

[Jez]

nice to see a few sensible posts from people who look like they actually watched the game yesterday

I saw the game and thought we were shocking.

You honestly thought we played well, not one dimensional or predictable in the slightest?

A goal from a cross i blumin hope so as thats all we do, how about the rest of endless overhit crosses we put in?

Pompey are a terrible side with a left back who was born the same year as the premier league was established.

Pointing out how poor we were is not being negative its being realistic, you carry on sticking your head in the sand if you like.

[LondonLax]

The first goal was a Warnock through ball wasn't it? We don't only score from crosses?

[Woodytom]

nice to see a few sensible posts from people who look like they actually watched the game yesterday

I saw the game and thought we were shocking.

You honestly thought we played well, not one dimensional or predictable in the slightest?

A goal from a cross i blumin hope so as thats all we do, how about the rest of endless overhit crosses we put in?

Pompey are a terrible side with a left back who was born the same year as the premier league was established.

Pointing out how poor we were is not being negative its being realistic, you carry on sticking your head in the sand if you like.

A team playing poor and still winning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For God Sake, rather play shite and win (sign of winners) than play amazing and lose!!!!

[roonst83]

We created more decent chances in this game then we have in any other game recently.

I wonder if the people on here will be complaining if we manage to beat Blues on Sunday without playing well? Probably not - as to be fair we didnt play well at St.Andrews but managed to win and this message board was going crazy with excitement (rightly so)! Each game is equally as important as eachother theoretically.

What I will say is that we defended very poorly throughout the game on Sunday - so I could understand some negativity aimed towards our defenders (Ceullar especially who was useless) but the negative vibes all seem to be targetted towards our attacking play - which resulted in us winning.

Some people will never be happy.

[JB]

My complaint was a cumulative one based on what I've seen for the past few months and not a complaint about the result. That would be silly. Obviously, I'm delighted we won against Pompey but the rigid style of play and the lack of passion on display from many of the players has cost us points recently and will continue to do so. We conceded possession again and again with poorly executed crosses, and whilst one eventually yielded the winner, it could only be healthy for the team's fortunes if we had other ways of attacking.

[kayarcee]

nice to see a few sensible posts from people who look like they actually watched the game yesterday

I saw the game and thought we were shocking.

You honestly thought we played well, not one dimensional or predictable in the slightest?

A goal from a cross i blumin hope so as thats all we do, how about the rest of endless overhit crosses we put in?

Pompey are a terrible side with a left back who was born the same year as the premier league was established.

Pointing out how poor we were is not being negative its being realistic, you carry on sticking your head in the sand if you like.

Well, here's the thing. We were certainly predictable in where the final ball would be coming from, but were never stopped from crossing. Young, Milner, Warnock, Downing and Cuellar all created space time and again from which to cross. And when we did go through the middle, Pompey hacked our players down in the box-- often without punishment from Lee Probert.

I saw Villa knocking the ball around the midfield pretty much at will before creating space on the wings. I saw Gabby make a few tricky turns to set up an absolute sitter for Carew, create a penalty appeal, and basically give Portsmouth's centerbacks a lot of trouble. I saw a ball go over the top to Carew, who finished the chance beautifully. I saw Milner absolutely sting one that would have evaded a lot of keepers. I saw Portsmouth twice put the ball into their own woodwork, and once force their own keeper into a tricky save. I saw three dead cert penalty appeals and one close one, with only one given.

I saw O'Neill go to the bench twice, and both substitutes take part in the winning goal.

Most importantly, I saw Villa take three points when the three points were needed. And if you can't be happy with three points, I simply don't know what to tell you.

[kayarcee]

A team playing poor and still winning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For God Sake, rather play shite and win (sign of winners) than play amazing and lose!!!!

Well, then, Tony Mowbray shan't be inviting YOU to any of his parties.

[paddy]

Just remembered something - Did anyone else notice that David James refused to shake Petrov's hand at the end of the game? I assume he thought Petrov dived on his penalty shout or something.