Villa v West Ham Reaction Thread

[mjmooney]

That was what I expected (OK, hoped for). I did predict a 3-0 win with a good team performance and Albrighton to shine. And that was what we got. Excellent.

Did you see the big beaming grin on Albrighton's face as he walked off to an ovation? "Like a dog with two dicks" doesn't begin to describe it!

Add an Ireland and maybe a Keane to that team, and the next manager (I'd be happy with K-Mac) has really got something to work with.

[wedge]

Brilliant. More of the same please but lets not get too carried away...

[RMB]

Couldn't afford a season ticket this year and I am gutted I missed the match.

Anyone know if there are anymore extended highlights tonight anywhere? I have only seen the goals.

[Dodgyknees]

We were fantastic.

The passing and movement was the best I have seen in ages, we were also patient and didn't just throw the ball forward in a rush (hoof it!) we took our time and if the right pass wasn't available, we worked the ball till it was. Funny thing, I wore a Yellow shirt up (before changing up there, air con on train was broken too so the heaters were on!!) and it felt like I was watching Brazil when I was in the ground, some really fantastic football - not since the early 90's have we played such care free and beautiful football.

Albrighton - wizard feet.

Calrk - brilliant brain and good with feet.

A Young - just brilliant playing where he did

Brilliant performance all round.

[moose]

Was that *really* pretty much the same bunch of players we had last season? :shock: 21 shots on goal and 16 corners? We'd not have managed a tally like under MON until halfway through November. A fluidity, an attacking presence, and two youngsters in the starting line up who looked like they'd been first team regulars for months.

I'm glad the cheers outweighed the boos for Milner, he put in a solid 80 minutes and the fans reaction to his substitution was spot on. Albrighton, as everyone's already said, was phenomenal - I honestly don't think WHU were expecting that at all.

I have to say, I never thought I'd see the day when we subbed Milner and Young in the same match! Glad to see Kevin's not afraid of making changes where he sees fit, that's another two youngsters given the opportunity to appear in the first team and I hope it's a theme that will continue through the season.

Perhaps though this leaves us with a slight dilemma in the managerial stakes. A new manager will come in and presumably bring in his "own" players. This might hamper the ability of the youngsters to get time on the pitch, or even on the bench. I don't think we should be rushing into getting a new manager in place if Kev's happy to hold the reigns for the short term.

[Davies4England]

I was looking at the Guardian chalkboard, and our passing was superb.

Petrov 38 passes, 37 successful, plenty were forward ones.

Dunne 28 passes, 28 completed, including some excellent direct balls.

Clark 18 passes, 17 completed.

L Young 42 passes, 39 completed.

Basically we were very effective of playing it from the back, whilst Petrov would drop into spaces and keep us ticking. Then the more offensive players would try the more ambitious passing in areas where it wouldn't be dangerous to lose the ball. We also had an excellent amount of passes on the floor. However when playing the high ball, Carew was very effective of winning his flick ons, albeit v a not so dominant West Ham defence. The wingers also did excellent to find space meaning we bombarded them with crosses, whilst instructing out midfielders to make late runs from deep provided one covered. Hence why Petrov scored his goal.

[mtb_wm]

West Ham were dire though which I'm sure contributes to those stats

[SoccerHQ]

They were but there's plenty of teams who'll finish below them in the league this season.

Overall ony one game but refreshing to see more variety in our football and not too much long ball either.

Well done all.

[Neil]

So to summarise, did we really play as good through the whole 90 minutes as we did in the last 30 minutes? Unforunately I only got to see the last 30 minutes and whilst we didnt score, some of the football being played almost brought a little tear to my eye

The crowd looked good, the atmosphere sounded buzzing. Those that went, was a it a good atmostphere throughout? Loved the subs so that the lads could get there ovations, and what lovely ovations they were...definite tear invoking moments

Damn, what a good weekend. Shame I had to give my ticket away to go to a mates birthday bash!

[chappy]

Watched this in a pub in york, was there for the weekend and walking passed a pub and my girlfriend pointed out they were advertising the villa game at 3pm, couldnt believe my luck! So glad I witnessed it too because we were **** amazing. What a response to the past week or so!

Albrighton was MOTM for me, brilliant. Downing looked so much hungrier than last season, excited for what he can bring us this season. Milner put in an awesome professional performance, didn't milk his goal and his ovation was pretty emotional. It's a shame he is leaving, but I'm glad the crowd got behind him yesterday. Clark played superbly in defence too. Ash Young was brilliant, really like him in the free role. Carew... well what can I say, would have been an embarassing scoreline if he had been wearing his scoring boots! Thought he played brilliantly apart from his finishing though.

Bring on Vienna and I can't wait for my trip to Newcastle next sunday now. Obviously it isn't a time to get carried away but I am so happy at the response the boys have shown to the last week or so.

[roonst83]

I stood on the holte proud as punch watching our Aston Villa play West Ham off the park. After a week in which the media have tried their best to de-rail our season and humilate our club in the process - we showed on Saturday that we are together and how much of a difference it is to see our players play with freedom and pride - the crowd behind them all the way makes a huge difference. People have talked about how poor West Ham were - im not so sure that's fair on us - we stopped West Ham playing from the first to the last minute of the game, closing them down immediatley, defending any mininal threat etc - but our team oozed class and condidence throughout. The link up play between players like Petrov, Young, Albrighton and Downing was breathtaking at times. Albrighton especially could be very exciting for us.

I don't want to get carried away with one fantatsic performace, but it was a sheer joy to watch our team play so well after such a hard week. I think MON would have maybe started the same (or very similar) lineup as KM did - but whether certain players would have performed so well is a different matter - credit to MON for getting the players ready for the game, credit to KM for injecting the confidence into the sqaud on the day, credit to the crowd for backing the team and cheerign with passion and finally credit to Milner who gave another flawless perfomance - he's off to Man City we all know - but afte the great reception he got at VP in his farewell game im sure that will stay in his mind -the man is a very decent human being - and if he wnats to chase the money then let him, his joining a team going for the title and full of superstars - he is the biggest star at Villa and he'll struggle to make the same impression at Citeh due to their bunch of Harlem Globe-Trotters. But good luck to him, he's served us magnificently and ill always wish decent people well in whatever they choose to do.

Onwards and upwards for our club - if the crowd continue to back the boys and the team can play with the confidence and class we saw on Saturday then we could have a good season ahead of us.

[TOTTI-THE-GOD]

Something i noticed alot in the first half , Friedel didnt do many hoofs up field it was mainly thrown or kicked out short for the easier pass to keep posession . Already had one baggies fan trying to rain on my parade saying , it was a shame west ham didnt turn up , i thought shame your shower of shite didnt turn up for your match either .

Thought the ref was pretty unfair to big John in the first half , he seemed to think Carew was being overly physical which he wasnt West Ham just couldnt deal with him fullstop .

So proud of the way the players played , soooooo looking forward to the midweek european match now .

[Shillzz]

Something i really liked, which looks to be for one game only, sadly, was the way that we had Milner and Young playing centrally.

Too often in the past our wingers have been isolated on the wings, forcing the typical 'run down a dead end' manouver. However, with Young and Milner inside, our wingers were constantly looking to pass the ball into the middle of the park rather than spraying speculative passes 40 yards into touch. Youngs ability to play on the wing really helped the likes of Albrighton, as he didnt have to do all the wing work on his own.

A Fantastic system that suited our personnel perfectly. How Gabby would fit into that, I dont really know, as we'd end up with a queue of people running the lines with no one in the box.

[roonst83]

Too often in the past our wingers have been isolated on the wings, forcing the typical 'run down a dead end' manouver

Totally agree - it was refreshing to watch and something I pointed out to the people I was sat with.

[barry'sboots]

So to summarise, did we really play as good through the whole 90 minutes as we did in the last 30 minutes? Unforunately I only got to see the last 30 minutes and whilst we didnt score, some of the football being played almost brought a little tear to my eye

First half was excellent. We did have a poor period for the first 10 minutes of the second half after Grant bought on the Mexican and Piquone where we looked a bit lightweight in CM again and they were cutting through with ease. Personally, I would have liked to see K-Mac respond to that with bringing NRC on to shut things down (either for Stan or Jimmy or via bringing one of the wingers/Ash off). But once we'd scored the third we were very much back on track and their heads went down a bit I think.