Ratings and Reactions

[tinker]

Ashley Young ran his bollox off, he also had the Everton defense on their heels at important times and his vision for the goal was the difference between the two teams, hes nips it for me as MOTM. The defense were all awsome, as last season.

Everton played well and will be around the top 6 this season.

[Ponky]

Carew was a different player 2nd half. I suspect someone asked him if he had an interest in turning up at all, and he was very dangerous for that following 25 minutes or so.

[Cracker1234]

Reo Cokers runs at times were shocking, he has some speed...that run from one end to the other was class even though he didn't get the cross in.

He was solid today, also Collins he threw everything at every ball.

Collins was my MOTM though.

The whole team played defensively great today....The save at the end....WOW!....Heart is still racing.

The boys done AV proud today, but we can't keep playing football like that....I don't think my heart could take it.

[OutByEaster?]

Attendance today 34,725.

That's our lowest Premier League attendance since erm.....

Paging BOF - BOF to the stats aisle please.

[Davies4England]

Fantastic win, wasn't pretty but it worked a treat. On another day we'd have probably conceded though. Defence were superb, especially Collins, absolute giant in the air, I don't think he lost a header! Dunney was a bit shaky again but generally did well, just seems a yard of the pace right now. As for the fullbacks they were superb too, both were full of determination and made several key interceptions and tackles. Was delighted for Luke Young to get his goal.

Ireland getting injured was a blessing in disguise, NRC came in and he was just what we needed, fantastic work rate and protection down the middle. His distribution was wasteful though. Petrov worked hard too, was everywhere and had a few shocking decisions go against him. Both wingers were quite wasteful, but Albrighton worked as hard as ever. Downing needs to hug the touchline more rather then cut in, saying that whenever him and Albrighton got in positions, no-one was in the box.

Young worked quite well as a support striker but was often isolated, and I'd prefer him back out wide, meanwhile Carew disappointed me, thought his decision making was poor and he didn't hold the ball up well.

Very pleased with this win, I always hate playing Everton, but we actually kept players such as Cahill quiet for once, whether we intended to play that way I don't know but it was extremely effective. Hopefully we get a new manager in who is capable now, however anyone such as Koeman can piss off, I and probably the players would rather have Kevin McDonald in charge whilst we wait for a better manager to come along. If that is the case, we probably won't have a great season but I am pretty confident we will be secured in the top half.

Oh and the ref was a cock, the fouls he gave against us were a joke and it never helped Everton slowing the game down.

Two wins in three and an improvement on last season, crisis my arse

[paddy]

I rushed home to watch that today. Thanks boys. Good win agains a decent team.

[chasing_hamburg]

Collins was superb today

[billy_loes]

Downing was a bit frustrating but he did his job too.

Needs a bollocking every now and again i think and told what to do by a manager, tries to get a way with lots.

He didnt Jez, he did absolutely F**k all. £12m down the drain.

[MagicMarlon]

Brilliant result, just what we needed.

I don't know how we managed to hang on but we did and the two centre backs and Friedel deserve a lot of credit.

Ashley was superb as well, didn't stop running and they were terrified whenever he had the ball.

Up The Villa!

[chappy]

I have gone Ash MOTM, he was tireless. Collins close second, he was monumental today. What a win, can't believe we hung on. Great defending. Super goal too!

[Rob182]

I predicted 1-0 in the match thread!

Excellent performance by the whole team, to be honest. Downing and Warnock could have done better, but still it was a great team effort.

Our defence was solid, the only thing I disliked was the lack of composure on the ball for the last 20 minutes. We kept hoofing it upfield when we should have put our foot on the ball and forced Everton to chase our passes.

Ash it my MOTM as he was chasing everything down and a lot of our best attacks were through him.

Friedel - 9

L Young - 9

Dunne - 8

Collins - 8

Warnock - 7

Albrighton - 8

Petrov - 8

NRC - 7

Downing - 7

Ash - 9

Carew - 8

Sub: Gabby - 8

[Hanky]

Ref was horrendous. Possibly the worst I've seen down Villa Park.

[villadude]

Chuffed to bollocks, dunno how we did it, but I'm chuffed to ****!

[Redditch_Villa]

Didn't get to watch the game due to work but heard that Everton were the better team but by the sounds of it we battled hard. 3 points, ill take that!

[villadude]

Just realised City lost; made the day even better. :birthday:

Just found out myself too! Get in!

[rjw63]

**** refereee was SHITE, SHITE, SHITE.

Booked Villa players at the earliest opportunity but just wagged a finger at Everton. Gave numerous dodgy free kicks to them but **** all to us.

Biased as ****. Then the five minutes added time, **** utter bollocks.

As for the game, a much needed 3 points - not sure how we managed to keep them out.

Oh and Downing really is rubbish

[El_Hierro]

Well, Everton probably deserved something, but what a fantastic team win. Friedel and the defenders absolutely monumental.

Friedel, too old? NEVER! Didn't put a foot wrong, two excellent match winning saves from Saha, and what about that punch almost all the way to the halfway line. Excellent stuff. My MOTM today. Collins not far behind mind.

Friedel - 10 MOTM

Young - 8

Dunne - 8

Collins - 9

Warnock - 8

NRC - 7

Petrov - 7

Downing - 6

Albrighton - 7

Young - 8

Carew - 7

By those ratings what I'm trying to say is that the midfielders didn't do enough for me today. Worked hard, very good defensively, but on the attacking side they couldn't keep the ball enough meaning it turned out to be a harder day's work for our defenders than it should/could have been. Should have kept the ball more when Everton turned up the pace when Saha came on, even though I appreciate our plan to catch them on the break. Luckily our defenders were all brilliant today. Carew's best period was the 20 mins before he was taken off. More of that, please.

[AVFC-Prideofbrum]

By the way, I really hope Kev Mac kept Agbonlahor on the bench today because Gabby was carrying a knock. Seriously, Carew again was pretty poor, a good 15 minute spell in second half but first half was terrible again.

[TRO]

What a performance from the back 4, Friedel and Petrov. Petrov gave a real captain's performance today.

In fairness to MON, he bought a lot of good defenders last year, and he bought men of character who held out brilliantly.

On the other hand (and I know it's not the time to moan - I'm just being realisitic) I actually think that match hurts Kev Mac's candidacy. He was going to play Ireland in the middle again - we would have been hammered. He was unable to change the game to give us a foothold. He didn't remove Carew for a long time despite the fact that he was doing absolutely nothing and we were struggling hugely - Gabby pressured the ball at all times when he came on and it was a huge improvement.

I don't know, I think the win was both

a) lucky, and

down to the players' reaction to the last 2 results, rather than McDonald figuring it out.

Last thing though, I did say last week that it's better to win a game 3-0 and lose 6-0 than to draw twice. And now look, 4th in the league!

you make some good points..... after a 6-0 defeat we were going with the same team....ok? only an injury found us a winning formula.I'm not filled with confdence with this fella, nostalgia ain't the basis for appointing the manager of our club.

[The_Rev]

Gabby has been injured all season (hamstring) which is why he has hardly played.