Ratings and Reactions

[OutByEaster?]

Gents, let the comments on how we each support the club go please - this thread is about the match not about who is the better fan.

Thank you.

[samjp26]

Wasn't impressed by Downing, really expected a 2 or 3 goal lead by half time after the first 20 minutes, on to the next one though eh

[Rob182]

My ratings -

Friedel - 8

L Young - 7

Collins - 6.5

Dunne - 6

Warnock - 6

Petrov - 6

Downing - 6

Albrighton - 6.5

Ireland - 6

A Young - 7

Gabby - 6

Cuellar - 6

Carew - 6

Macdonald - 5

A very average team performance. We can and will do better!

[Harry]

I think Mike Dean must apply different football rules to normal in matches. Knight looked like a world class defender except his 'defending' consisted of fouling Gabby and the Carew for the entire 90 minutes. He ripped the shirt off Carew's back FFS! But that 'world class' referee Mike (smug bastard) Dean saw nothing wrong. What a tosser.

Mind you we were rubbish anyway. I am so glad that KM is not going to be our manager as he is tactically clueless. I cannot be arsed to go through the whole litany of errors suffice to say he's a nice bloke but utterly out of his depth.

Roll on Monsieur Houllier!!

[b6bloke]

people ask what happened to the team that wiped the floor with west ham as its the same team, well its not as its missing one player!

[Mantis]

people ask what happened to the team that wiped the floor with west ham as its the same team, well its not as its missing one player!

Milner wasn't the best player that day. Albrighton and even Downing were a lot better. West Ham were really dire that day anyway.

[Rob182]

people ask what happened to the team that wiped the floor with west ham as its the same team, well its not as its missing one player!

Milner wasn't the best player that day. Albrighton and even Downing were a lot better. West Ham were really dire that day anyway.

Yup, I remember watching and at times thinking "we could be doing this without Milner".

Other than his goal and 2 or 3 decent passes, he was pretty average.

[beasley14]

Well that was up there with the most frustrating games i have seen in a good while. We just refused to keep the ball on the floor despite the airial pingpong style been Boltons favourite. We didn't use enough subs, we used the wrong tactics again (Ireland in a 2?), we didn;t battle well enough and Mike Dean was appaling. We played well for 20 mins then stopped doing what was working so well. Why on earth was that? It can't be fitness at this point in the season. Thank good our defence is pretty good and we get a lot of blocks in. Friedel was MOTM for me, kept us in it too.

[AVFC-Prideofbrum]

Terrible. Where to start.

Bright first 20 minutes, until we got the goal.

Petrov was friggin awful, he didn't make any mistakes but as the deepest midfielder and a supposed comfortable player on the ball, why wasn't he demanding the balls off our defence to start our attacking play? Ireland was the same but let him off a little because he doesn't even play there and it's not his position although their performance were equally not good enough.

Young was okay but isn't a forward player.

Albrighton did okay but stayed on too long.

Downing I think was our best player outfield.

Defence was okay apart from Dunne who was shit when he played.

Why the **** did he put Young cm when Carew came on? Young needs to be wide, delivering crosses.

Fecking hell, good first 20 minutes. Shit last 70.

[AVFC-Prideofbrum]

Friedel - 8

Young - 6.5

Dunne - 5

Collins - 7

Warnock - 7

Downing - 7.5

Petrov - 5

Ireland - 6

Albrighton - 6

Young - 6.5

Agbonlahor - 6.5

[AVFC-Prideofbrum]

Oh and the Ref was shit. Agbonlahor was man handled so often.

[thetrees]

OBE's post just about encapsulated things.

With a decent ref we would have probably won at a canter, although that doesn't excuse the fact that we should still have done the job.

The midfield worked well in the first 30 mins, with Downing looking the pick. I'm flabbergasted that some will just never get off his back.

Second half Ash had been kicked once too often so withdrew from the game, apart from his dreadful corner kicks of course, and we stopped (or were stopped) from marauding down the left, which was our best opportunity in the first half.

Crap attendance once more. I can't believe that there were that many Celtic tourists in the first place.

We're not fickle, we just can't decide who we don't like :winkold:

[chappy]

I really don't understand the Downing hate when he's had a good game, thought he was our best player today.

We are so depressing to watch, we cna never capitalise on pressure and so once again we were only one up after 20 mins when we should have had two or three and then we show no ideas when the other team equalize and end up lucky to escape with a point at home to bolton, not good viewing.

[JulieB]

Sounds like I picked the right Saturday afternoon to miss all the fun guys!!!

[pacbuddies]

Well we have played some crap teams (West Ham, Newcastle, Stoke and Bolton) in our opening fixtures and managed a paltry 4 points. The only half decent team we have played were Everton and we were lucky to win that.

At times in the Bolton game it looked as though Villa were the away side looking to hold out for a draw.

God knows what will happen to us when we play the likes of Chelsea, Man Utd, Arsenal, Spurs, Man City etc.

This is an absolute disgraceful start to the season and I just hope Houllier is the man to sort it out quick or we are in for a long, hard and disappointing term.

[Rob182]

I really don't understand the Downing hate when he's had a good game, thought he was our best player today.

He's one of those players that always gets abuse, like Ashley Cole or El-Hadji Diouf.. but those 2 have real reasons whereas Downing seems to get abuse just because he looks a bit like a rat, sounds a bit posh and doesn't do constant sliding tackles.

I too thought he was one of our better players. He did nothing stand-out but still had a half decent game. Though, I do wish that he kept his confidence high a bit more often! I like it when he knocks the ball ahead of himself and chases it, he doesn't do that enough imo.

[AVFC-Prideofbrum]

Yes, what's up with Downing criticism? Didn't give the ball away, some really nice clever passes, some decent runs. Everyone seems to hate him because he's a bit of a wuss.

[markavfc40]

Apart from the first 20 odd minutes we were clueless.

Houllier needs to get the fire back into the belly of some of these players. If not we are in for a long hard season of more of the shite we have seen in the vast majority of the games we've played so far this season.

[CastleBromVilla]

We played well for the first 30 mins, then we seemed to lose our drive. I really wanted MacDonald to do well in his last game in charge but I feel like his tactics have let us down again. Stephen Ireland in a central midfield 2 could work but subbing him for Carew leaving us with 2 strikers, 3 wingers and 1 shattered Petrov will never work.

MOTM Brad! Some great saves from the big man!

I'm looking forward to Houllier taking control and pushing us on!

I left the match with 30 mins still on the clock couldnt sit there watching that utter drivel

I hate people like you.

Downing looks like he's retreated back into his shell again backing out of tackles left right and centre no bottle.

Oh, here we go again.. If only Downing was doing diving, two-footed challenges like all the other players out there yeah? :? FFS

Glad I didn't go, waste of money.

Last week I felt ashamed when some chap who went to the Stoke game was having a rant about us not selling out our away seats. Now I know I'm not one of the ones letting us down when I see comments like this.

ClaretMahoney, I agree with you. There are some pathetic "fans" around nowadays. I'm a season ticket holder but I'm not going to "get out of the rain and cold" when I could be cheering my team on.

I'm a better fan than you... :yawn:

As the guy said, he pays his money, he can do what he wants.

I find people like you more annoying than those that choose to leave the game early.

[swaib2004]

It's looking more and more likely to me that we have over achieve the past few years, getting the results we havent quite deserved. Apart from West Ham we haven't played well for this season for a long period in the game.

Hopefully Houllier gives us this and certain players need a kick up the arse and to be realised when they need a bit of help next to them.