Ratings and Reactions: Villa 0-0 sha

[Gingerlad]

I see Sidwell got a vote. Welcome to the forum Steve.

Nah, that was Gingerlad, he does it every game :-)

I thought he was **** awesome today. As usual.

[Jez]

Thought Clark did well...

[drat01]

Good to confirm that so many agenda's are influencing comments rather than viewing the match for what it was.

Actually its not good, its pretty pathetic really and one of the reasons why forums like this suffer.

As for the match - not a good one. Personally I didn't see the dame performance from Clark that others did and agree with TonyH (I think it was) who said that he was a CH playing in midfield. Now before anyone berates GH for this, I remember quite well that MON used to play players out of their so called position, so not sure that is a stick to hit this manager with unless of course you did so previously. Luke Young looked off the pace in the 1st half, Richard Dunne is a liability and really should not be certain of a place at the moment. Downing forgot the basics and did what some accused him of before and forgot to put a pair of balls on. That game was crying out for a good performance from so called senior players like him and he went hiding.

EH did well up there, but when you expected our midfield players to support him they were nowhere to be seen. Sidwell, was extremely poor.

Ultimately though we see what a poor squad that MON left us and what injuries could do to it. Gabby has played for nearly all of the past few seasons and now we are seeing the impact that he has. I liked NRC's performance for a nasty derby which this one always is, OK you can argue he may have crossed that line, but I saw equally as bad going on from them, with little from Webb or the linesmen to stop it.

GH has to, and I am convinced he will, improve this squad. Luckily unlike MON he actually believes in subs and changing things where he can it would seem, but to do that you need that squad and pressure for places. Losing the money grabbing bastards to Man City in the past two years has impacted our midfield and our creativity and possibly our work rate (in Milners case anyway).

As for any other comments, the stewards were cock ends today, I appreciate its a crap job, but please common sense should be allowed. After the game I actually felt some sympathy for the coppers, the inbreds from down the road were hell bent on causing problems and goodness knows what will happen after a days drinking and the like at the League Cup QF

[QuintonK6]

That I may be alone in thinking it is what it tells me. Should it tell me anything else?

for the record I don't like Young's actions in diving and whinging so much either, it just so happens that those aren't quite as scummy in my view as kicking out petulantly at the opponent.

Still, lets not waste the bandwidth, eh?

Majority of Villa Fans will support there player regardless of what's right or wrong especially against SHA. Remember Dions headbutt on Savage ? That gave Dion in my eyes and every other Villa fan i now legendary status and the freedom of B'ham - For the record are you a Brummie and does beating the scum mean anything to you ??

[Gringo]

If you're going to give it in a derby give it large

No problem with him kicking out at noses on the pitch, but a little sad coming on at the end to remonstrate about what exactly?

[Chindie]

Majority of Villa Fans will support there player regardless of what's right or wrong especially against SHA. Remember Dions headbutt on Savage ? That gave Dion in my eyes and every other Villa fan i now legendary status and the freedom of B'ham - For the record are you a Brummie and does beating the scum mean anything to you ??

Yes I am a Brummie and yes beating Small Heath is meaningful.

I prefer to think of Dublin as a legend for us for being agreat player and for breaking his neck for the cause (literally) rather than head butting a player to land us in even more shit against the scum. Although admittedly I find it funny that it was Savage he nailed. I still don't condone it and would rather it hadn't happened.

I don't think I'd support a Villa player unflinchingly at all - if one of our players is in the wrong, he's in the wrong, to me, no matter what shirt he's got on. I'm not, and never will be, unflinching in my support of anything.

[ChrisNichollsToe]

If you're going to give it in a derby give it large

No problem with him kicking out at noses on the pitch, but a little sad coming on at the end to remonstrate about what exactly?

This needs to be framed and hung proudly in every villa fans home. Hell, im even going to have it put on a T-shirt 8)

Hmmm?????.......im going to rich!

[parisvilla]

exactly the same as the previous two derbies; they play with 10 behind the ball looking for 0-0 its just unfortunate they actually managed it this time. **** embarrassing that their fans celebrated like they'd won the league and gardner was over by the doug fist pumping, so small time. glad coker refused to shake johnson's hand, i know i wouldnt. my favourite moment: watching the unwashed arrive on their £12 coaches attempting to give it large, priceless.

need attacking options and fast. reckon b-lose could go down.

[snowychap]

I thought Reo Coker's actions were cowardly and could have cost us big time. If he had been sent off we could have been in real trouble at the death. Also, coming back on the pitch at the end to flex his muscles, just being a knob. Its the kind of thing you would expect from Carr or Johnson, not a Villa captain. Hard men play hard, not act like a teenage chav.

Very true.

[TOTTI-THE-GOD]

Anyone else find it really annoying that for large parts of the match we had no left winger ? This lead to Warnock having feck all in the way of help . If we were playing anyone decent we'd of lost pretty easily today . Far to defensive i actually thought Clark did a decent job in the centre of midfield but we were crying out for someone to really support Heskey . Johnson was injured for the last 20 min why the hell didnt we bring someone on with pace to stretch him .

[GREATBARRLION]

In the second half there was hardly a right winger, remember Clark and Collins running down the wing like Gazzelles.

Think Young and Downing need to chat a bit more if they wern't on right or left :oops:

[carlitobrigante]

Bit negative from Houllier, but ill give him benefit of the doubt for now...

I think its obvious that O'Neil has left us in pretty poor shape. We are a mid table team, that briefly punched above our weight thanks to one or two players no longer with us, and O'Neils enthusiasm that rubbed off on the players..

Cant believe Sidwell started. I really think he is useless. Please please get rid Mr Houllier..

Made me cringe when Carews name was chanted.....hasnt deserved his own chant for almost a year...

Warnock has suddenly stopped making any forward runs??

I want Cuellar in at CB asap.....our strongest central defender for me....Dunne too prone to errors at the moment, Collins is worse at hoofing that Carlos is...

Heskey has made me do a complete u-turn. Deserves to stay and can be a usefull player given support.

Lots of work needed. We are in for a poor season i think. I hope fans have the patience to let our new boss have some time to build his own team.

[Hanky]

Far too negative today, our play was terrible as well. Heskey did well on the scraps he got, completely isolated. We actually looked a lot better when Bannan came on.

[Demitri_C]

GH has to, and I am convinced he will, improve this squad. Luckily unlike MON he actually believes in subs and changing things where he can it would seem, but to do that you need that squad and pressure for places. Losing the money grabbing bastards to Man City in the past two years has impacted our midfield and our creativity and possibly our work rate (in Milners case anyway).

this is a vital point ian and i agree with you. if we go out against teh blosers at the sty i wont hold houllier responsiable. this isnt his squad and he has to work with what he has. at least he can see our strengths and weaknesses and will know what players he needs to target. defensively we look pretty good when dunnes not cocking up. midfield we looks lost at times. when ashley young is not on the wing we struggle: we really do.

up front is the problem. we dont have many people in the box at times and today was evident of that. i remember first half downing whipped a fantastic ball in but no-one was anywhere near that in the box, if we had a defoe he would have buried that chance

houllier needs to strengthen its as simple as that

[drat01]

Just watched the hilights on Sky and its noticeable that sha had a plan to wind NRC up. Johnson was never injured and was looking to get him booked. Gardnerers challenge was actually very nasty and if you look you can see that he purposely leaves his foot in there. Webb should have, but was never going to, book Fergusson who provoked the situation massively

[Milfner]

Anyone else spot Rob's ugly mug on MOTD after Young hit the post? :winkold:

[TOTTI-THE-GOD]

Just been watching MOTD2 , how much of a dirty bastard was scott dann , managed to cripple Clarke not once but twice .

[colleh]

How is Foster on Clark not a penalty??

[villa4europe]

MOTD didnt show reo coker kicking out or the zigic elbow

[villa4europe]

It is good to see when ash hit the post blues had 7 players in the box