Ratings and Reactions: Villa 2-2 Man Utd

[OutByEaster?]

I'm really pleased with that performance, we were much the better side after 75 minutes and fully deserved our lead. We played the ball around well, we pressured them and the young lads did very well.

I thought Downing was very very good, Warnock too and down both sides the combinations of players looked very comfortable with each other.

Vidic is Gabby's bitch. He just bullies him, he chases him, knocks him over, runs past him, rubs into him and generally just pisses all over him - I would imagine Vidic has nightmares in the run up to games at Villa Park and long may it continue.

I think we could have taken three points out of the game but there was a mental swing, partly down to our lack of self belief and partly down to their history - at 0-0 we had something to fight for, at 1-0 we had something to fight for, at 2-0 all we had was something to defend and as soon as we got there you could see our team wondering if they could hold out.

We should by then have been playing nine men of course, and it was pretty clear early on that we were playing twelve.

After around twenty minutes, Hernandez was played through but offside, he had a look at the flag then booted the ball into the Holte End in frustration - an offence punishable with a yellow card - not in my opinion, not at the discretion of the referee, but as a written law of the game. It might not be a very good law, but it is there and it isn't open to interpretation - Mr Dean decided to ignore it.

His next error was for me his worst - Nani had been off the pitch for a couple of minutes pretending to be injured and when he came on Stephen Warnock called him a few names. Nani took a dislike to this so when a long ball came over a few seconds later he took a look over his shoulder to check where Warnock was then wandered the three or four yards to where Warnock was and elbowed him in the face. The linesman - stood four yards away but in front of the Utd fans never moved - cowardice getting the better of his integrity,

Mr Dean on the other hand strode over confidently to do his job, unfortunately while he was on his way there he bumped into four or five Utd players who talked him out of it and he settled for a yellow card and a lecture - not one he gave out you understand but one he took from the vile little Portuguese.

By the time he'd then decided to downgrade a professional foul to a yellow card offence, I don't think any of us were really surprised. Weak, cowardly refereeing that brings the game into question and disrepute. He'll go far.

I'm by no means disappointed though, I think we gave a really good account of ourselves and deserved to win. I'd be interested to note how many of these players played for the reserves against Utd earlier in the year, and I couldn't be more please with the performances of Hogg, Bannan and Albrighton. It was good to see Ashley and Gabby back together too and I think we can take a whole lot of positives from this performance.

One final question - it's difficult from where I am to see it clearly, but it look from where I was that Fletcher celebrated the equaliser by goading the fans in the North Stand and then giving them the finger with both hands. I'd be interested to hear from people who were at that end if that's what happened.

[OK_Villan]

That second Villa goal build up was a beautiful thing to watch. Heart-breaking ending, though. I like Houllier's style so far.

[OutByEaster?]

I am posting from my phone in a stolen five minutes I have, so apologies of this has been covered.

Why was Vidic spared a second yellow for jumping in with the fans? Ash got booked for jumping in with the fans ten minutes earlier.

I hadn't even thought of that, United should really have been down to eight by the end of the game. We've been done again.

[regular_john]

I am posting from my phone in a stolen five minutes I have, so apologies of this has been covered.

Why was Vidic spared a second yellow for jumping in with the fans? Ash got booked for jumping in with the fans ten minutes earlier.

According to the fourth official it's because he was 'pushed' in to the fans. The reality, of course is that, like Nani and Brown, he plays for Manchester United and so can't be sent off.

[Davies4England]

Gutted but couldn't be more proud, I expected a thrashing.

At the end of the day Man Utd are unbeaten this season, and they're the best at what they do which is coming back from losing. However I did feel we could keep possession better, although as others have mentioned that is nerves and inexperience with some players. Also I thought the goals they scored were quality.

Also I laugh at Man City, all the millions of talent they had in their team Wednesday night and they played for a point. On the other hand with our depleted squad we took the game to them and we were so close to finally beating them.

As for the ref, was a total bottlejob, although I didn't get a clear view of the penalty the Nani elbow was a blatant red and too many times he was too happy to blow his whistle.

+

Hogg for his debut did superb.

Albrighton was a lot more disciplined and gave Evra a torrid time.

Luke Young was superb defending.

Bannan's composure and passing.

Gabby's work rate.

Downing looks to be undefendable at times, although I think that's two shots he's knocked out for a throw in recently

[Dodgyknees]

I'm really pleased with that performance, we were much the better side after 75 minutes and fully deserved our lead. We played the ball around well, we pressured them and the young lads did very well.

I thought Downing was very very good, Warnock too and down both sides the combinations of players looked very comfortable with each other.

Vidic is Gabby's bitch. He just bullies him, he chases him, knocks him over, runs past him, rubs into him and generally just pisses all over him - I would imagine Vidic has nightmares in the run up to games at Villa Park and long may it continue.

I think we could have taken three points out of the game but there was a mental swing, partly down to our lack of self belief and partly down to their history - at 0-0 we had something to fight for, at 1-0 we had something to fight for, at 2-0 all we had was something to defend and as soon as we got there you could see our team wondering if they could hold out.

We should by then have been playing nine men of course, and it was pretty clear early on that we were playing twelve.

After around twenty minutes, Hernandez was played through but offside, he had a look at the flag then booted the ball into the Holte End in frustration - an offence punishable with a yellow card - not in my opinion, not at the discretion of the referee, but as a written law of the game. It might not be a very good law, but it is there and it isn't open to interpretation - Mr Dean decided to ignore it.

His next error was for me his worst - Nani had been off the pitch for a couple of minutes pretending to be injured and when he came on Stephen Warnock called him a few names. Nani took a dislike to this so when a long ball came over a few seconds later he took a look over his shoulder to check where Warnock was then wandered the three or four yards to where Warnock was and elbowed him in the face. The linesman - stood four yards away but in front of the Utd fans never moved - cowardice getting the better of his integrity,

Mr Dean on the other hand strode over confidently to do his job, unfortunately while he was on his way there he bumped into four or five Utd players who talked him out of it and he settled for a yellow card and a lecture - not one he gave out you understand but one he took from the vile little Portuguese.

By the time he'd then decided to downgrade a professional foul to a yellow card offence, I don't think any of us were really surprised. Weak, cowardly refereeing that brings the game into question and disrepute. He'll go far.

I'm by no means disappointed though, I think we gave a really good account of ourselves and deserved to win. I'd be interested to note how many of these players played for the reserves against Utd earlier in the year, and I couldn't be more please with the performances of Hogg, Bannan and Albrighton. It was good to see Ashley and Gabby back together too and I think we can take a whole lot of positives from this performance.

One final question - it's difficult from where I am to see it clearly, but it look from where I was that Fletcher celebrated the equaliser by goading the fans in the North Stand and then giving them the finger with both hands. I'd be interested to hear from people who were at that end if that's what happened.

What a BRILLIANT write up, front page for that, surely?

[benireduk]

One final question - it's difficult from where I am to see it clearly, but it look from where I was that Fletcher celebrated the equaliser by goading the fans in the North Stand and then giving them the finger with both hands. I'd be interested to hear from people who were at that end if that's what happened.

Yes I was in the lower north right in front of where that word removed came. It all stemed from when a fan made him come and fetch the ball about 10 mins before. He gave that fan a mouthfull then when the equaliser went in he did the same thing. About half a dozen fans, me included raced down to get at him but the stewards were there stopping us. Then at the end of the game he was at it again walking off the pitch. I complained to police and stewards. Not sure if anything will be done. More frustrated with not beating them at home again!!!

[SoulfulEnigma]

on the Sky Sports site its say utd had a 'stirring comeback' lol they were awful today I think they are scrapping the barrel there to make them look good lol

[OutByEaster?]

Fonz? 0 cost us the game the lazy bell end

:shock:

are you for real ?

yes i am, thanks for asking

are you?

i will know if you are or not if you try and say that fonz provided anything other than negativeness today.

or if you try and defend his attitude today

or if you try and come up with excuses for his shitness today

or if you dont think the whole game turned on him coming on and gabby going off

I don't think I've ever seen anyone so angry with a player who was on for ten minutes and made one mistake. I think you've got this one a long way wrong.

[Tomaszk]

The first comment was funnier

Delf was poor, made to look worse by how well Gab played in the second half, and the fact the team was getting nervous.

[Oaks]

The first comment was funnier

Delf was poor, made to look worse by how well Gab played in the second half, and the fact the team was getting nervous.

Indeed.

[wedge]

Very promising performance, typical United though...The kids look fantastic, the future certainly looks bright if we can keep them, Downing MOTM, not getting the credit he deserves this season IMO

[phily85]

its the first time ive ever watched a villa man u game and been able to say villa are turning the screw. we was absolotley all over them until the inexperioence showed but thats man u. if only we could play like that for the rest of the season only good things to come

[islingtonclaret]

Absolute disaster for United, who no doubt will get the run of the green from the press who will label them heroes for their comeback that covers up the fact they are simply not title contenders at the moment.

We really looked good, I'm chuffed for our young 'uns who put a great shift in. As previously said before the match, I always expect us to lose this one, so a point is a good result.

[phily85]

yes the press will all be about the great united comeback they may even

#n say it was a weakend united team because scholes didnt play

[Oaks]

To put it in perspective the Villa first 11 cost approx £44 million, United cost Approx £120 million.

[wedge]

Also, why does Macheda do **** all else except score late goals against us?

[Oddsox]

Fonz? 0 cost us the game the lazy bell end

:shock:

are you for real ?

yes i am, thanks for asking

are you?

i will know if you are or not if you try and say that fonz provided anything other than negativeness today.

or if you try and defend his attitude today

or if you try and come up with excuses for his shitness today

or if you dont think the whole game turned on him coming on and gabby going off

I don

difficult to say whether Utd v. poor or Villa v good & made them look poor. Blackpool reserves, better than UTD.

Some of breaks 2nd half superb

my 15 yo son nearly in tears - never seen a win against utd. Nearly in tears myself with pride.

Not sure how Fonz gets the blame?, (before gane thought unlucky to be dropped after weds) made 1 shocking pass when on a break - made 1 excellent defensive header. But whole team lost some belief when Gabby went off.

Future all good

[phily85]

some fans baffle me

[brummybloke]

Fonz? 0 cost us the game the lazy bell end

:shock:

are you for real ?

yes i am, thanks for asking

are you?

i will know if you are or not if you try and say that fonz provided anything other than negativeness today.

or if you try and defend his attitude today

or if you try and come up with excuses for his shitness today

or if you dont think the whole game turned on him coming on and gabby going off

I don't think I've ever seen anyone so angry with a player who was on for ten minutes and made one mistake. I think you've got this one a long way wrong.

if we had anyone like souness, mcmahon, paul ince or any other nasty bastard in the team, they would have rung his neck for the way he did **** all.

the team played well beyond everyones wildest expectations , we were actually hammering utd, not just beting them, we were battering them.

then what?

if anyone has the stats i would be interested to see how many attempts they had before gabby went off and how many in the 10 minutes afterwards.

we defend from the front , we did today and it worked, then we chamnged forwards and there was no effort, no passion, no respect for the players who had played so fantastically for the previous 80 minutes, instead we got a sulky stroppy big headed cock like appearance from one of our rising stars.

it was disgraceful and disrespectful to the rest of the team.

he was wrongly taken off against blackpool, he was crap for most of the game and then when he found his feat he looked a very good player but was then taken off.

he was 'wronged' on that occasion, but instead of putting in his all for the 10 minutes he was on the pitch today, when 2-0 and battering utd, he did slightly less than me and i wasnt there.

it was the best 80 minutes i have seen from us in a very long time against top opponents , from the way we kept the ball, passed it, moved, chased down, tackled, competed for every ball. then the introduction of fonz and ...... nothing, no chasing from the forward, no tackling, no tracking back, no attacking threat, no passes to our own players, nothing.