Ratings and Reactions: villa 2-1 west brom

[CrackpotForeigner]

For me, one of the best things about the game was Lichaj's performance. Defensively no worse than Luke Young, and put some lethal crosses. His long throw is looking very good too.

Albrighton showed how much we've missed him lately. Fantastic player. Downing top notch as usual.

Heskey's goal looked anything but accidental, a very well-taken header imo. Hate to say it, but he looks much more of a threat than Gabby at the moment.

CC has to be first choice. Collins and Dunne can fight it out for the other spot.

Barry Bannan hasn't had a good game for a while now. Should maybe start him on the bench v Wigan.

Hogg did his usual thing - mostly neat, tidy and invisible.

Warnock did HIS usual thing - Very good in attack and very shaky in defense. Lichaj RB and Luke Young LB for me, if LY will play there.

Friedel not really tested, which is just as well these days.

[the_eristic]

Barry Bannan hasn't had a good game for a while now. Should maybe start him on the bench v Wigan.

I'm really getting the feeling he needs to be just in front of a central two, not part of.

[wedge]

Credit has to go to GH for todays game at least. He made a brave decision by dropping Dunne who is also the captain at the moment and it payed off, Cuellar was great in defence along with Lichaj who I was also very impressed with. We looked dangerous going forward and fully deserved the 3 points.

Another major difference was the physical side of our game today, the players looked really up for it and showed some great passion and determination to grind out the result, you need look no further than NRC's reaction after our 2nd goal and even Ashley Young was getting stuck into challenges!

Onwards and upwards and hopefully to another 3 points next week.

[Wainy316]

"General, why didn't we win 8-0 you horrible bastard"?

[Harry]

Maybe a controversial choice but the MotM for me was Hogg. Neat, tidy and unhurried and picked two or three world class passes. Today for me he completely anchored the midfield. He's never going to be flashy or obvious but he oozed class for me.

Special mention for Lichaj. He got skinned a couple of times early on but I really liked his attitude and he got better as the game progressed. He has real pace and that long throw will be a real weapon. Cuellar lived up to his billing and I definitely think he got the best out of Collins who had a dodgy first quarter but looked very solid thereafter.

My real worry is Warnock. He made three or four schoolboy errors that gifted possession to WBA and a better side would have profited. Ok he did a couple good things but overall he is a real liability made secure by a lack of options. He loses possession so so easily. Personally I would put Luke Young at LB and stick with Lichaj at RB.

[RunRickyRun]

I went for Heskey as MOTM.

Scored the winning goal (and clearly set up the first by finding a clever touch so Albrighton could pounce on the throw in).

He caused all sorts of problems for the Albion's defence and won a number of headers when he came back for set pieces.

I thought we were much the better side 2nd half after they edged the first. We just need to find that killer instinct and really punish sides on the break.

[parisvilla]

heskey and young caused the albion backline problems all game and were it not for a few dubious looking offsides i reckon we could have had a couple more goals. downing and albrighton were very good as well, which is to be expected. lichaj and cuellar looked good and prevented jerome thomas from creating much from the left.

thought it was collins who scored the 2nd from my view in K4 but glad it was big emile as he was a threat al game. ash motm - a captain's performance.

[Milfner]

I think Heskey and Young linked very well today, they were both very impressive. I liked Heskey up top by himself too, we could play it short aswell as direct, which definitely benefited us massively.

[DiegoD]

well first a dishonorable mention to NRC, when you are on the post at a corner you stay on the post, you do not do your famous impression of a headless chicken.

Heskey was outstanding, looks so confident and he scored!

Downing and Young were excellent both worked hard and always wanted the ball. Albrighton went missing a bit at times but put in 2 amazing crosses, so can't complain.

A very important 3 points

[beasley14]

Lichaj was class for his first game. Maybe Downing MOTM.

[villianusa]

well first a dishonorable mention to NRC, when you are on the post at a corner you stay on the post, you do not do your famous impression of a headless chicken.

If you know anything about marking at corners, he did the right thing coming of the post slightly. When the ball goes past him to other side of field he is supposed to drift slightly to his left to cover behind Friedel. He did that but Sharner got a free head and it was a cracking header into the far corner. If he had been beat on his left and stayed on the post people would be saying why didn't move off the post. He can't win either way with some of you guys but let's forget about the defender who gave him a free header.

Have fought win against a team in the top half; first time this season I believe. The Baggies are a good side a will give better teams than us a good game this year. I like the look of Brunt and Thomas.

Hogg did a great job today; never stopped running and putting in tackles. He kept it simple.

Heskey caused them allsorts of problems and deserved a goal.

Albrighton MOTM for the two assist and total effort for the team. Didn't think anyone had a bad game today; nothing overlly great but an overall good team effort.

Lets keep it going.

[Villan81]

for me Ash Young looked the player he was in the first season he joined us,menacing a constant threat,winning free kicks in dangerous places

monday albrighton didnt look fully fit but yesterday he looked well up for it,back to himself runnin at defenders and perfect crossing,for heskeys goal that was an absolute brilliance from albrighton,,1 touch then whipped it in to dangerous area

i knew we'd step up n glad we did,,heskey back n NRC back to,,my confidence is back

[KiwiVillain]

young 4? are you serious??? he has a good game today one of the best on the pitch i would give him at least a 7, hogg def wasnt a 3/10. What game was you watching??/

Hogg spent half the game on his arse... go back and watch it again! His tackling was woeful and probably 70% of his passes went backwards.

Young ponced around the field trying to look pretty on the ball and got a few free kicks. He never looked that threatening and unless I'm mistaken your "star player" should be threatening, score goals or be the provider and he didn't do any of that for me.

[Villan81]

young got the flick on for Downing surely that counts?lol

[gilbertoAVFC]

Collins looked ten times the player he's been this season

he was rubbish again :?

Then you must have watched a different game than me because to me he seemed much more reliable today than in the last games and also made some good blocks. Huge improvement.

hes off the pace, woefully inept positionally, and doesnt look comfortable with the ball at his feet

not the same player he was a year ago

i agree, he WAS much better today, but he was still terrible for a first choice cb in the premier league

What on EARTH are you on about? Collins won so much in the air, though Cuellar did pretty well, Collins was our best defender in my opinion.

Don't understand where all this Collins-hatred has come from. He's been off-the-boil in recent weeks but in general this season has been solid as per. Just typical Villa scapegoating I guess. He had a nervy moment when Brunt and Fortune had those two shots in quick succession - other than that, can't fault.

[gilbertoAVFC]

I think Heskey and Young linked very well today, they were both very impressive. I liked Heskey up top by himself too, we could play it short aswell as direct, which definitely benefited us massively.

Agreed. Both thrive off the other and were both massive threats to WBA. At one point Young did this absolutely quality bit of skill that resulted in half a chance for Heskey.

[villatillidie1980]

Not our best performance by a long stretch, think we played better againt the Blouse, only we ended up losing that, but either way we got the all important three points, and hopefully in doing that the boys will take some confidence fromit into the Wigan game.

[OutByEaster?]

Hogg spent half the game on his arse... go back and watch it again! His tackling was woeful and probably 70% of his passes went backwards.

I thought Hogg's tackling was outstanding - he pestered Brunt and Morrison out of the game and added some thunder when we were looking flat. He's limited in terms of what he can do on the ball and his vision, but he's a natural leader and we need those at the moment.

In all honesty, I didn't think he'd do this well - he's been very good in the last few games and I think is now a better centre-mid option than Clark.

[slowandlow]

vital result, i thought we needed 4 points from the albion and wigan and we have 3 already, so we are doing alright

hogg had a decent game - i don't think he will make it at the top level, but at least he always gives 100% which is more than can be said for some of the others over the past couple of weeks

cuellar, hogg, downing and albrighton all get credit for me

albrighton is such an important player for us - i don't know the stats but he must have 7 or 8 assists and about 3 or 4 goals at this stage of the season already. Such a shame he missed both games versus the **** blues

[lexicon]

Well the difference here was that after we came out for the 2nd half, we had some self-belief back. In the game against the Blues we did play well for segments but there was always this uneasiness. Yesterday we looked more like our old selves again and I can't wait for the Wigan game - we need to give them a bit of a raping.