Ratings and reactions: Villa 1-0 Fulham

[keefa3011]

The first half was more of what I've been wanting to see from Villa. In their faces and pressing the ball high up the pitch, looking to play on the front foot.

Second half saw a reaction from Fulham, which was to be expected, but I felt we deserved the win. Still mystified with Nzogbia coming off when Albrighton was worse, but I'm getting used to that now.

If we try and play like this more often, I'll be happier more often.

[kurtsimonw]

Very good I thought today. They had a little spell in the 2nd half where they looked a bit dangerous, but first hlf struggling to remember many times they even had possession in our half.

Can't say much wrong with it at all. Defense was very good. Herd and Petrov was brilliant first half, but seemed to tire in the 2nd - which McLeish changed to success - Ireland and N'Zogbia kept the ball well. Wasn't that impressed with Marc and Gabby and thought they were lucky to stay on the pitch, but the subs that made worked and ultimately won us the game so credit where it's due to AMc there.

More of the same please, we look a lot better when we aren't just sitting back.

[thetrees]

One game and a lucky goal. I sware some of you on here make me laugh. I was at the game, it was awful in the second half once again. Taking Nzog off killed it for me. He has gone to far for me McLeish still Out!

The crowd reaction killed it for me. We needed to get a striker on because we were never going to score. We took off the least effective, and most expendable midfielder, and the crowd reacted the way that they did.

The reaction was pathetic and ignorant, and further underlined that whatever this manager does he is one step away from ten thousand knives in his back.

For today at least, he did know what he was doing, and once again a section of our support have brought shame on the Aston Villa name.

[kurtsimonw]

Reading this thread, don't fully understand the 'lucky' comments. Yes, the goal was rather fortuitous in a way, but so was the fact it was 0-0 at that point. I'd be amazed if we didn't treble their efforts on goal and treble their efforts on target. We were by far the better team and the only luck was for them that it wasn't by more.

[JulieB]

Fancy agreeing to go to a girlie Avon party organised on a Saturday afternoon to start at 3pm!

Thought I can't stand another depressing collapse after we go ahead so I'm going.

Just typical first home win in eons - & I miss the whole thing & the excitement of a last minute goal.

Like the 4 goals I missed at VP against Burnley a couple of years ago when I got asked to move mi car!

Still we won so that's the main thing and another one of our academy graduates did well to boot!

[pacbuddies]

I don't understand the negativity from some posters. We just won, give Mcleish some credit. Even when we win, he gets criticised!

Well done Alex. I don't want him out, I think given time, he will get results.

UTV

One game and a lucky goal. I sware some of you on here make me laugh. I was at the game, it was awful in the second half once again. Taking Nzog off killed it for me. He has gone to far for me McLeish still Out!

Lets see how we do against Bolton before we are lovin him all over again!

I don't think anyone is 'loving' McLeish.

It's just that after 4 months and numerous ruined weekends it is nice, just for a change, to have a win and not have that depressed feeling for a few hours.

McLeish is still wrong and needs to go but for today we can have a few hours of bliss.

[Qwpzxjor1]

One more win and I think we're safe. Can we then sack McLeish please? Might as well let McDonald take over til end of the season, give the kids some confidence and experience.

Chris Herd has made our midfield alot more solid though, it's incredible seeing how much difference he makes when he's never really seen as a key player, and most non-Villa fans wouldn't even name him if you asked them to pick Villa's strongest starting 11. It's a shame he's come back to fitness when we've lost Bent, because with the solidity in midfield and a goal threat we could pick up some good points on the run in. As it stands at the moment I think we're going to be reliant on staying solid and hoping for a cock up from opposition defense or a bit of luck to get a winning goal.

[flashingqwerty]

not saying we were good today by any means, but compared to what we have been we were excellent.

Stats dont lie and we had 18 shots to fulhams 5, 10 corners to fulhams 3, 55% possession, 32% territory in their third compared to 12% in ours. All in all we were by far the better of two distinctly average teams.

Worth noting that this is our 2nd clean sheet since Dunne got injured.

Shay - 6 - had nothing to do

Warnock - 6 - improving slowly

Cuellar - 8 - please sign a new contract, best defender at the club by some distance

Collins - 7 - good today, but always has that mistake or silly tackle in him that can cost us a goal

hutton - 8 - improving all the time and was very good today IMO

albie - 4 - great work ethic but everything he tried didnt work, got into decent positions but crosses were poor. i'm starting to think he may not be good enough

herd - 7 - not a great player but man does he work hard. might have been taken off if we'd scored earlier as he tired after 65 mins

petrov - 6 - good first half but he didnt really come out second half cos he was knackered. should have come off about 20 minutes earlier than he did.

n'zog - 6 - he was ok, tried to make things happen and even tracked back which i never thought i'd see. No idea how he went off instead of albie.

ireland - 7 - seems to be relishing his new role, looks something like the player that lit up the city ground a few years ago

gabby - 5 - i can see his not fit, you can see his not fit, surely the coaching staff can see it too. being kicked pushed pulled and climbed over all game without winning a freekick certainly didnt help

Bannan - 8 - only player we have that can pick a pass when playing deep, and had a hand in the goal

gardner - 8 - strike from distance setup the goal

weiman - 9 - looked dangerous in and around the box, is scoring for fun in the reserves and deserved his goal - deserves some more playing time, perhaps not starting but maying coming on around 60 minutes?

Thought we were positive all game and three positive subs, and some cracking defending. Fulham were poor though, and we still didnt play great football, but it's definitely a step in the right direction.

[ClarrieBlue]

I've just got back from the match and had a read of the match thread. Some of the posters on there are either insane or comedians. The last poster wrote that a robbery has taken place!!!!. I can't believe anyone in their right mind would say Villa weren't the better side. There is no better time to score the winner than the last minute and the reaction of the Villa fans around me in the Holte was mental. Mcleish's subs weren't popuar,, but they never are, but it was Bannan's pass, Gardner's shot and Weimanns following up that won us the game. The moaner's can continue with their negativity, tonight I'm going to enjoy what it's all about, winning football matches.

[maqroll]

Surprised Fulham didn't give us more trouble, surprised WE nicked it at the end, not them, surprised to get 3 points at home.

Best case scenario would be to secure safety at the latest date possible by playing ugly football, and then continuing to play ugly losing football once we know we're not going down. That way, McGash and Lerner will still feel pressure from supporters all the way to the last game.

[Pitman_Pod]

Given 7 - Fulham offered his goal no real threat but as always he did the simple stuff well.

Warnock 6 - Defensively he didn't have much to do and as a result I thought he could have offered a little more support going forward.

Collins 7 - Good solid game but I just wished he'd pass the ball shorter into feet than lumping it up the field!

Cuellar 7 - Great game. Our best defender and most accomplished on the ball.

Hutton 7 - I thought he had a great game. Strong in the tackle and great at supporting our midfield. Finally a game where he looked worth his transfer fee.

NZogbia 6 - Selfish, selfish, selfish and no end product. Every time he received the ball you knew what was coming. Always tries to beat the man than make the easy pass.

Albrighton 6 - He tries and I do like him but it's just not happening for him right now. Delivery into the box was poor. His confidence looks shot to me.

Petrov 7 - Lacking in pace, but retained possession well I thought and a couple of decent long range efforts.

Ireland 8 - MotM. Ran his socks off I thought. Good going forward and helping out the defence. Our most creative player and the one most likely to create a spark.

Gabby 5 - Went missing for large periods of the game. He might aswell not been on the pitch for all he offered to the team.

Herd 7 - Solid game. Great tackling and short crisp passing. Worked hard throughout for the teams cause.

To summarise, although I thought we played well I didn't think we really looked like scoring. I don't think we created anything clear cut. Fair play to AMC for the substitutions, they paid off and we got the three points.

[ExhallVillan]

At last great to score at Villa Park again and get 3 points, thought the lads all worked well today --Stevee Ireland and Chris Herd were joint MOM for me,

thought this was our best first half show at home this season

real pleased for Weimann--all credit to the lad for being there,and for reacting first----thought The Holte End actually sucked the ball into the net---the roar of relief was worthy of greeting a cup -final winning goal,

Great to see the young Lions Barry Bannan Gary Gardner and Andreas all involved in what is such a vitally important goal for us this season,-hope they get more game time now,---

Am now going to enjoy Saturday night for a change,---well done you Villa Boyz

[theunderstudy]

I said this on Twitter - Hutton MOTM. The best performance by a Villa full back in years for me, he did not put a foot wrong. For a man who's had constant slatings, he really showed his worth today. Ireland, Cuellar and N'Zogbia shone too. And Weimann, I love you.

[Delphinho123]

Hutton is getting better and better as the weeks go by. So is Stephen Ireland. I think he actually gets man of the match every game in these ratings threads.

Mcleish out.

[keefa3011]

Delphinho123, you might as well have McLeish out as your signature.

It'll save you the bother of typing it out every time you post

[Supervillan78]

We deserved what win today, we absolutely battered Fulham. Ireland MOTM.

[Morpheus]

Estactic that we won the game no matter how badly we played. Very, very important three points and relieves the pressure of possible relegation. Just want us to survive this season and then the mess can be sorted out in the summer.

[Ulver]

Its amazing how we can all see the game differently even though we're watching the same game

A bloke called Collymore a while back and said we'd played excellent and the best he'd seen us this season

Now for me, although the first 25-30 mins were pretty good, we never really looked like scoring. And we were miles off the first half performances against Newcastle and Blackburn (both away) and second half of QPR at home in terms of actual quality football

Gabby's worrying me. He does not look like a player that wants to take on the burden of being our main striker. He's dropping too deep, pulling wide and basically doing anything he can to avoid being in the middle sniffing for chances

But today is a day to rejoice

[cbr600rr]

for me carlos was my mom, great reading of the game & never put a foot wrong,great 1st half,very unlucky not to get a goal or two,thought we ran out of ideas in second half,had to leave game on 88mins to get the lad home so we missed the goal!

[snowychap]

I thought we were absolutely outstanding today, and definitely deserved the win.

Our pressure was immense, every time we lost the ball we seemed to get it back immediately. Thought Petrov was amazing in this area and even guys like Ireland and N'Zogbia helped out too.

Only real negatives for me was that we didn't actually create that many clear cut chances, our crossing was poor and Gabby really struggled to provide anything.

Don't think Marc was that bad, he looked really dangerous and got into great positions many times just lacked the killer ball, contributed going back as well.

Is also good to see Hutton and Warnock improving a lot recently as well.

Best win/ performance of the season for mine, and having our academy players (Bannan, Gardner and Weimann) all involved in the winning goal made it that more sweeter!

Bang on!

Really? :shock: