Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Reading

[AvfcTheObsession]

Wouldn't worry so much about the 28k tonight

Stoke should be about 33k but if sun 30 then that's an issue

Its just we claim to be a big club, yet why is VP always so empty on a matchday/night? Even Sunderland got 8k more than us tonight and they werent exactly playing Man Utd.

[CI]

Agree even when doing well under MON we hit a 40k glass ceiling

[Pelle]

We won, and that's all that matters tonight. Didn't see the game, but by all accounts it was a very poor game. But we've played better and lost, and played worse too. A nervy game against another team in the relegation fight. Those games har seldom good games. Still, I saw the highlights and apart from the goal we had at least two chances that Clark and Weimann could've/should've scored.

After the games against united and arsenal many said, probably me included, that if it had been against a worse team we would've won those games, and today many says that had it been against better teams we would've lost. Well, we lost, we drew and today we won. Sometimes it's easier to play good football against better teams than it is when you play against lesser teams.

We got the result we needed and I'm happy and relieved. Bring on QPR. UTV!!

[sherl]

my first game at VP this year so cant profess to be an expert however i thought;

Bannan and Westwood both appeared to be doing the same job

gabby weiman benteke and even holman at some points were stood in a line about three yards from one another waiting for a long ball and knock on

we had no width, only once in second half did stevens go ahead of gabby abd get a cross in. he was sometimes all over the shop but at least warnock used to do that more regularly

in first half bannan would look up to do a pass and there were 4 or 5 villa players all straight in front and noone moving. he was poor but didnt have many options on offer.

Bent - clearly something afoot here. we have 11 goals in 14 games and he doesnt even make the bench. i feel sorry for him and think we are treating him poorly whatever the issue

much better with ireland on and if gabby controlled his through ball he'd have been one on one

Next time;

think we need width so either gabby plays left mid / wing of 4 3 3 or 4 4 2 with him and tekkers up front. not all of them playing centre forward which it looked like tonight.

and well done baker and clark - very good against roberts and was a relief when he went off

[chappy]

Holman, Baker, Clark, Westwood, Lowton and Benteke all good.

HUGE win. If we push on and beat QPR on saturday the table will be looking much nicer than this time last week.

[Mantis]

Poor performance (although we still managed to create quite a few chances) but we got the win and that's all that matters really. Nerves probably played a big part in the performance.

[CrackpotForeigner]

That balance of performances plus winnable football will never go away....its like Lennon without McCartney

Unfortunately it's all been more like McCartney without Lennon than vice versa.

[CBGB]

Ugly win, but we needed it. We looked like a Championship side tonight, with the exception maybe of two or three: Benteke, Ireland and Guzan.

[skarroki]

ireland improved the team when he came on but was that pure fluke? i think the guy can be great, can make the difference, but his inconsistency is ridiculous. At least a bad Bannan performance is uncharacteristic, you normally know what you are going to get from him in my opinion. I would leave Ireland on the bench again and bring him on at half time if we need something. Also think Bent has to start against QPR, leaving him out the 18 is getting too risky now and frankly i don't see the point. What is Bowery going to contribute coming on late.

talking about the game, bad performance but 3 points is 3 points. What a relief! Really liking how we can we can play awful and still pull through with such a young side, despite them looking nervous it shows how much they have matured over this season and how important they could prove to be.

[SikhInTrinity]

I think we need to be realistic, it was always going to be a scrappy tense affair, if we got an early goal we may have relaxed but we didn't! So we had to scrap for it, got the win and onto next one! Let's not forget the Baggies and Liverpool only beat Reading by the same score line when playing at home!

[magnkarl]

I'm chuffed with the win and the fact that we scored late and held on. On top of that we scored from a set piece. Clark should've also scored from one, which has to be a source of goals for us this season until we get some more experience and quality in.

Lowton MoM for me, he's growing more than Benteke imo, and looks like he will be quality come next year. Good for Bentekkers to get on the scoresheet again, hoping this is the start of a good run of goals against poor opposition.

[Ponky]

It looked to me like perhaps a few players like Bannan went into this match taking it a bit lightly. Easy enough when you have been playing 3 of the top clubs in consecutive weeks I suppose to let your guard down. A drop of even half a per cent in work rate and so on and all of a sudden everything is a little bit off. This sort of thing is probably a little more likely to happen when you have such a young squad and so few leaders on the pitch.

It was a relief to get the winner though, and hopefully the boys will be a little more switched on and fluent against QPR.

Overall I thought Bannan had a stinker in the first half, while Weimann was also very poor. He can get himself into great positions at times but his touch and finishing - apart from the odd wonder goal - Can leave quite a bit to be desired

[Paul33]

When you play the top sides, they give you time on the ball to play but the strugglers - like Reading - play you tight and aggressively so this was never going to be a night of free flowing football.

The win was everything and its another clean sheet so I'll take that.

Like to see us play with more width - we are playing all of our football in the central strip and that helps the cloggers shut us down. Would also like to see some variation in partners for Benteke as Gabby looks a poor version of what we once had and Weimann is still well short of where he needs to be ..... maybe time to give Bent a run out alongside Benteke. Also agree that Ireland needs to start as he has the midfield quality that we lack when he's on the bench.

[Woodytom]

Frightening that people are giving this Westwood kid 8. Really frightening how we overate the players - no wonder a lot seem shocked when were at the bottom (or at least when we started to become shite. The expectancy levels are way above what they should be and a lot of that is down to ridiculous ratings and praises we give our players.

He passed the ball ok, a lot of it was backwards, he played a couple of absolute shocking passes out to the right and was hugely ineffective going forward.

Like the rest bar Guzan, Baker and Clark (and Benteke of course) - a dissapointing 5 for Westwood. Must improve.

The performance was absolutely woeful. The clean sheet was a plus but largely to do with how shocking Reading are. Benteke will be off no doubt. He is absolutely head and shoulders above anything we have seen at villa park for a while. Everything he does, right the way down to chasing lost causes, he does in a intelligent way that creates something - a throw in or a corner.

[Woodytom]

Bannan and Westwood both appeared to be doing the same job

Badly

[villa_shere]

Great to get another win under our belts, will lift the confidence of the team and get the youngers players start believing in themselves a bit more.

You can see at times we are very nervy on the ball. Sloppy first touches n control, wayward passes etc. We never looked like losing but neither did we look like scoring. Has to be more clinical infront of goal. Should of had 2 more from Clarke or Baker. Though Roberts did a good job for Reading. Ref had a decent game too.

Weinmann n Bannan have been OK thus far but i think for QPR game we should rotate a bit and bring back in Ireland and maybe Delph/KEA/Bent??? Even though our squad is full of young players we still need to rotate them just a bit to not burn them out..

It was our third win of the season, same as Wigan, Liverpool, Newcastle and Norwich. Four points from the next two games would give us that bit of breathing space we need.

Thought the Holte End was very vocal second half which was good to heard considering the game wasnt too great. I think in games like yesterday it spurs the players on even more. UTV!

[Paul33]

Frightening that people are giving this Westwood kid 8. Really frightening how we overate the players

..... or maybe you are just getting it wrong ?

Its all about opinions at the end of the day but yours is as extreme and inappropriate as those you criticize.

Its a young team, lacking in a little confidence but with a lot of potential. Nobody expects Westwood to be a premiership A-lister yet but - given where he was just a few months ago - he is making massive strides towards becoming a top drawer midfielder and i agree with the majority here as well as most TV pundits and newspaper hacks that he played very well.

[Morpheus]

Yes because that's how we would play against ever other team in the league.

And if that was the case we'd lose which was my point.

[VillaCas]

GUZAN gets 10 for me for his impeccable handling of balls.

10?

[villa_shere]

10?

He got a clean sheet so shouldnt that automatically be a 10