Ratings and Reactions: West Brom 2-2 Villa

[supernova26]

We have an inbuilt mentality similar to Man Utd's ability to comeback. Our's is quite the opposite though, we can't keep a lead. Anyone know the league table if teams who scored first went onto 3 points? We'd be in the Champions League I suspect.

[maqroll]

Yet another trademark late goal conceded by Villa, but of course you knew even at the halftime break, it would happen. I'm actually surprised they didn't go back out and lose the game.

And yet another goal from a corner, if Lambert doesn't sort this out, we deserve to go down. Basic defending that you have several seconds to plan for, and these professionals cannot come to grips with it. Shocking stuff.

Such a shame that we wasted two superb goals. 2 points dropped no matter how you look at it.

[briny_ear]

Bennett was hopeless today whenever he tried to defend. Looked better going forward.

[diehardvillan]

Hands up who actually believed we would win this at half-time.

My hand has stayed down.

Great first half, predictable 2nd half. Subs changed the match. Delph was injured so couldn't be helped. I would have preferred Herd to Bannan if he was on bench. Bannan is useless.

2-2. Take a point, but once agan. Should have been all three. Makes Newcaste make or break again.

[Cambridge-AVFC]

Brad Guzan - 6 Made a few decent saves none of the goals were his fault.

Matt Lowton - 7 Had a decent game filled in well at centre back, looked weak at times in the second half(but he wasn't to blame as he defo isn't a centre back).

Nathan Baker - Unlucky.

Vlaar - 6.5 Wasn't his usual dominating self but put in a good shift. His leadership has looked to sure up our defence. Good return from the injury.

Clark - 6.5 Had a solid game, didn't really notice him which is what you want from your defender, quietly went about his business.

Joe Bennett - 7 Best i've seen him play in play in a Villa shirt, looked surprisingly solid. Put himself about and made that important tackle right at the end. More of the same please.

Westwood - 6.5 Cool calm and composed on the ball. Kept the game ticking, played well.

Delph - 7 Bags of energy, really did put himself about, imposed himself in the midfield, shame he got injured.

N'Zogbia - 8 Fantastic performance, constant threat. Every time he got the ball you felt something would happen he was a thorn in West Brom's sight, shouldn't of been taken off as early as he did.

Gabby - 7 Very well taken goal, his pace was a problem for the Baggies, maybe could've got some more decisions.

Benteke - 8 What a banger of a goal, won everything in the air, hold up play was superb once more. Very dominant. Unlucky about there second goal, can't account for a slip.

Subs

Lichaj - 7 Very solid game, played quite well. Should've made it 3-0 but ah well.

Bannan - 5 Big fan of Bannan, but played in the wrong half, would've thrived in that first half with no pressure on the ball. Unfortunatly came on at a time when Villa had none of the ball so he couldn't impact himself on the game.

Holman - 5 Very wasteful, poor decision making shooting was awful, put himself about though.

Lambert - 6 Bit puzzled as if to why he didn't start Bannan, but we looked good in the first half. However made one wrong substitution with N'Zogbia coming off in the 63rd minute, that was baffling. I can understand why he brought on Holman...more energy in the midfield. However should've done it about the 10-15 mins later. Unlucky with Delph as he appeared to be injured.

All in all good performance and out the relegation zone, massive 6 pointer against the Geordies next! UTV

[Morpheus]

If we are happy with a point against WBA in their present run of form after being 2 up where do we go from there?

Will we also be happy with a point against Newcastle and will we continue to be happy losing narrowly against the better teams?

My point is although we are now out of the bottom three we still need to start winning games as the longer this run goes on the further away we get from a points total that will keep us up.

Can you imagine this team needing to get two wins in our last three to stay up and would you have any faith in them doing that or our present manager being able to motivate them in doing that?

Edited January 19, 2013 by Morpheus

[Jimzk5]

If we are to sign a single player this window we need it to be center half who can, and this might sound crazy, head the ball away from our goal from corners.

[Bunnski]

If we had the 2 quality signings in the positions we needed them today then we more than likely would of held on. we got 2 injuries and zog gassed out so as usual our lack of depth in the squad cost us. fingers crossed the owner sorts it out and then we can give ourselves a chance of staying up

[Paul33]

Lost it in midfield where we were weak ..... otherwise a much better performance.

[Mantis]

Would've taken a point before hand and we're out of the relegation zone but it's very frustrating to throw away a lead like that once more. I should be fuming about it but I'm not, probably because even when we were 2-0 up I knew we wouldn't win.

I'm really getting pissed off at our defending of set pieces though.

[TRO]

The thing that is the most gauling is that the equaliser was as predictable as it gets.If it was a fluke or a lucky break away it would be palatable, but it wasn't ... we need to change our motto from "prepared" to "predictable".

It was a bloody certainty that was going to happen.

[briny_ear]

We have an inbuilt mentality similar to Man Utd's ability to comeback. Our's is quite the opposite though, we can't keep a lead. Anyone know the league table if teams who scored first went onto 3 points? We'd be in the Champions League I suspect.

Don't know that precisely but I think after today it will be:

8 games where we have led at half time - Won 2, Drawn 4, Lost 2, so 10 points gained out of a possible 24. Only QPR have done worse.

And 6 games drawn from a winning position at some point in the match, 2 lost, so 20 points dropped out of a potential 24

[TRO]

Would've taken a point before hand and we're out of the relegation zone but it's very frustrating to throw away a lead like that once more. I should be fuming about it but I'm not, probably because even when we were 2-0 up I knew we wouldn't win.

I'm really getting pissed off at our defending of set pieces though.

There is a danger that we are all sleep walking in to that mentality.... both fans and club.

[Danwichmann]

Awful subs cost us.

The subs did cost us, but I'm not sure what options Lambert had for 2 of them. He had no option with Bennet, Delph was limping and I'm don't think there was anyone else who could come on but Bannan. Holman for N'Zogbia, no excuses.

Would have taken a point at 5 o'clock today, buty obviously disappointed now. None-the-less, it's an improvement on recent weeks and I'm feeling a lot more optimistic about the Bradford game.

[sutherland]

Would have took the point before the game but yet again the dilapidation in the second half was unexplainable...

How on earth wee bannan gets on before ireland is mind boggling...

Just hope nzog was injured for the reason he got taken off as the subs were the most incoherent decisions ive seen all season!..

[Raymond]

Am I the only one pleased we did not give up three? As soon as the first one went in so early in the second half, I was sure we were losing 3-2.

[Mantis]

There is a danger that we are all sleep walking in to that mentality.... both fans and club.

Sleep walking into what mentality? The players need to sort it out and get their minds in shape. As a fan I can't do anything but accept that we'll almost always implode when going a goal or two up.

[dickyhell]

Am I the only one pleased we did not give up three? As soon as the first one went in so early in the second half, I was sure we were losing 3-2.

you knew we would concede it was just how many

[Morpheus]

Sleep walking into what mentality? The players need to sort it out and get their minds in shape. As a fan I can't do anything but accept that we'll almost always implode when going a goal or two up.

What he is talking about is the acceptance of draws thinking they will be enough. I made the same point and it is relevant.

[kurtsimonw]

We seem to think it's done at 2-0 for some reason. Arsenal in the Cup last year, United at home this year and others we've been 2-0 up then just stopped playing. Conceeded a goal early in the 2nd half and collapsed from their.

It's gutting because you know it's coming. You can't even enjoy leading, because you just have the feeling it won't be for long. We are in desperate need of a win and today would've been perfect with it being a derby. We have to sort our defending out or unfortunately I can't see us staying up. Teams battling around Christmas that ship a lot of goals rarely stay up, survival is mostly built on defence in my opinion.