Rating and Reactions: Villa 2 (3) - 1 (4) Bradford

[Hanky]

The players were/are shit, the manager is tactically inept.

I can't be bothered talking about the game because it's just repetition of the same mistakes we made against Wigan, Spurs, Chelsea, Bradford first leg etc.

Only point to note those tactics in the last 30 minutes made me want to be physically sick. Absolutely embarrassing.

[JackAVFC1993]

If it's a long-term project we might as well stick with Lambert.

Rather have chairman mao in charge.

[CI]

If it's a long-term project we might as well stick with Lambert.

My view is no as lambert is inept and clueless

[Avflife]

Back from VP (like probably most on here) and for the first in a while I'm actually depressing and sick to be a fan of AVFC. Yet again just like the West Brom game we dominated in the first half, could of easily scored 3-4 but what the **** happens in the dressing room at half-time, what does Lambert say to them. As for the last two games we have looked just plain shit in the second half. Can't defend set pieces for shit, that is 4 we have conceded against a League 2 team, its just embarrassing now.

The club is a joke from top to bottom, Lerner and Faulkner haven't got a clue what they are doing (what happens when non-footballing personal run a football club) Lambert's spending and tactics have been nothing short of shit and some of the players don't deserve/aren't good enough to pull on the colours of claret and blue e.g. Ireland, Bannan and Bennett.

Well done Bradford and hope Lambert is sacked in the morning, like you were singing tonight

[CI]

Haven't we broken yet another record tonight, ie a div 4 side beating a div 1 side in a semi final over 2 legs

[TRO]

just can't see it getting any better anytime soon.

[vivahate]

The only good thing about tonight was the snow ball fight at Aston station.

The woman who got angry and was complaining about children getting hit was the highlight.

I swear Guzan was throwing snowballs down from the platform, some of those were painful!

Edited January 23, 2013 by vivahate

[Avflife]

Second half was utterly embarrasing. Who on earth would have thought they were 3 divisions between us and them? Totally devoid of any quality, so many players I never want to see in a Villa shirt again, Ireland and Bannan for starters. I'm even beginning to think Darren Bent's a waste of time and we should flog him for the 8-10 mill we could get and use his 80k a week elsewhere.

Lambert's tactics second half contributed massively, no doubt. What sort of plan was that? Just get as many strikers as you possibly can on the pitch, but there won't be any width or anyone in midfield to provide them with any service.

I actually thought our defence was going to improve with Vlaar coming back, but again we concede from a corner, not to mention them hitting the bar and missing an open goal.

Could be worse I thought, as I waited for the train and one guy said he had to get back to Devon. Then I got on the train and just for discussing how shit we are/were tonight with my mate, end up getting in an argument with two gobby Villa fans who wanted to have the 'better fan' argument, bore off tossers.

Bent is off to Newcastle with Pardew watching from the stands tonight, would take 8-10m for him now, counted about 3 touches from him tonight. Speaking as the 'mate' lol, those guys on the train on the way back, one assuming straight after leaving Uni you end of serving cheeseburgers, probably couldn't even do that job himself as he looked like he was a regular in the queue at the local Job Centre and the other assuming Lerner had 12m for Lambert to spend, when asked his source, he answered Randy's mouth Some Villa fans are deluded and just to add that one had a go at me buying a half ST (according to him just for Wembley) well forgot I was away at Uni #word removed, best part of the night.

Edited January 23, 2013 by Avflife

[StefanAVFC]

I swear Guzan was throwing snowballs down from the platform, some of those were painful!

It was absolutely hilarious. On the platform, 2 fans started ranting how it had been a bad day with us losing and they go pelted. yet they wouldn't back down. We are all Villa fans too! Also a train got pelted. The fight between the 2 lines was the best. Cheered me up after a bad result.

Edited January 23, 2013 by StefanAVFC

[switters]

"Bent is off to Newcastle with Pardew watching from the stands tonight"

We're playing Newcastle next week. could well just be scouting - would've had plenty of weaknesses for him to take note of

[Mantis]

Only just got back now. Without doubt the lowest I have ever felt as a Villa fan and this result and performance over the two legs has by far been the most shameful and embarrassing result and performance I've ever witnessed.

Lambert can **** right off.

[CI]

Pardew wasn't watching Bent, possibly just spying for next week

[sherl]

crazy drive home to bristol with one lane of M5 clear from snow, wonder why you bother.

where to start

4 centre forwards, no wingers.

full backs who cant attack (or defend) - i think they are glued to the half way line. bring back hutton and warnock, all is forgiven

lowton every time comes infield and has ball on wrong side of his body

delph ran his socks off but only ran forward once. it blew a huge hole in their midfield.

if we were attacking from touchline to touchline we'd beat brazil - the whole concept of going forward seems lost on them

gabby looked disinterested

none of them communicate, none have any passion, only vlaar came and clapped at the end

ireland was played out of position, three centre mids (plus nzog) all in each others way

no width

lambert is to blame, no tactics other than slowly left to right and back again. 4 centre forwards and no supply - if every **** in the ground can see this doesnt work why cant he - there was almost 30 minutes of this

defending set pieces - unbelievable

no drive from the bench - unless they are playing to his tactics he should be up shouting what to do which leads me to believe they played to his plan

team of players either too thick or overcoached - noone seems to be able to think or do anything off the cuff

i dont care if lambert says he is as gutted as the fans, he couldve changed it tonight, we couldnt. not good enough.

owners with nothing to say. id rather he told us all to **** off than say nothing at all. nero watching rome burn.

faulkner couldnt run a bath,never mind a football club, no direction, thought goes into anything we do,

humiliation of a great insititution, lowest point in decades. good luck to bradford though, deserved their win.

[JackAVFC1993]

If God loves Villa by the time I wake up later today Lambert will be sacked please.

[8pints]

The full-backs didn't attack, especially Bennett, never looked to take Bradford on down the wings. To be fair to Lowton, no one looked to come down his side for him to play the ball to but especially in the first half he had acres of space and never looked to use it. Never mind people not knocking it to him there because they did.

Delph doing all the midfield work by himself, I won't have it that he's a poor player, if that's your opinion then fair enough but I think he's good, has a heavy touch but at least he tries to make things happen and when he loses the ball he fights to get it back.

This is where I have issue with Lambert, we don't have a midfield!

Second half ended up with lumping the ball to five players all trying to play the same role.

Fair play to Weimann, at least there's movement and ideas from him.

Ireland and Bannan can leave now thank you very much. They're not very good. They contribute nothing. I could pass it to the person next to me fifty times and get great passing stats, there's no penetration or creation from them and that's their job. They contribute nothing.

But apart from Benteke and Weimann, I don't see where the ideas are coming from and that is worrying.

Edited January 23, 2013 by 8pints

[sherl]

its not the despair that i cant stand, its the hope.

and i reckon barry manilow couldve picked a better forward pass than barry bannan

[SeanO]

HAHAHAHAHA...............................urgh!

Sorry I wanted to laugh but it was forced, gutted not because of Wembley but because this is what has become of our club.

This is an awful squad of players and it's say's something when people are saying we played okay in the 1st half, they were shite.

2nd half was an abomination but aren't they all?

Just a few points I wanted to vent about. Lowton is so **** slow Garth Barry would beat him in a sprint but worse in Lambert formation he needs to be a wingback but he cut's in almost every time.

There isn't any real urgency other than hoof ball, I couldn't believe the amount of backward passes made. I don't mean that they shouldn't do it ever but it seems to be our default mode but this allows teams to get back and defend.

There is only 2 players in the squad that I rate as "maybe" good enough Benteke and Wieman the rest are squad fillers or useless players, this is Aston Villa under Randy Lerner.

Can't see the point in sacking Lambert as there isn't a manager alive who could get this squad winning enough games.

[ThunderPower_14]

I haven't felt this down and embarrassed at a sporting team I love since my Australian Rules team lost by (a record that will probably last forever) 119 points in the 2007 AFL Grand Final

We are definitely going down.

The one chance we had at any good times this year was pissed away over two **** legs against a league 2 team.

FC Villa of Aston anyone?

Lerner out, Lambert out, everyone out please.

[VillaAndLoyal]

We lost this game because of two things tonight: Paul Lambert and the fans.

Everyone was well aware Bradford scoring tonight was a strong possibility and when they did - yes it was a massive setback blah blah blah - but we still had 30 minutes on the clock to score two goals against a League Two team. A tall order, yes, but by no means impossible. And yet, the mood just changed like a light switch. Suddenly we stopped singing and supporting the team and the negativity flooded back in. The guy next to me turned and said: "this game has just been lost" and he wasn't referring to the Bradford goal. Our mentality, although it is completely understandable, sucks big time. Bradford supported their team for 90 minutes and deserved the win - I hope they enjoy the day out at Wembley.

But it wasn't the fans who completely lost the plot when Bradford scored. What on earth was Paul Lambert thinking in the second-half? We were playing 3-1-6 for the last 30 minutes I swear. You've got two strikers in Benteke and Bent who are dangerous in the air in the box and yet we just had six attacking players standing in a narrow line, almost as if forming a brick wall, as the ball gets constantly hoofed up to them. I've honestly seen under-9 teams with better tactics and formations. It made me feel sick. You can have as many forward players on as you like, but if you have no supply line, you have no hope. And this is exactly what Lambert did at home to Southampton. Pathetic and just stinks of someone who hasn't got a bleeding clue.

And simple things like defending set pieces - we had every outfield player either inside the box or just outside. Does Paul Lambert not realise that if you stick Gabby and Charles on the two wings you immediately drag 2 or 3 Bradford players out of our box. That is 2 or 3 less players to deal with inside the box. It is such basic stuff that is just going so wrong at the moment and Lambert does not seem capable of putting it right.

I've tried to back Lambert, really I have. But tonight has tipped me over the edge. He's literally useless and clueless and any PL manager who gets tactically beaten over two legs by a League Two side really ought to offer his resignation. However, this is not just Paul Lambert's fault and sacking him and bringing another manager in would not really change a thing. The club is rotten to the core from top to bottom and until Randolph Lerner swallows his pride and accepts that he needs to employ some football people to run this football club or sells us to a new responsible owner then nothing is going to halt this steep decline. We've been in trouble ever since Lerner took the reigns and now we are seeing the results.

[MikeMcKenna]

Don't know where to start. Just got home after another humiliation, its so f***** depressing.

I just want this season over for better or worse. This is the worst team I have ever seen at AVFC and I have seen many poor teams.

8-0 away to Chelsea hurt, 4-0 at home to Spurs hurt even more, losing 3-0 at home to Wigan was a massive humiliation, losing 3-1 away to Bradford was even worse, throwing away a 2-0 lead against the Baggies to draw felt like a loss but tonight capped it all. I predicted we would win 2-1 and lose overall because we are defensively shit, had to concede and struggle to take chances!

My club Aston Villa suffer the ignominy of being knocked out by the lowest placed football league team to ever reach a League Cup Final!! Sums it all up really! What is about this season that we have to keep breaking all the wrong records?

In the past we have had poor runs, but there has always been a little chink of light that gave us hope - a certain player who can return to form, another who can provide some inspiration and change the game, there was always a leader on the pitch.

But tonight i looked around the pitch for similar characters but there was absolutely none, nobody, sweet FA, sod all, nada, zilch, nowt, bugger all, **** all!

Concrete Ron - WTF - totally lost his man for the goal! If he is the best we can do God help us!!

As for the rest of the defence I can't bring myself to discuss it as I think I might lose all reason - Diabolically bad!!

Fast as f***? Gabby may be - but he hasn't been a quality striker for years, is brainless and the song should be changed to Thick as F***!

We have undeniably the worst midfield in the premier league and of all time at Villa - an embarrassment beyond words.

FFS Bannan should never be allowed on Villa Park again!! The useful pile of *******g S***!!!!!!!!!

Ireland EIGHTY THOUSAND POUNDS PER WEEK - say it slowly and f****g weep!!!!!!!

I'm off to bed!!!!!!!!!!!

Edited January 23, 2013 by MikeMcKenna