Just over 21,000 saw Villa earn their place in the 3rd round of the Carling Cup the hard way thanks to a late goal each from Eric Lichaj (80′) and Nathan Delfouneso (88′) from the bench.
It’s a game I’ve yet to see anything from first hand, but it sounds like we dominated the game pretty much in the manner you’d expect over a struggling League Two side, but were frustrated by some fine goalkeeping from 20 year old loanee, David
Alex McLeish has rung the changes for this Carling Cup clash, but retained a strong side blending youth and experience.
Aston Villa
Hereford
22
Brad Guzan
28
David Cornell
31
Chris Herd
2
Ryan Green
5
Richard Dunne
5
Michael Townsend
21
Ciaran Clark
3
Joe Heath
30
Eric Lichaj
16
Daniel Williams
17
Jean II Makoun
17
Joe Colbeck
25
Barry Bannan
8
Nicky Featherstone
7
Stephen Ireland
14
James Mcquiokin
12
Marc Albrighton
4
Harry Pell
10
Charles N’Zogbia
10
Delroy Facey
9
Darren Bent
7
Stuart Fleetwood
Subs
Subs
33
Andy Marshall
38
Russell Hoult
32
Nathan Baker
30
Tommy Johnson
23
Habib Beye
19
Kyle McCarthy
34
Shane Lowry
11
Kenny Lunt
28
Jonathan Hogg
31
Lewis Feeley
26
Andreas Weimann
9
Yoann Arquin
14
Nathan Delfouneso
32
Nathan Perkins
Alex McLeish kicked off his first Villa Park match with a near perfect start thanks to goals from Gabby Agbonlahor, Emile Heskey and Darren Bent. Only Morten Gamst Pedersen’s very well taken header spoiled the perfect result. Most importantly though; three points and a convincing performance were required today… and we got both.
McLeish made no changes from the starting line-up at Craven Cottage last weekend, although the system was slightly more attacking in nature; much more of a 4-2-3-1 instead
Guess who’s coming to Villa Park… again!! I’m sure their fans are as sick of the sight of us as we are of them. Fortunately, if we can avoid being drawn against them in both of the cups, we won’t have to see them again until the reverse of this fixture in March next year.
So, here’s how the two Glaswegian managers are sending their sides out today in what will be Alex McLeish’s first home game since taking over at
It’s being billed as the “Champions League of youth football”, which is probably a massive overstatement, but the NextGen Series is an interesting competition nevertheless. We’re one of 16 teams across Europe taking part in this new Under-19 championship which kicked off with a handful of games this evening, including our own Young Lions going down 2-0 to Ajax at their youth training camp, De Toekomst – Dutch for “The Future”.
As the competition is so new, information is a little
When James Milner re-joined Villa from Newcastle our side was so conditioned to channel the ball down the left in search of Ashley Young that Milner struggled to get involved and spent far too much time as a spectator. That soon began to change, bit by bit, and it wasn’t long before we were finally achieving the balance we’d missed for so long.
I was reminded of this while watching the 0-0 opening day draw at Craven Cottage. This time is
Neither side were able to break the deadlock at Craven Cottage in a game that failed to ever spark into life. As the visiting manager, Alex McLeish will rightly be happier with his point, but will have Shay Given to thank for a number of important saves and might be concerned about the lack of any real threat at the opposite end today.
McLeish opted to use essentially the same 4-4-1-1 system as in the final warm-up game against Braga, except
The new 2011/12 Premier League season is finally here! It’s the battle of the new managers at Craven Cottage today, although Martin Jol does have several competitive games under his belt in the Europa League.
Here are the confirmed line-ups for both sides:
Fulham
Aston Villa
1
Mark Schwarzer
1
Shay Given
18
Aaron Hughes
2
Luke Young
14
Philippe Senderos
6
James Collins
5
Brede Hangeland
5
Richard Dunne
7
John Arne Riise
3
Stephen Warnock
16
Damien Duff
10
Charles N’Zogbia
20
Dickson Etuhu
16
Fabian Delph
13
Danny Murphy
19
Stiliyan Petrov
23
Clint Dempsey
18
Emile Heskey
8
Andrew Johnson
11
Gabriel Agbonlahor
25
Bobby Zamora
9
Darren Bent
Subs
Subs
38
Neil Etheridge
22
Brad Guzan
2
Stephen Kelly
21
Ciaran Clark
6
Chris Baird
7
Stephen Ireland
28
Matthew Briggs
17
Jean II Makoun
4
Steve Sidwell
12
Marc Albrighton
10
Pajtim Kasami
25
Barry Bannan
30
Moussa Dembele
14
Nathan
If you had asked me a little over a year ago to name the eight teams most likely to fill the top eight places in the Premier League come May I would have said; Liverpool, Everton, Man Utd, Man City, Aston Villa, Tottenham, Arsenal and Chelsea. Not in that order, obviously.
Then our manager skipped off into the sunset and the season that followed will last in the memory for many years. For all the wrong reasons. Still, thanks to a