Martin O’Neill saw an Aston Villa side comprised mostly of reserve players, but with a healthy sprinkling of first teamers, kick off the 2010/11 pre-season programme with a loss to Conference side Basingstoke Town at The Camrose this afternoon.
Both of the home side’s goals came in the first half, Chris Herd with an unfortunate own goal in the 34th minute and David Pratt adding a second in the 38th minute. Youngster Graham Burke got one back for Villa 2
Keith Andrews hit a shot from a little over 25 yards out on the hour mark that forced Brad Friedel’s only save of the match. It was a fine save, but still reasonably routine that you’d expect most goal keepers at this level to deal with with comfort. That was Blackburn’s only shot on target during the 90 minutes, but they somehow managed to head back up the M6 with three points.
In reality, Hoilett shouldn’t have
That’s it then, the curtain has fallen on the 2009/10 Premiership season and it was a disappointing finale for us in fairness, losing 1-0 at home to a Blackburn side who weren’t in the game at all during the first half. In the end, the result didn’t matter as Liverpool were held to a goalless draw in Hull, so we couldn’t be passed for sixth place. City were also held to a 1-1 at West Ham, so a win wouldn’t
Man Utd Reserves were crowned 2009/10 Premier Reserve League National Champions tonight after what sounded like a thrilling game at Old Trafford, but needed a penalty shoot out to do so after coming from behind 3 times. Ben Foster the hero of the shoot out, saving twice and scoring one himself.
I didn’t see it myself, but followed the updates from various sources online, including the OS and Twitter. I’ve put the teams at the bottom and indicated the
I wouldn’t blame you if you’re not that interested in the stats from this one, it might feel a little anti-climatic now I suppose. Nevertheless, I’ll chuck the usual statistics in and for the “feature stats” I’m going to break our passing down into 10 minute chunks graphically which demonstrates how the game evolved quite nicely I think.
Wingers
One quick point about Downing and Ash; they spent much more time on their natural wings during this game, they usually swap
90 seconds was all it really took, but the dream of qualifying for the Champions League next year is finally over after we lost 3-1 at the the City of Manchester stadium today.
City dominated the first half, but we opened the scoring with the first attempt on goal to cap a quite beautiful passage of play. Stuart Downing cut in from the right and found just the right reverse ball to match Carew’s intelligent diagonal run. Carew shot
I intended to open this post talking briefly about the penalty, but once I dived into the subject I found it deserved its own post. This post got left on the back burner. I apologise, but I realise that you don’t really care about the statistics from this game; if ever there was a game where only one stat counted it was this one, right? Yup, we won, that’s all that matters.
So, let’s be brief then. I’ve
It wasn’t a bad day for Aston Villa yesterday in the chase for fourth place. Arsenal seemingly couldn’t summon up the desire necessary to beat an unadventurous City side at home, but Utd restated their title credentials by finishing off Tottenham, not an unimpressive feat given form over the last couple of games.
Today was even better, although it wasn’t pretty. Not that any Villa fan will care right now; it’s local bragging rights and, more importantly, 5th place
20th April 2008, Villa Park. A brace each from Ash and Carew topped with a 5th from Gabby. What a day. Some great, great moments. From the goals, to Carew and the ball boy, to Ollie pumping his fists with unbridled joy in the 85th minute. I think that look on his face will be etched in my mind forever!!
Just over two years later and they’re back…
…hopefully for more of the same!!
UTV!!
I’d love to give these