A frustrating game that never really got going ended in a far from unpredictable goalless draw. Not one for fans of sexy, total football this one that’s for sure. A point is a point and we’re unbeaten, but I was expecting a burst of energy and quality that would expose Stoke and in the final analysis it never really arrived.
There’s an important distinction between tiredness, at least in the physical sense, and fatigue. I think we’re seeing a team struggling
What March curse?
We might as well just get ‘Aston Villa’ etched on one of the Wembley changing room doors permanently… after beating Reading 4-2 at the Madejski today, we’re off there again. We don’t know who we’ll be playing in the FA Cup Semi-Final over the weekend of 10 April and 11 April yet, but the draw will be later today and I’ll update here.
If you ever wanted to see the epitome of football’s oldest cliche; ‘a game of two
Despite one of the most farcical construction projects ever, the old Wembley stadium was demolished and rebuilt in between this and our last cup final. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since that FA Cup final. Football is different. Aston Villa is very different.
For these reasons, and an almost infinite number of others, and I doubt I was alone here, I found myself almost overcome with emotion and pride as I watched
Well, we lost. Not worth adding much more at the moment, except to say how proud I am of the team and how proud I am to be a Villa fan. Good effort lads, there will be more trips to Wembley I’m sure. It just wasn’t to be this time.
I suppose I’d have to admit that UtD did rattled the wood work on a couple of occasions and we didn’t really threaten the Utd goal beyond James Milner’s penalty, but
Aston Villa made sure of their place in the quarter finals in the FA Cup with a 3-1 victory over Crystal Palace at Villa Park tonight with a steady, professional performance.
Gabby got the first just before half time with a header from a corner that Neil Warnock may well have something to say about again. Palace got their goal from the spot after Warnock brought down Alan Lee in the box with just less than 20 minutes to go.
In
One of the things that I enjoy about pulling the Statshacks together is that the statistics often don’t reflect my perception of the game, which really challenges what I think I know, and this one is no exception. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think that the scoreline flatters us much, but if you were to make a judgment based solely on the numbers below you might not agree.
You can see for yourself that the passing and possession
Aston Villa opened what MON is describing as the most important week of his Villa tenure with a vital three points, thumping hapless Burnley 5-2 at Villa Park, but it didn’t look like it was heading that way at half time.
Burnley opened the scoring in a scrappy early period after carving the Premiership’s meanest defense wide open with some slide rule passing that culminated with Steven Fletcher receiving the ball with an unmissable chance at the back stick. That
Aston Villa fought back from being behind twice to earn themselves a replay of this FA Cup Fifth Round tie after finishing 2-2 at Selhurst Park today against a spirited Crystal Palace side.
Martin O’Neill showed respect for Palace and the competition by sending out a very strong side, with Friedel taking over goal keeping duties, it could perhaps be interpreted as a signal of his thinking for the Carling Cup Final in two weeks time. Then again, this is
The first thing I notice when I create the average position maps is whether our players were deeper or more advanced in comparison to the previous match; in this case the game against Tottenham. This is most noticeable among the back four and I was encouraged to note that they were considerably more advanced on average during this game, especially Carlos Cuellar.
I sang Fabian Delph’s praises on Twitter during the game, I sang them again in the first review