Wigan Athletic were finally beaten in the league at Villa Park in a comfortable win for the home side thanks to a goal in either half. The first, a brilliant effort from Gabby Agbonlahor, who then turned provider for the second; setting up an unmissable effort for Darren Bent in front of the Holte End.
If you were to glance at the statistics, you’d be forgiven for assuming that Roberto Martinez might be leaving Birmingham thinking that his side deserved something
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An injury time own goal by Richard Dunne cancelled out a second half penalty by Barry Bannan to end yet another game in stalemate, but a win would have been thoroughly undeserved.
The first half is not worth talking about. It was as bad as anything I’ve seen from Villa in recent years and, let’s face it, we’ve seen some poor stuff lately. QPR bossed two thirds of the possession and managed to outpass us almost 2:1.
The second half was a
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Dare I suggest that we can concentrate on the league now? No? Didn’t think so. Nevertheless, we are out of the Carling Cup thanks to a 2-0 loss at home to Bolton in what, by all accounts, was an utterly dismal performance.
Chris Eagles picked up on a Marc Albrighton mistake to score a screamer from 20 yards. Gael Kakuta picked hit a shot on the turn from the edge of the box and beat Shay Given in the bottom corner.
Alex
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Another game, another draw. That’s four draws and a win now in the Premier League. Gabby Agbonlahor gave cause for optimism when he opened the scoring somewhat against the run of play during the first half, but Leon Best cancelled that out during a second half the visitors largely controlled.
Gabby has now equalled his league goal scoring record from last season, scoring three goals from just five games. Barry Bannan started in place of Emile Heskey and played on the
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There’s no getting away from it, that was a poor performance against an Everton side unable (or unwilling) to field a single recognised striker. We might owe a somewhat sheepish nod in the referee’s direction, but Petrov and Gabby somehow managed to cancel out Leon Osman’s opener and Leighton Baines’ second half penalty to grab a hugely valuable point we barely deserved.
Any hope I harboured of Everton being bogged down by their off-field issues were killed off immediately as the
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The fans who stayed away from this dirge fest in droves were the lucky ones; only surprise inclusion Chris Herd and Gabby Agbonlahor provided anything worth getting excited about. The ~12k empty seats generated more talking points during the game than the “action” on it.
There’s nothing to say about the first half, it was truly awful. I’m assuming that Alex McLeish read the riot act at half time, the home side were much improved after the break and, for 20
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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
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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
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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
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