My Left Foot – How The House Of Cards Collapsed

I don’t want to enter into a debate about managerial qualities just yet, but if you were screaming out for rotation in the past, you’ve certainly had your fill recently. Last season, Martin O’Neill started just 24 different players in all competitions and received no shortage of criticism, not unfairly in some cases. Just four games into the 2010/11 season and Kevin MacDonald has already used 23 different players in his starting team sheets.

To be fair, MacDonald has

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Aston Villa 2 Rapid Vienna 3 (Agg. 3-4) Out Of Europe Again

I don’t know what to say. It looked so good for much of the game, I wrote much of the match report during the game, most of it at half time when it looked bright, then it all fell to pieces in the second half and we’re out. That’s all I have right now, I’ll have to see what I can salvage a little later.

Really, really disappointed. It’s no secret that I really wanted to see us

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Preview – Aston Villa vs Rapid Vienna

Team News Will Appear Here When Available:

Starting XI: Guzan, Cuellar, Collins, Davies, Beye, Reo-Coker, Ireland, Petrov, A Young, Agbonlahor, Heskey.

Subs: Delfouneso, Clark, Lichaj, Bannan, Albrighton, Hogg, Friedel.

Half way through this tie, it’s advantage to Villa and I’m hoping this is going to be a great game. Rapid have to come looking for goals, a goalless draw is no good to them, a 1-1 draw would force extra time, they have to score twice to gain the advantage, but Villa

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An Apology From Rapid Vienna

Rapid Vienna have issued an official apology to Andreas Weimann and Aston Villa after their fans’ deplorable behaviour during Thursday’s Europa League match, showering him with abuse and drinks as he was stretchered off, clearly in a state of distress.

One of the things I love about being back in Europe, even if it’s just the Europa League, is the exposure to a different set of footballing cultures. I think we were all blown away by the experience in Vienna

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Villa Crash Out Of Europe

The good news is that Aston Villa won, making two on the trot now. The bad news is that the 2-1 scoreline wasn’t enough and the Villans have been knocked out of Europe at the first hurdle on the dreaded away goals rule. Actually, it’s not so much a crash as a whimper.

The reality is that we’ve witnessed 6 hours of competitive football from Villa in 2009/10 and we’ve seen one solitary goal from open play. Pretty

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Aston Villa vs Rapid Vienna

The mood going into this game is markedly different from a few days ago. Funny what a little victory at Anfield can do, isn’t it?

On a serious note though, Martin O’Neill has voiced his confusion at the half-time boos the team received during the opening day match at home to Wigan. ‘Confusion’ is probably the wrong word – to quote the manager; he was “staggered” at the fans’ reaction, as was I.

However, Villa go into this game needing

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