Well, after all my bluster about how much I’d missed football in general while I was on holiday and how much I was looking forward to the Liverpool game….. I fell asleep and the missus couldn’t wake me up, meaning I didn’t get to see it!
I’d basically been awake for over 24 hours and just needed to sleep, but I haven’t been so annoyed with myself for years.
Hence I can’t comment about any aspect of the game, as I haven’t even seen the goal, let alone any highlights.
It was a brilliant result regardless of how we played though and I actually got a prediction correct for once, when I said I thought we’d nick it.
From what I’ve read, it seems we played really well for the first 20 minutes or so and then sat back.
I expect if I’d actually seen the game I’d have been complaining about that, as it bores me to tears.
But at the end of the day the result is all that matters I suppose and that’s why I’m asking the headline question.
While I’ve often questioned Paul Lambert’s tactics and methods, the undeniable fact is that we’ve got 10 points out of 12, which has us sitting nicely in second position.
Who’d have thought it?
I certainly didn’t, for a start and I doubt many of us did either; at least not seriously. But isn’t it a great feeling for a change?
Of course things can change really quickly in football and we have some very tricky games coming up, but if we can keep this run going, so we’ll be easing any pressure we’ll have on us, which might in turn lead to us playing better football overall.
We can but hope, but whatever, we’re a quarter of the way to surviving this season after only four games which leaves me somewhat speechless.
Couple this with the fact that we’ve only conceded one goal in those four games and things are suddenly looking very rosy indeed.
Senderos, a signing I severely criticized when he arrived has seemed solid and all of a sudden we don’t look likely to leak lots of goals. I mean who’d have thought that Nathan Baker would have come out with a man of the match display?
Fair play to him by the way, after I and many others have given him plenty of stick.
Regardless of what I think of Lambert and even his appointment of Roy Keane you can’t deny the results up to now, which makes me wonder if we have actually got it right. Let’s hope so eh?
On another bright note, I’ve just read that we approached Ajax last season about Daley Blind.
He wouldn’t have come cheaply, would he?
Things really are looking up at the moment.
NATH you’ve lost me & that ain’t hard mate,why not concentrate on your views instead of being influenced by others.if you feel like it’s a whindup ignore it move on,everyone has there own opinion if we all agreed how Fucking boring would that be. what ever you decide to do good luck to you mate but you’ll have to watch your language that’s why I FUCKING love it on here. 😀
Nath, keep posting mate, it all makes for good debate. What has happened to Langford, always enjoyed his contribution?
He probably can’t get over us starting so well he’s been pissed as a fart mate. 😀
Funnily enough, I was thinking about him this morning.
I can’t remember if he said he was going on holiday or if he’d just had enough.
Langford, if you’re reading this mate – please come back to the blog as I really miss your contribution. In fact you’re the main reason why I chose to join this blog over others.
Not sure but Langford goes missing now and again,I believe he has family in Germany and goes over for a while, Giddy might know more than me about Langfords disappearance. Quite a few somewhat go missing Guest,Dunbar, we had one guy that did away games and wrote about the games, he’s been gone over twelve months. I don’t know why because as I’ve found out some post are really strict the want you to believe their thoughts, Nath will find that out.
BILL wasn’t the poster villamissionary who commented on the away games???I’ve contacted Langford if I get no reply he’s out the country mate.
Thanks Giddy; I’m away in Kent having a bit of a piss up with some mates. UTV.
Get it down yer mate enjoy. 😉
Giddy that don’t ring a bell villamissionary, it was something like Digford? he always went to away games and kept us up to date, he just disappeared, come to think about it was before Badger took it on.
“I don’t know why because as I’ve found out some post are really strict the want you to believe their thoughts”
Hopefully we don’t do that too much.
We quite welcome disagreement with what we think, as that’s what it’s all about.
It’s only when abuse becomes personal that we have to take any action.
I don’t quite understand why Nath has chosen now to say he’s not coming back, as myself and even Ooah have actually been quite positive over the last couple of days.
Hopefully Nath will change his mind 🙂
I’ve just been looking at a Pool website and one of their rules is that you can’t complain about what is perceived as “negativity”. We don’t even have that as a rule.
The trouble is it’s a fine line between negativity and realism and some people just don’t like to read either.
Hence people come and people go. C’est la vie.
“It’s only when abuse becomes personal that we have to take any action” Badger I’m inclined to disagree with that statement you’ve made on the fact that oohah throws abuse out and posters are to accept it yet when the shoes on the other foot people are either banned or the comment deleted. From as long as I’ve been a poster on here that is the way it’s always been. One rule for one and a different one for everybody else. I even recall you saying you’re going to ban the infamous Terry Jones for constantly calling people Lemmings….yet it’s ok for oohah to call people Lamberk apologists as well as other things. This is the reason why I very rarely post now-a-days. It’s a shame you don’t run the site on your own, personally think it’d be much better without the personal shit that goes on.
I genuinely don’t know why that went into moderation B6. Hopefully you know it just happens sometimes.
Actually it was down to me that he never got banned, when the vast majority wanted him kicked off, you may remember. My stance was that just because he was in a very small minority at the time, it didn’t mean he should have been banned for diagreeing about things.
He was warned because he was winding to many people up, but we even sort of relented about him calling people that after a while.
As for Ooah, I can’t control what he says, but rest assured we even have our own “debates” behind the scenes 🙂
Sometimes he’ll be right and sometimes I will.
We don’t always agree, but accept we have a common aim, so get past any serious arguements.
And in fairness to Ooaah, he does get his fair share of abuse back.
He was called a “prick” just yesterday, I think it was.
The post is still there, unedited (which is actually unusual, as I normally edit those sort of comments), so it’s not as though you can’t hand it back at all.
Fwiw, I don’t like the personal stuff because it gets out of hand too easily, but Nath’s (where he called him a prick) post was left unaltered as it consisted mainly of good arguments about the team.
That’s all we ask; stick to football mainly and you can probably get a sneaky insult in 🙂
Lots of comments are deleted when whoever disagrees with them sees fit. It’s a reason I don’t bother posting as often.
Deleted or do they accidently go into moderation (something we can’t get round if you don’t want the site flooded with spam, which reminds me I’ve got 119 spams from today alone to delete when I looked earlier; all one by one, as I don’t want to delete any decent posts by deleting them all en masse 🙁 ), where they’re probably added later?
I really don’t know.
With me working loads of hours it’s hard to keep up, but whenever I get chance I have a look and allow any comments that are remotely reasonable.
I personally only delete any comments that are abusive with no talk about footy whatsoever.
Comments the likes of “Badger, you’re a fucking idiot” with nothing else to contribute don’t cut it with me.
To be fair, I don’t get many of those, but Ooah gets a fair few 🙂
I hope that explains my side of things anyway.
Some have recently gone into moderation, which is fair enough if a poster has a history of making abusive comments or if yr trying to stop spammers. Hate to say it, but generally it’s if we contradict Ooh Ahh… 🙁
I don’t get this comment being deleted bandwagon everyone seems to have joined. Me and Badger very rarely edit or delete comments. I certainly don’t delete comments if someone disagrees with me or I’d be deleting everyone’s :-). Like a badger said we don’t necessarily agree with each other and behind the scenes we have our differences. But we kiss and make up afterwards without grudges ( not from me anyway) lol. Like Badger said we all want what’s best for the club I would love to put up a positive post up each week and I did on Sat when we beat Liverpool. If we beat Arsenal I will put up another positive post if we lose 5.0 then I won’t. It’s not always about the result it’s the performance and attitude of the players I look at. Also what Lambert has or hasn’t done. If we lose 1.0 to arsenal but play them of the park and hit the post ten times then there would be no criticism from me. Let’s face it apart from the mast month what have we had to be positive about. Lerner and lambert are going nowhere either. This season I feel things have clicked into place a bit and tbh even though we sat back and defended for most of the Liverpool game I never once was that worried that they would score. A year ago we played better IMO and went 2.0 up but blew it. This year we went 1.0 but actually saw that lead out. I think this is mainly due to having more experience in the team more than anything else. If we could stay in top 10 until bentekes back and scoring we could be there or there abouts for a finish between 5th to 8th IMO.
Then if the two of you genuinely aren’t deleting posts, you need to look at the software. One minute comments are there…next they’re not!
Lamberk apologists is hardly an insult is it B6. Btw we only moderate what we deem offensive ie racist or threatening behaviour. The only other time we edit is if anyone uses the ‘C’ word. You can abuse me all you like as long as it’s constructive and non threatening.
Can’t believe they don’t allow negativity on the site. Like you say it’s a very thin line between negativity and realism. Maybe they have links with the club so have to tow the corporate line.
No Ooaah.
They allow negative posts, but don’t allow anyone criticising them for being negative.
Badger; don’t worry yourself mate; this is a good open blog with sensible rules. If someone doesn’t want to contribute that’s their decision. I don’t particularly like the swearing and made a decision not to use foul language but that’s up to me and I wouldn’t stop contributing because others swear! Not for me to be moralistic! Keep going Giddy 🙂
Bill, I can’t think what his username was, but he used to write for one of the other Villa sites.
I think they had a bit of a fallout and he wrote for us for a while.
I don’t think he writes for anyone anymore though.
Shame, because he was very good.
He sure was Badger, he go down in his car and text us back, they use to say what places they go to, sing in the car, hey was it Deritend that rings a bell. Enjoyed his take on the games.
Was it glensider we had Trevor fisher I think that did bits for us.
He was Glensider on the other site Bill.
Can’t remember if that was the name he used on here, tbh.
He was Glensider here too…He got peed off with Vital.
That’s the one ,thanks Bum Bum.
Erm sounds about right, yes good poster, Badger I’ve no grievances on this site infact don’t and won’t stop posting, this tablet never from my side waiting for news and conversation with Villa fans, I consider most on here as friends, the problem is one eyed opinions never looking at two sides of a discussion believing they are right, gets you nowhere.
Bill, I think Ooah and myself do our best to remain balanced. We’re very similar in age, where we have a few miles on the clock (not as many as your good self sir) and I believe this comes easier with age.
It’s not a criticism, indeed it’s a good thing, but I think you just feel things more passionately when you’re younger.
I certainly did 🙂
And my personal belief is that is why some perceive us as being totally negative; ie many posters are younger.
But I’m possibly wrong about that.
Enough of my rambling thoughts for tonight anyway.
Bloody work tomorrow.
The curse of the drinking class, isn’t it? 🙂
No ones opinion on here is necessarily right or wrong Bill that includes mine an Badgers. It’s just an opinion which everyone us entitled some opinions I agree with some I don’t but I def don’t censor an opinion just because I don’t agree with it.
Just gone through all those spams I mentioned above, which was actually over 4 days, not just today.
123 it had gone up to and desperate to read; bloody Ugg boots and Nike and all sorts.
Included was one of DSVilla’s comments which I’ve approved, but will now obviously be out of date. Apologies for not being able to catch that one quicker DS.
One I simply didn’t approve was a reply to Ooah, which quite simply said “retard”.
And that’s it.
Hopefully you can see why we don’t let that sort of comment through.
That’s Ok Badger. I just thought I must have missed the Post Comment button!
Its funny that we are 2nd in the league and yet everyone is arguing on here! Good job we’re not in the bottom 3!
If we was bottom 3 oohah would be happier. 😉
Now that’s the sense of humour I like b6 , I can see its does put a smile on faces, Badger your right mate ages does have a part to play, problem with me at 75+ my mind will not let me be in peoples eyes an oap, Anyway back to my love, just been given a seat for Saturday so again will be in the Villa Tavern at 12 o’clock with all the Villa lads, come and say hello you won’t miss me I’ll be the oldest Villa fan their. 🙂
it wont last thats why we have overachieved though long may it continue
I don’t see it as over achieving. I look at it as we have now raised the bar and set ourselves a new level. We should be a club well capable of getting results like the previous 4 games consistently. We will indeed get the odd drubbing, but most teams do from time to time. It’s how we react to the first one we get is what will tell us what we are made of this season.
Good for you Bill – hope the Villa put on a great show for you.
Arsenal right now will provide an interesting challenge for Lambert & Keane. Why? Because they have a defensive crisis, and could turn up with nobody to play at right back who has ever done the job. Had Arsenal been at full strength, I would have expected Villa to play the same way they did at Anfield, and Arsenal to attack as this is an away banker for them.
So here is the question for you – do you change your tactics or squad?
My answer is play Nzogbia on the left to start, and tell him to give it full throttle, Grealish off the bench to replace him when he tires. They key man may then be Hutton, because the Arsenal defence will shift to their right to protect their rookie, and leave a big space for Hutton to run into.
Ya I was just reading arsenals defensive injuries mount up, they my bellerin a debut at right back 19 – most on fifa will know him as a youth player with huge potential. I have not seen him in reality yet.
So if arsenal are missing chambers come next weekend – I would half fancy a point or three for us if we perform like last few weeks
I was thinking yesterday that very same thought, yes change it , Arsenal are good on the break, we need to use that wide man, plus quick passing skills to worry Arsenal. Keep that defence but change forward players, I’m still not convinced Abonglahor can do a full shift.
I expect us to play defensively against Arsenal. They don’t have much width and try all this tip tap stuff down the middle so we will do what a lot of other teams do and look to crowd them out. They still get caught on the break as they are not quick to get back in shape both at full back in the centre of their defence.
CNZ is a dilemma. What you gain going forward is often negated by his unwillingness to put in a defensive shift for the team. We end up with Delph covering him which takes something away from his game.
Hope we get another result so we remain in good shape for the return of Benteke in a few weeks time. It would be a shame if he comes back when we are on a run of defeats as is still entirely possible.
Hav to agree I don’t see us going for this, we will stick to defensive play and hope for a 1-0 again which is fine by me even at home because whatever way we look at it arsenal are better than us on paper even with their defensive troubles.
But I don’t see why nzog or any forward player we have should hav to worry too much about defending all the time as we have 4 defenders and essentially 3 defensive mids in the team that should be more than enough and If nzog weimann and gabby stay further up the pitch arsenal will not risk commiting so many men forward because of the pace of those 3 so I think that’s a better defensive plan than sitting 10 men behind the ball and letting them attack us to their hearts content.
Also not many hav mentioned Westwood this season and I think he has been brilliant! Last 6 year I was his biggest critic but watching him this year he has improved immensely, his 1st touch his delivery from set pieces his composure and passing everything! He deserves some credit I believe but just hope he can keep this up for the rest of the season.
As I recently suggested, Hutton has signed a new 3 year deal. How circumstances can change!
Hats off to Hutton. Deserves a new contract based on recent performances, particularly with the way he was treated previously.
Agreed bencey, hats off to him, has showed great character to perform the way he has and a great turnaround by our club to admit they were wrong……. Long Live Mr Fox as i believe he is getting things done correctly, next up Vlaar and Delph please !
Agree with that.
This Fox geezer seems much better at getting things done.
Forest are welcome to fatty.
And yes, fair play to Hutton too. He’s played well lately, although in all honesty I might have left a new deal for a couple of months to see if he can keep it up.
He’s obviously a decent pro though.
And while I don’t want to put a downer on the good buzz we’re feeling, the rapid reversal from the club is somewhat embarrassing and shows how poor the treatment of the bomb squad really was, imo.
I’d like to know who called that one totally wrong and my money now says it was fatty.
Agree badger. Think we should of offered him a new deal at Xmas he’s only had 4 good games for us though I do rate Hutton tbf and always thought he was treated appallingly because mcleish signed him. I hope he dosnt do a weiman and go completely of the boil now he’s got his deal. But good luck to him.
Shit bad news arse are 2 down which means they will get hammered in media and take it out in us ffs
It had to be Faulkner Badger. Lerner and Lambert still here !!! I recon when they were summoned to USA for meeting with Lerner, lambert has had a word in his ear and the penny has finally dropped. Maybe the selling up was just a ploy to get Faulkner to walk. Seems strange that they were then quick yo appoint Fox !!!
The way Nzog, Hutton and Bent have reacted suggests that they don’t blame PL and, if that’s the case, it again speaks volumes for the way in which PL has handled the whole sorry saga of the last couple of years. He’s also had to suffer vitriole from the fans but he’s never once complained and has always praised the support given (especially the away support which must be the best in the EPL). Bringing in Roy Keane can’t have been the easiest option but I am convinced it was an absoilute masterstroke and if this years signings continue to deleiver, he may yet turn out to be the best manager since Sir Ron. Don’t forget you heard it here first 🙂
Who knows keano and lambo could be the new clough and Taylor lol
I’d take that in a flash OohAh – they were hopeless individually but together they were the best in Europe. I really think that the Lambert / Keane partnership might be the making of Villa – and whilst I’m in ‘Mystic Meg’ mode 🙂 a good season (top ten) may well see a change of heart from RL which I don’t see as a bad thing given what has happened with other ownership changes recently! Better the devil you know……….
Yep who knows the trick clough and Taylor did so well was the team was better than its individual parts. Apparently when they signed Francis for a £1m the first million pound player the first thing Clough did on his first day was get him to make the tea. It could be that are players individually are average at best but if we play as a team and to their strengths we will win more than we lose. Having said that in clough and Taylor’s days the opposing teams didn’t have world class foreigners like they do now. To take a promoted club like forest or a relegated threatened club like us to champions league or league title would take a huge amount of luck and a miracle. I just can’t see it I’m afraid as when teams like utd and Chelsea spend hundreds of millions on world class superstars that play well individually and for the team there is no way we can compete with that. It’s possible we could match the evertons and spurs but above that forget it.