I don’t really know what to say about this one, but I feel I should emphasise that very few of us thought we’d get anything at all today.
So getting a point is a fantastic bonus in my view.
I have to be honest though and say the defending for the first twenty minutes was shambolic; truly Keystone kops type stuff and as early as the second minute we were lucky we weren’t one down.
It’s not just poor positioning either, it’s also real nursery level stuff, where we just seem unable to kick the ball and actually clear it.
It has to be totally down to a lack of confidence and nerves being shot.
So for that first twenty minutes we were entirely under the cosh, with Southampton consistently attacking and of course creating chances. It’s perfectly fair to say they could easily have scored 4 or 5 goals, but because of poor finishing, by some miracle they didn’t actually score.
I’m not sure if we improved or the Saints eased off, but we rode the storm and got back into it a bit more in the second part of the first half. That’s not to say we were the better side though and the opposition were firmly in control.
We did have a great chance around the half hour mark though.
The ball came in from the right and Gestede was smack in front of the goal, where he should have buried it with his right foot, except he missed it by a mile. Lack of quality, confidence or luck? I don’t know.
And so it continued until around the 43rd minute, where a corner from Veretout ended up at the back post for an unmarked Lescott to poke the ball home, totally against the run of play.
The next couple of minutes were a bit nervy, as I always have the feeling that we’ll concede straight after we score, but we went in at half time one up.
I was just as nervy at the opening of the second half, but we actually started to get into the game a bit more and I certainly felt a little more relaxed, but I always had the nagging doubt that our lead wouldn’t last.
The ball came in from a Southampton corner and Sanchez was the wrong side of Romeu, who scored to make it one each.
Westwood came on at around 75 mins and had a great chance which again should have been buried and that had me cursing.
The nervy bit continued, but in short we managed to hold on and this draw almost felt like a victory.
Indeed, there was a period where I actually thought we might win the game; a feeling I haven’t had for a fair time now and I was actually disappointed as well as relieved when the final whistle blew.
We shouldn’t get carried away though.
That opening 20 minutes was truly shocking and if Southampton weren’t so off form, they’d have destroyed us today.
And some of the passing was just abysmal. You really have to wonder how players who do it for a living can’t kick a ball with the right pace and direction over 10 yards.
Again, it must be purely down to confidence.
But there are some major plus points to take from this game.
Although we definitely rode our luck, we were resilient in getting the point, that’s beyond doubt.
Our heads didn’t drop anywhere near as they have done in some previous games when we conceded.
And Ayew is starting to look a very decent player.
I also thought Sanchez did well, but recognise that some of you think he’s awful.
Yes, I know he gave the ball away terribly a couple of times, but he wasn’t alone, so shouldn’t be singled out for that.
At least it wasn’t a loss and at our level, a point at St Marys is not to be sniffed at.
As Giddy said there is relegation written all over us and I agree with him. It was great to get a point yesterday,but our preformance over all was not great. The table doesn’t lie and looking at it we are down, but there is something inside me saying we can get out of this, there are plenty of games left .
Will Lerner spend in January, if we are to far gone he won’t. BUT I hope we are in touch distance or even better .
By the way….why no men on the posts at corners………
Is it because of this zone marking which I think its a load of bollocks, there should be two men on the posts and pick up the rest of the opposition in the box and stick with them. It is so simple, now a day they are trying to confuse players with zone marking
Agree this Zonal marking is confusing. Like you say 2 men on post and everyone else mark his player.
Hang on…is anyone on here seriously thinking we won’t be relegated this year? Why is anyone debating the issue? Lerner will not spend this January. Even if he does why would anyone of quality or who can make a difference come to VP?
The entire argument is ‘moot’. We will experience a couple of half decent games but that will be it.
Aston Villa FC are finished for now. It doesn’t matter who does what anymore.
Lerner OUT. (I’d put something stronger down but I don’t want to we arrested!!!!) Grrrrrrrr… B*****d!
Think I said as much Bum Bum.
As it stands at this minute, we need to be on 14 points to excuse our GD. 8 points off. F**************!!!!!!!!!!!
Hang on, Langford said we won’t be relegated, I believe him.
Even Langford has had to face up to the facts…
Have to agree bum bum there’s no way back and Arsenal will stuff us next week
Now Newcastle winning………..
We’re standing out like a sore PRICK at the bottom we’ll be relegated by January.
2-0….now even I think we have had it……..
7 adrift we’ve been unable reach that figure in 15 attempts,can’t we ask the teams above to slow a little so we can catch up??
What a weekend!
We finally get a draw and then Bournemouth beat Chelsea and Newcastle stuff Liverpool. Who’d have thought?
We’re now 7 points and 4 goals away from 4th from bottom. I have no hope.
Sorry but the light at the end of the tunnel has officially been turned off again.
No one can say we haven’t been prepared for the inevitable if that’s any consolation.
This is a conspiracy, the fa are crooked they have planed this, after our ground for houses. Newcastle winning, Sunderland winning, we are doomed.
Its a funny old game…….B’mouth dont give away a pen and score from offside then L’pool have goal disallowed for offside and it was a yard on…..so YES everyone is against us…….bloody hell I sound like MOANrino and Fergie.
even when we were good refs and fa hated us.
its nothing new
time to play the kids.
carnt be worse than the flops on show.the likes of guzan clarke sanchez richardson and westwood need their p45 with immediate effect.
might aswell get the squad ready for championship football and get some seasoned tall and strong players and mix them with the kids.
seems the most sensible way forward for the club on and off the field. unless anyone thinks lerner will splash out on quality
Sanchez cost us again on Saturday he is a liability
He’s a Yank , don’t make us laugh.Andrew1
that was the aim.
but there are fans who think we can stay up and sanchez is our best midfielder and bringing in the kids is a bad idea.
im thinking about watching titanic tonight on sy demand you never know superman might save the day
Andrew, did you watch the side that won the Nextgen competition?
If so, you’ll know Grealish was a class apart from the rest of the side and even he isn’t exactly setting the world alight this season.
What makes you think they’ll do a better job?
As for Sanchez, he generally plays very well for Columbia, who are currently ranked 8th in the world.
Perhaps it’s the crap around him, that makes him look so bad?
not saying the kids are top quality but considering our position i dont think they could do any worse.
i know i go on and slate the likes of sanchez but i dont see them improving and in my opinion he is too mistake prone and puts even more pressure on a weak defence.
so my question is what should we do.
1)spend millions and get lumped with expense players who want out when we go down
2)prepare for what will happen and give some hopefull prospects a chance
The kids aren’t going to save us mate and to think they are is clutching at straws; something I think we’re all doing in trying to stop what is seemingly inevitable.
You ask a perfectly good question, in what we should do.
But only Lerner can answer that one.
Fwiw, I can’t see him spending much. It’ll be another paltry spend that he probably thinks is pretty good, just the same as he probably thought spending the Benteke/Delph money and another £7 mill or so was a good spend.
If we get 100% confirmed relegated before the season’s over, I’d definitely expect more kids to be played.
Only because it’ll save the appearance money of the higher paid players though.
It’s easy to slate the players, but we should remember who funded (or rather didn’t) the squad, imo.
Of course we should slate who funded for the players (and yes, funded for the squad). Because they weren’t the right players under an awful manager who didn’t know how to use them. We should’ve gone for the regular players most EPL teams go for, like we did under O’Neill, instead of going the Stoke way and trying to get quality, technical foreign players under a manager who couldn’t use them.
Everyone of them so called footballers at Villa need to take a look at themselves, I played the game up till 35 year old, it was a sad day when I knew time was up, that lot need to pack up now in their twenties, gone are the days players play for the shirt, or even for pride, they are to me a Shiite bunch of footballers.
Remember this day
This is the day hope died
This is the day we said good bye to pride
Remember this day
This is the day
Cast adrift – here we sit
Above the pit
Remember this day
This is the day our great club died
Remember this day
Amen.
Personally I blame Ellis for not expanding the club after the European cup success 30 odd years ago!! What do you think Hitchens?
See B6 is back again
Lets stick to the topic of discussion like you always say Hitchens. Still blaming Ellis are you for our current plight?
How’s the Caribbean? ha ha ha ha ha
See Lambert’s got off to a good start at Blackburn, he’ll probably bring them up!!
no doubt we will be proved wrong on managers, ie Lambert Sherwood, and co, its the owner we need to get rid, Andrew I understand where your coming from on playing kids, give it till new year and if that twat Lerner doesn’t cough up then yes, get them kids to play for their future in the game ,we probably do a Leicester having young wont-to-be footballers.i cannot understand we don’t have die for the club players.
oohah
its not players that be sold then none of them assets
Wilkins blaming the buying commitee;
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/former-aston-villa-assistant-boss-10560299
If the committee buy half the players why don’t the manage the fuckers??why aren’t they sacked???
Because they’re sporting directors and directors of recruitment. They’re not managers. It’s how a lot of European based clubs are run and it’s slowly integrating into England.
Do those people actually have coaching and management skills? or even technical no how, I cannot believe we’ve set up a department of money grabbers because Lerner don’t trust a descent manage of our English worldwide game. Typical Yank.
Can you blame the “typical Yank”. What English manager is actually good? Sherwood wanted garbage like Townsend and Lennon. Two awful players. English managers aren’t good enough.
I see vlaar’s gone to AZ ALKMAAR til the end of the season.