Just a quick one to say I managed to watch the game via a Balkan streaming site. Which was just as well, as the AVTV audio went down just a couple of minutes before the goal. AVTV has proved to be an utter waste of time this season and I’m going to have to think hard about continuing my subscription next season.
Anyway, I think it’s hard to fault how we played today and quite simply we did everything except get the winning goal, with us hitting the bar and the post, as well as Hourihane missing one he really should have buried.
I reckon 4 or 5-1 on a better day wouldn’t have been out of order, but that’s why we love footy, isn’t it?
Does that guarantee us third place or not? I’m really not sure and to be honest, I don’t know what the difference is if we get third or fourth.
Our automatic second place is out the window, so while I rue the fact that we didn’t win, it’s not the end of the world and it was a very decent game to watch for the neutral, I’d have thought.
Did the draw kill Derby’s promotion chances yet? I’ll have to check before giving my Derby mate some banter.
Onto Millwall next then and I’d suggest that’s a very tough proposition, although I think we demonstrated today that we have plenty in our locker.
If only we can put the ball in the net often enough.
With that, I’m off for copious amounts of alcohol.
UTV!
Very unlucky to not win, but it’s all about goals isn’t it?
4th place confirmed for us. Derby still have to sweat it out next week.
Ah, cheers SS
Badger, as SS says we will now finish 4th whatever the result at Millwall who are losing 2-0 to Middlesbro – who, it looks likely, we will be playing in the play offs although, mathematically, Derby could pinch 5th on goal difference.
Middlesbrough – typical physical, uncompromising Pulis side that will sit deep and look for the counter attack – even at home! It won’t be pretty or entertaining and we will need to show a lot if commitment and passion to beat them.
Last play off place looks to be (barring a miracle recovery by Millwall) between Derby and Preston.
Personally, I would have preferred Derby to Middlesbrough.
Reckon Cardiff will now get the second automatic promotion spot.
Statistics – Fulham have not won a single game in the play offs (6 played)!
Boro can sit deep for me, Hitch.
Derby did it today and were lucky they didn’t get thrashed, imo.
My only major concern in the play-offs is Fulham, who I think look a better side than us overall.
If they get second, it’s a relief to me.
Anyone else and I’d expect us to do them over two legs.
Then it’s pot luck in a final and we’d stand at least a good as chance as any, imo.
i am opposite to scare death of fulham. i think this season has proven me right. i said its not the big teams in this league we should fear its the smaller ones. fans said we couldnt beat the top sides and had a dairy to prove this nonsense, but look back now it was not beating the boltons and QPR which cost us automatic promotion.
fulham are a good side and so are villa. there is a way to play fulham and the side they are. teams are petrified of them. they lose before they play them. fulham need the ball, their opposition always surrender it and play um on the break. they respect them too much they stand off them,this allow them to get their moves flowing. you cant afford to do this. you have to play your football when you get the ball. fulham are weak without the ball. they wont go long. so you can press them high in wide areas. which they are strong in and they rely on the wide players. you have to hit them fast when they overcommit which they tend to do. but as well as that you have to keep the ball at times. they don’t like chasing the ball. we can do this. also you will need three in centre mid to match theirs. also cant afford to play taylor all 4 wide players need to be strong as this is the area we will lose or win the game. like wolves were, fulham are strong in fullback and midfield wide. they always make the pitch wide. villa should be too strong for them from set pieces. our movement if we don’t freeze will be too much for them.
finally if fulham do make the final. we have a one game shoot out. if we are successful we will be playing 17 more difficult sides next season than fulham
if we do meet fulham, villa fans in particular are building them up to be unbeatable. its like the ali – forman fight the rumble in the jungle one. before the fight everyone had forman the winner and nobody gave ali a chance, even ali looked defeatist in the build up. sport is unique as opinions matter not, soon as the bell rings or whistle is blown. its what happens in the match which counts. fulham can only play one way, we can play number of ways. ali had a game plan, which forman had not expected and which is regarded a insult to do to a boxer especially a champion, that was to throw right hand leads at forman. basically ali was saying your so slow i can hit you with these. which made forman mad as hell. which made him make mistakes ali punished.
it will be a mouth watering final if fulham can make it. we shouldnt be scared. its only one game which will mean hundreds of millions and promotion to the best league in the world blar blar blar.if our players cant handle this they are in the worng profession
Realistically Boro and Fulham is pretty much the worst case scenario for us. I think it’ll be touch and go in the semi’s. We have to get a result first leg as if not Pulis will sit back and we won’t break them down as its one of our achilles heels at home.
Being honest 9 times out of 10 Fulham would beat us at a neutral venue – they have a manager tactically superior to Bruce and more matchwinners. Anyone who was at the game at Craven Cottage could see just how comfortably they beat us – they looked a class above. Of course we’ve got to hope they have an off day if we do meet in the final.
Hopefully we don’t see Neil Taylor in any of the play off games – he is atrocious. If he’s up against Adama or Sessegnon the games up there and then
While I agree about Fulham, I am a little bit more positive on that side with how we’ve played recently. We are actually trying to break teams down instead of teams trying to break us down. Yeah we need to be more clinical but we have for once since we had Young, Milner, Gabby and Carew, a group of players that can score goals and not relying on one sole player to score. No, we’re not near clinical enough at least they’ve shown they can score goals.
I don’t like players being injured but Taylor being injured can only be good for us at this point. No need for him anymore.
At the time it was said we couldn’t beat top half sides, we weren’t. We were often getting out played and losing to them. While we were able to counter attack our way to points and wins against the weaker sides. Times certainly have changed and we’re playing better football, though the team needs to be a lot more clinical than they have been. Too many easy chances going well over.
However fans have every right and should fear Fulham. They’re 23 unbeaten and 18 are wins. This isn’t a fluke and no, the refs haven’t won them each and every game. Mitrovic has been the January signing of the season for the Championship. 12 in 16 during their unbeaten run and 7 of their 10 midfielders have at least 3 goals while only conceding 15 goals in those 23 games and scoring 51. They thrashed teams for fun that they were supposed to lose to like Millwall, Wolves, Cardiff. Yes we can beat them, but they can and have ripped us apart this season, so of course every fan should be worried about them. You need them to have a one off bad game, or us to have a giant game.
i have issues with the game you said millwall got thrashed by fulham. i take it then you watched the game. ??? because i did and thou the scoreline may suggest a thrashing the game was not as one sided as the scoreline,
millwall battered fulham. just the first half alone, millwall could and should have been 3 nil ahead. long before millwall goalie made two mistakes which gift wrapped the game in the second half. then millwall were always chasing the game. but millwall caused fulham loads of trouble. having a goal disallowed smashing the bar or post twice. fulhams goalie made loads of vital interventions last ditches far from as comfortable as you make it sound. i also saw the 4 2 cardiff. that was another they got lucky. wasnt that the game fulhams goalie was time wasting with cardiffs second goal. fulham goalie refused to let go of the ball, he was fighting for 30 seconds inside his goal. wolves game i watched and cant remember much of that one except wolves were not at their best. they missed thei best player. was 2 nil hardly thrashing
Nath made a good point in that it’s no good trying to sit back and hope to hit Fulham on the counter. All you do is invite Fredericksburg and Sessegnon to attack you at pace in wide areas and frees up Cairney in the centre.
I agree that we would have to press hard and keep these players in more defensive duties – limit their ability to get forward. Yes it has risks but rather see us give it a go than surrender meekly – we have beaten Wolves and Cardiff so we can beat Fulham (that’s assuming we both get to Wembley!!)
Having said all that they are a very good side.
One final point Grabben has at least a good a goal to game ratio as Mitrovic 8 in 11 and now has 20 for the season!
Duh Fredericks – predictive text!
i believe thats the way you beat fulham. you have said in very plain text. you stop Sessegnon and fredericks these two are like the wolves wingbacks. if in alittle different roles, they serve up the same service for the side. they are always involved in every attacks.
most teams try to play fulham on the break. its not negative its being reasonable, they surrender space to stay compact. not allowing fulham space behind. they then go long or speed breaks when they get the ball.
i watch a few fulham games and they struggle most when teams don’t give them time and space. brentford when toe to toe with them, they never roughed them up they never backed off thou. they attacked fulham at every given opportunity. they also beat fulham in chances created they beat fulham in better football produced. they beat fulham in stopping fulham playing. how did they manage this ????
answer is simple they didnt go mad pressing everytime. but they didnt allow them to build up in their half. they stopped them getting the ball to their best players as you mentioned. when they got the ball, they hurt fulham by keep good possession moving the ball around making them chase the ball and fulham are not the best team i swear without the ball.
All this talk about sitting back, to me its no confidence in your attacking player’s,
Villa do have player’s that get forward at speed, they also have player’s that can beat player’s, we also have defensive half backs, what our problems are full backs, I was always told as a player playing the game was the best form of defence is attack. Sitting back can cause problems in many ways, lack of confidence is the main one, my take is play your confidence player and get stuck in.
if we do meet fulham. we lost at their ground, but it wasnt a thrashing i remember the game for johnstone blunder. where he took the free kick in the right fullback position, after giving instructions to his defenders he was going long, jonstone then madly kicked it to the fulham attacker who returned it to a empty goal.
other than this, we were always in the game. fulham are not good enough to hammer us and wont in the playoffs if they managed to win their semis. at home we beat them quite easy so its one game all
one last point on fulham they are cheating bastards, in the last game i watched of them sunderland i think, they did what they always do timewaste. now all teams do this so why am i moaning about that. because they do it miles over the top. in every game i watched of them they are dirty and time wasted in all. even against sunderland the bottom of the league. who were robbed by the referee, injury time was also robbed a chance to equalise by all the fulham players falling down. most annoying for neutrals. sunderland got so frustrated they were picking each fulham players up off the ground. mictrovic was the worst. having been told to leave the pitch he hobbled off only to return straight away, he was running top speeds straight from off the sidelines. soon as he lost the ball again he went back to the floor,
so mark my words if villa find themselves behind, fulham will play all their dirty tricks. against brentford they did this but brentford scored in the dying minutes and fulham turned out had wasted their own time. i am looking forwards to this game. villa and fulham are evenly matched. i think man for man villa have the better players. grealish alone will enjoy running at fulham. he will ripped them to pieces. we can hurt them in so many areas, while fulham will have to play extremely good to just make it a game. i seriously doubt they will make it through the semis
My biggest worry is picking up injuries against Millwall. When we lost away to Fulham we didn’t have Grealish, Adomah or Grabban. Middlesbrough will be just as tough because Pullis knows how to stop the better players, and I have this fear of someone like Downing or Traore coming back to haunt us. The biggest thing for me is our players being up for it. Against Small Heath, Wolves and Cardiff for example at home we were excellent. It was the lesser teams Bolton and QPR where standards dropped which cost us. Bruce won’t need to motivate players for playoffs. Bruce’s hardest task is keeping players fresh for both legs with 2 games in 4 days. Can players like Snodgrass, Adomah, Terry, Whelan and Elmo cope?
As there is nothing on the game (Millwall) for either team, I would hope (expect) SB to rest some senior players and give some of the squad players or U23’s a run out but then again they do have the play off final to contend. Having said that it’s likely that Kodjia will get another run out alongside Hogan?
Also forgotten we were missing key players for the Fulham game.
An explanation of how our tie-up with Fanatics works, coincidentally written by a Villa fan, if anyone’s interested;
https://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/articles/2018-04-30/adidas-and-nike-have-a-new-rival-on-the-soccer-pitch
It’s an interesting concept and now that I’ve read that, I hope it blows Nike etc away.
Thanks Badger.
Very interesting read and does show how our Board / owner are trying to be innovative in a market dominated by the so called ‘Sky Six’. Like you I hope it’s successful because being in at the ‘bottom’ so to speak should be a huge advantage.
Also interested in the tie up with Luke (and a local company at that) which is a brand that I’d not encountered until about six months ago but have recently acquired some of their products which are well made and reasonably priced.
Same here Hitch, I’ve never heard of (luke) where did you get your items from Hitch ? Villa or sports shops. I’m not surprised the Americans have a hand in the advertising as most of ours advertising we get them yanks involved, just look on the telly and its them, meerkats , Iceland, cars, all made by the yanks, we buy in from them.
New men’s shop in Bromsgrove where I live; nice shirt and pair of chinos.
middlesbro will prove to be harder game than fulham. because pulis knows how to play the underdog game. also we struggle with playing games where we have to dictate the pace of the game. bro wont attack in the same way fulham will. having watched both fulham commit men forward, leaving lots of holes to attack, middlesbro do not. they play a very different game to all other championship teams. they play 4 back at all time with a holding midfielder not too far away as well. it will be a very tough game home and away. but the winner of this tie will be promoted. you can forget fulham or derby
Yes i agree Nath, the boro will be the best team to play, Fulham will use dirty tactics in the game, you cannot underestimate your opposition as every game is a cup game. Yes play the young guns on Saturday that way we can see who will be ready for next season. Looking forward to them Wembley games.
The young lions play Reading tonight, chance to see how some of our lads are ready for the big times. Birmingham mail are streaming it.
Cracking game U23s 3-3 against Reading and looks like extra time. Watching on YouTube
4-3 Villa Holte, good game
exciting under 23’s but most lacked 1st team qualities.