I only managed to listen to most of the first half on the way home from work and managed to part watch the second half while I was finishing work at home.
So while I can’t really say I watched it properly, I saw/heard enough to give me a fair idea of the game.
And I ultimately felt incredibly frustrated.
I think we had something like 26 chances and to only score 2 goals is frankly annoying, especially when Forest scored 2 from their 3 chances.
But even though that’s been a familiar story this far into the season and our lack of conversion is seriously costing us points, so I’m pretty sanguine after being fuming angry immediately after the whistle.
I’ve had time to re-think, in other words.
I know a lot of you might think I’m talking out of my proverbial, but on reflection, I’m encouraged, as we frankly outplayed Forest and deserved to win easily. RDM thought so, as did Philippe Montanier;
“It was a tough game for us because Villa started very strongly,’ he said.
It was better from us in the end of the first half but we conceded a lot of opportunities to score. Villa deserved the victory but sometimes you can win a point when you are a little lucky. We showed good character.”
And that for me, sums it up.
They were lucky.
McCormack missed when it seemed easier to score and Ayew hit such a storming shot, that I don’t know how it didn’t snap the crossbar when it hit.
But that’s the difference. Millimetres.
And things just aren’t going for us at the moment.
But we WILL start converting those chances and make possession pay in my opinion. The law of averages says so.
As I see things, we’re not only dominating teams, but we’re overall battering them.
And while I’ll concede that it’s all useless if we don’t get the result, I’m utterly convinced it will come together sooner rather than later.
And we’re going to batter a team to such an extent that the scoreline will reflect it.
The only thing that worried me today was the part where Forest scored 2 from their 3 chances.
Their first goal was a cracking strike, but I just felt Bunn should have done better. Pereira did brilliantly for their second goal, but our defence made it look incredibly easy and I believe Bunn should have done better there too.
That’s all we need, two dodgy goalies, but that’s easy to say.
Sometimes a good strike deserves a goal more than we deserve to save it.
So 2-2 it ended and it’s another 2 points dropped, ultimately.
If we were playing poorly and not creating, I’d be seriously worried.
But we aren’t.
And we should remember that.
Well, I’ve calmed down, but I suspect many haven’t.
I’m not happy with the draw today one bit 2 points easily thrown away.
It’ll turn Giddy.
Keep the faith mate.
If we keep that sort of game up, my thoughts/prediction for the season have improved, put it that way.
Agreed plus 2 thrown away v Huddersfield
Really do not understand the negatives.
OK, letting them equalize after we’d done the hard bit and gone 2-1 up was frustrating/annoying, but even a week or two back, we’d have gone to pieces after Forrest scored their first.
With a few more games together I can really see this team ‘clicking’ – but every team needs a little bit of luck as well, and that seems to be the one thing we’re not getting at the moment.
But it’s the same old crap we can’t hold onto a lead, still make defensive errors and concede late on! How can we get promoted when we do that every single week
First goal full of mistakes, cb having to come out of position to make a tackle our cm should be making, leaving a huge gap and chance for the shot, which am average keeper would have saved.
Westwood is the worst player football has ever seen. To play him (and Gardner) is an insult to the bench.
Why didn’t somebody bring the lad down for the 2nd? Joke!!!
Yes we had chances but 2 goals at home to Forest should he enough. Still too many weak links RDM persist s with and until he addresses, we’re going nowhere
Westwood, I’d agree with and I’ve cast aspersions about Gardner too, but the latter was singled out as our best player in the first half on WM.
Agreed, the problem is with the midfield, but we should have Jedinak and maybe Tshibola back soon.
Agree. Don’t forget Gardner giving ball away for first goal woeful
What the f##k, another game another 2 points dropped. Getting fed up with this positives bollox, how long do we say that and not another poor result, what are we doing to stop it. Ayew is good don’t get me wrong but he is so bloody greedy, there are passed on early to create a chance but he holds it, Westwood again is a waste of a position, different players but similar results. Also pissing me off how unlucky we consistently are, won’t run for us and we are falling too far behind, rant over
Badger
A good and balanced article. There were many positives from the game. As I mentioned in a previous thread when we have Tshibola, Jadinek and Adomah in the starting 11, I think we will become even stronger and start to win consistently.
If all things pan out effectively the key selection decision will be Ayew v Adomah. I am looking forward to us playing with width , getting in behind the defence and crossing to Kodjia, who looked very useful today or Gestede. Whereas, Ayew lacks width and normally plays for himself. Including today, there have been at last three matches this season, where a less selfish player would have set a colleague up and Villa would most likely have won those matches, instead of drawing and losing.
I would use Ayew as an impact player until he leans it is a team game.
Ayew is not a team player, as you said its all about himself and trying to hard to score instead of playing the simple ball. In his defence he ran at players and caused them problems.
It was very annoying after today’s result, when we went 2 -1 I taught we where going to finish them off. I believe we will come good, but not with Westwood and Gardner in CM.
We did the normal villa thing took the lead and say back and invited pressure.
So frustrating not to win considering how many goal attempts we had compared to Forest, but the lack of clinical finishing cost us.
Thought Bunn should have done better with the first goal and I’m not sure why Steer isn’t backup keeper considering he was playing regularly with decent reviews for Huddersfield last season.
Really is a must win against Brentford now, otherwise I think the pressure will start piling onto Di Matteo. When you’ve spent the amount of money we have the honeymoon period for the manager is pretty much non existent.
Harsh criticism of Bunn – IMHO can’t be faulted for either goal but then I suppose someone has to be blamed but I do wonder why Steer isn’t on the bench.
For me the first goal came directly from Gardner passing the ball to Forrest in the final third which allowed them to counter attack quickly – how often are goals scored from such an error. For the second the defence / midfield were caught asleep and then Forrest got a good bounce from the tackle on Perreira but Bunn could do nothing with Lansbury’s shot. In the Prem you expect to be punished if you make a mistake – for our first six games we appear to have been punished for every single mistake made – unlucky?
How many times have we hit the woodwork in the first six matches – six – eight – I know it’s a high number.
The footballing gods have been harsh on Villa so far this season – perhaps Dr Tony needs to employ an expert in Feng shui to determine why that is so!
H60 I have a Chinese wife, so I have my own Feng shui expert. She says the main entrance is on the wrong side, it should be in the Doug Ellis stand.
But enough of the claptrap, and on to your serious point about hitting the frame of the goal. Incidentally you can always question the observational powers of a football fan who talks about the woodwork – when it hasn’t been wood for 40 years. But if you notice the top strikers frequently thump the ball in surprisingly close to the keeper, only the out of form teams are seemingly afraid the keeper will save it unless they clip it in off the post.
I do apologise OLL. I’ll ensure I put ‘woodwork’ in inverted commas next time -:)
Trouble with this league is you haven’t got a week to calm down til the next game,I’m still on a downer.
At the end of last season my worry was that we were in free-fall and would be relegated again….
The team and club have had a complete overhaul, yesterdays second half was some of the most entertaining football i have seen at Villa park for along time. We play with commitment and are good to watch, most play with 100% effort… We need to address concentration levels and when we play with a bit of width we score, so that needs changing..
In a nutshell, compared to a few months ago we are a different team and club, and personally I think we should all be proud of what our club has achieved in such a short period of time !!!!
Well said Saddened, the results haven’t yet improved as much as the performance, but the effort and attitude are transformed – as you would hope with what is mainly a new team.
Are you going to change your moniker to ‘Cheered’ ? Maybe that is the ladt piece of the jigsaw!
Saddened, That’s my look at it, said yesterday up in the air till I see the team play, we are a different side ,we will hit some clubs for six and teams that are sitting pretty will fear us believe me, that game was beyond a doubt far improved from a few months ago, i liked what I’ve seen may it get better.
Bill, exciting football imagine that last season !!
What will we be like, when the team know each other !
Saddened – agree 100%.
This team barely know each other but already they’re miles ahead of the shower that we had last term.
I’m expecting some very exciting football from them once they’ve had a few weeks to train/play as a unit.
Brentford will be really tough, they’re a better team than Forest and were the first team to score at Brighton this season on Saturday, not only did they score but they won.
Ipswich away next week is tough as well. A ground we’ve never done well at yet again we don’t do well anywhere
Dave C, hopefully Brentford would have seen our game and making plans to counteract what we do, its all on the day Dave we didn’t get the rub of the green Sunday, surely that not going to happen again would you think.
Good point Bill, it seems to have been many years since we had the rub of the green. Maybe Brentford will outplay us and we’ll get a last minute winner. Fingers tightly crossed!
Soz lads I’m far from upbeat wish I was but I’d only be lieing, Brentford will be a stiffer test hope adomah jedinak are back not too sure what the outcome will be.
Compared with the shit I have been watching for the last 6 or 7 years yesterday was worth the trip to Villa Park.
Yes I wanted us to win and was disappointed with the result but that was worth watching for once.
I actually enjoyed the game. Shock / horror.
Again, no argument from me.
It was good to watch [although I admit that when Forrest scored I feared we were about to roll-over again] and streets ahead of the dire, disinterested ‘performances’ that Villa teams have served-up at VP for many years.
Jesus no, Gabby starts for U23s
Gabby Agbonlahor starts alongside Keinan Davis and Rushian Hepburn-Murphy this evening for Villa U23s. They head down to Surrey to take on their Fulham counterparts (KO 7pm).
It’s four points from three games so far for Villa – after a defeat to Wolves and a draw at Brighton they hammered Newcastle 4-0 at Villa Park on Bank Holiday Monday.
Team: Johansson, Linley, Leggett, Hale, Clark, Finnerty, O’Hare, Abdo, Davis, Hepburn-Murphy, Agbonlahor.
Subs: Idem, Coates, Blackett-Taylor, Rowe, Mooney
Hmm shabby starting I hope that’s not a sign of things to come & just a goodwill gesture to make him feel wanted ahh bless
As were paying his wages Giddy might as well make use of him… Lol.
Spoke to a good friend who played semi pro and he said Gabby could have been top draw.. Such a waste of talent
Couldn’t he clean the bogs at VP/BMH for his money????
I did not know we had a U23 Stone team, he must have just about made the team.
Gabby starting for the U-23’s is the ultimate insult, I’d suggest and a massive pointer that he isn’t welcome.
I wonder if he’ll score? Wouldn’t surprise me if he doesn’t, but you just never know.
It might be a massive eye-opener for him; but I doubt it.
In the latest news, we’re apparently interested in Reo-Coker!
A player who couldn’t do it in the MLS?
You couldn’t make it up.
Or perhaps you could.
Xia has basically said it’s rubbish.
Along with a quote that we didn’t spend a penny of the parachute payment on the new players.
Interesting. Does that mean Lerner got it, I wonder????
Reo-Coker ?
Amazed to find he’s apparently only 32; I’d have said he was over 35 by now.
Anyway, wonder where that rumour came from?
Shabby playing with the u-23’s: yup, that seems more like a knee-to-the-bollocks, rather than some sign of rehabilitaion!