All burnt out.....

[TrianonDave]

Hey, i feel all warm and fuzzy now, some great posts here. Cheers!

Bongo, you fixed that laptop?

[westcountryvillain]

It's certainly true that it's hard yards supporting the Villa at times but then again imagine being fans of lower league clubs that haven't had a taste of the big time - days out at a full Wembley, european nights, contrasted sharply with Bradford over 2 legs and I'll never forget the way we went down in 1987 in front of crowds of around 15,000. Often dull but sometimes breathtakingly brilliant - the '96 final when Savo lashed a screamer in a complete footballing performance vs Leeds was special. Watching Paul McGrath run the game almost nonchalantly week in week out was sublime - those were the days my friends.

3pm on a Saturday, gave us something to do, with mates, a beer before and after - Sky have improved it for the armchair fans, the matchday experience though is now so sanitised at this level and many won't have experienced what came before when the game had a rawness to it. I don't like how fans are seemingly secondary these days with long away trips during the week and flippin' Friday night kick-offs, as someone said though - each to their own.

I had real faith Bruce would do the business and we did have some very good runs under him, I am however much more excited at the prospect of fast flowing expansive football under our man Deano. It's a massive step-up but I feel confident he'll do well having learnt his craft along the way, unfortunately though a section of our support may not give him enough time.

UTV!

[bongosdad]

Freer

[freer]

Smith appointment = right man for the job, no doubt about it whatsoever.

However its going to take a miracle to get this hugely unbalanced squad functioning as Smith tries to rectify Steve Bruce’s truly calamitous transfer policy which leaves us with about 20 players who play right back, one centre back, a bewildering decision to send Tommy Elphick out on bloody loan, signing two new keepers then replacing both with last seasons 3rd choice keeper ….????


Glad SB was put out of his misery, shame it took so long, Bruce should of been sacked at half time at Wembley

[TrianonDave]

I genually believe Brucie lost the plot, he a very bad year personally and should have taken time off, villa became his main focus but it was getting too much for him. I think we can safely write another season off unless we suddenly click.

[Exiledvillan]

Nah Dave, Play offs are there for the taking. If we draw on Friday we will have the same points as Fulham did at this point of last season, and they only missed out on automatic promotion on the last day of the season.
Not over yet buddy, not by a long shot. This division is crazy, owt can happen, and usually does.

[westcountryvillain]

Deffo Exiled provided Deano's brand of football gets us enough results in the remaining games - stating the bleedin' obvious I know!

[stateside]

I’m sorry. I truly miss my friends on here and don’t get here as much as I want. Right now is a testing time for our club. A poor result on Friday and the fans could turn sour and put pressure on the the new coaching staff and the owners will begin to feel pressure as to whether they made the right decision.

For me, the season is already shot. The Chester suspension showed that Bruce left us severely weakened at the back even though he had 3 or 4 players that could play back there, he chose to lend them out. Even with Chester in the team the defence looks shaky at best. His performance last game pointed out why he wasn’t good enough to get into a very poor WBA defence. He was elevated last year by having JT next to him.

What I enjoy is seeing the side playing the ball on the ground. However possession wins nothing and in fact managers like Mourinho count on the opponents having possession so they can take advantage when they inevitably get nervy. Even Lambert played nice possession based football when he couldn’t rely on Benteke to play. It did nothing for him. If the new boss can get us scoring though all will be well. I hope he, the fans and the owners can have the patience to see this plan through.

[TrianonDave]

Well i will be there tomorrow, im expecting a difficult game and another 1-0 win with us hanging on.

Report will follow.

[westcountryvillain]

Enjoy the game TD, really like the points DS was making at the press conference yesterday - definitely the man for the job