No Justice in Football

[jackal2]

Exactly Lee Hughes wasnt shy in being abit of a wind up and snide.

In an ideal world the game is clean but that isnt reality we need to be more physical and street wise as you say.

You can still play good football too im certainly not asking for John Beck long ball stuff !

Arsenal in the early days under Arsene Wenger were the perfect combination of style and substance. They played good attacking football but also had a real nasty edge with players like Viera, Petit, Adams, Bould etc. They began to decline after a few years when the enforcers left and Wenger got too obsessed with signing pretty players and walking the ball into the net.

Likewise Liverpool in the 1980s and Manchester United in the 1990/2000s, for all their style, had players like Souness and Keane who were happy to kick the living excrement out of the opposition on those days when results needed digging out.

The formula for success in football really hasn't changed that much over the years, despite what some of the modernisers might want people to believe. Look what happened to Manchester City without Rodri!

[the_anticlough]

Horrible game. They've just won the exact same game 4 times 1-0. Walsall were worse than us if that's any consolation. The writing was on the wall as soon as they scored, but Walsall did nothing to stop the game drifting to its obvious conclusion.

What price at least 2 of those promoted teams coming straight back down again. Wimbledon for sure, a cast-iron certainty if they lose the young England loanee keeper from Crystal Palace.

[matt_magpie]

We were managed by a wimp, and he had us playing like a girls team. We got everything that we deserved. So a lesson for the new incoming coach to take on board..

Was it any different under LW and IB?

[i961pie]

I guess it means Walsall will be crest fallen and it may benefit us next season.

Speaking of no justice in football, Villa fans must be seething after a major cock up by the ref. How much money has that cost the club?

[KintoreMagpie]

Do feel sorry for Walsall as I would have preferred them to go up out of the finalists. However, I watched the last 20 minutes and concluded that they could have played all night and not scored. I had the same feeling when Notts played at Wimbledon in the 2nd leg of the s-f play off☹️.

[GEZMAN]

Do feel sorry for Walsall as I would have preferred them to go up out of the finalists. However, I watched the last 20 minutes and concluded that they could have played all night and not scored. I had the same feeling when Notts played at Wimbledon in the 2nd leg of the s-f play off☹️.

I dont feel sorry for Walsall fans one iota, the way they were giving it large at Xmas about how soon into the New Year it would take them to get promotion, & then be Champions

[Could'vebeenacontender]

It was thud and blunder really
Little or no quality on display
It was a bit of an ordeal even to watch as a neutral

[nw6pie]

To be fair, we created enough big chances in the first leg to beat Wimbledon comfortably. We only have ourselves to blame for losing, especially with the soft goal we conceded at home.

After two years in L2, I just hope the owners and new director of football understand that you need physicality, athleticism and pace to get out of this division, and to advance any higher. You can have some flair players, but they also need to be able to put a shift in and the balance needs to be right.

I look forward to reading their analysis of the season and what their philosophy is going to be going forwards.

[durhampie]

Was it any different under LW and IB?

No, Williams soon got sussed out after a few games in the EFL, thats why he jumped ship. Birchnall was just a clone of Maynard..

[Elite_Pie]

Not having a go at you specifically OP, but I don't get this mentality. If our team was a bit more streetwise and it got us promoted, we'd applaud them for it.

Football is a physical game, and sometimes you have to be a bit nasty to get a result.

Fair play to them.

It's not so much about being nasty, more about taking advantage of what refs don't seem to punish these days. Blatant shirt pulling and wrestling holds when challenging for a header appear to be allowed if you're a defender, but not an attacker. Rugby tackles in the penalty area seem to be allowed if you're defending, but not if you're attacking. From what I've seen, the opposition do it a lot more than we do.

So should we continue to play nice, or should we join them?