Ah rubbish. 1-2 to them. Good break and Adomah free on the left to slot into the bottom right corner across Smithies.
Lynch struggled to clear when facing goal and they nicked it off him and nearly got a third. I worry that if we go all out they'll catch us on the break and score a couple more.
Just back. 1st half was ours. Just. Through grit and determination because man for man, they were better than us with a few exceptions eg Samba! Haven't seen their pen yet but I'm told it was. Terrible time to give away a penalty. 2nd half def there's and Smithies kept us in it yet again. Brentford lost so minor silver lining. Really hope this is not the start of another ruin that sees us sliding downwards. Enjoy rest of weekend folks.
Not that good today & in patches only, 2nd goal knocked the stuffing out of us & didn’t create much after, they had too much time & space on left hand side, time & time again & paid for it with goal, not much else to say just disappointing.
We were out-thought today as their tactics (pressure on the ball followed by very fast breakaway attacks) worked better than ours at least for the 30 minutes either side of half time and, as usual, we had no real plan B. Luongo's substitution at half time was pivotal IMO as Manning offered very little and the midfield cohesiveness that we rely on disappeared. Shame because we were very good for most of the first half.
As mentioned earlier, the seats were lovely, and my son managed not to swear too much in the family zone where there are very few children. Villa’s players are more expensive and bigger than ours, and they didn’t come for a point, which was refreshing. We started ok, with Baptiste and Robinson in particular playing well. Robinson is a good player. After our scrambled goal Villa upped the pressure and the equaliser was coming. I would have been disappointed if that penalty had not been given for us. Second half Villa were much the better team. The commitment and willingness from our lot never faltered, plenty of last ditch tackles etc, but the shape, always vague, went and there was very little control. Smith fashioned two half chances but otherwise won little. Really need real wingers if you are going to play a lump in the middle. Some basic errors in ball control (no guesses who the major culprit was) made us look slow compared to a much sharper and crisper Villa. Someone needs to do a bit of 101 coaching - tell Sylla to come towards the ball instead of waiting for it to arrive and allowing the defender to get it, and Smith to head back in the direction the ball came from when he has a free(ish) header rather than the more difficult option of glancing to the far corner. Stuff we learned by the age of 12. Pretty typical championship game probably, I enjoyed myself despite the result which was fair. Thank you for your hospitality Ninesy. Apologies to those I missed in the Defectors (we were there until after 1.30,honest) and to Stainsey ( we were on the way to the C&S when you bailed for the club shop), but these did set up a rather amazing encounter in the White Horse.
Our losing Luongo certainly changed the game. If we had gone in one up at half-time it wouldn't have been undeserved, but they fully deserved their win by the end. Surely, when they have a wardrobe at CB, we should have been looking to play around it.
Agree about Luongo's loss. Not having a go at Manning but we lost a steadying, creative influence in midfield after the break, the team began to look increasingly ragged and with unclear purpose. We may be in for a tough time in the run up to Xmas
