Although I was unable to see the first half, I watched the second. There was no way Villa battered us. They were desperate, towards the end, and pumped a few aerial balls in there. Meat and drink for our two CBs. I thought we coped very well considering the slightly patched up look of the side, and Punch nearly made it 2-0. Any vague comparisons to Leeds Away, last season, that I've seen elsewhere, are way off the mark.
OK, some of his clearances were a bit rash and just went straight up in the air and down causing a lot of uncertainty though. Did well enough I suppose.
He actually did alright. Got a few proper blocks in and headers away. One or two passes went astray, but he put in a shift. Basically, Villa don't have a lot of pace about them, which undoes Jos. Benteke's physicality, he coped with.
Thought Jos was good, added much needed physical presence to back line and didn't do anything wrong really.
The BBC Sports News web site is just as bad, saying it was a blatant dive by JRod, which it obviously was not. I may be sounding a bit paranoic, but the Press simply don't like us and are always looking to shoot us down if they can.
Jos was good for us last season, then had a bad start this season, but so did others. Not saying we don't need better CBs, but am pleased Jos got some game time.
At the end of the season, it will still be 3 points. This just gives them a chance to show other incidents again.
Listening to some of the reasons for Villas plight. One that is given is their lack of experience. Didn't know we were packed with Premiership experience ourselves! Good to get a result! I feel 40 points will be needed this time around. With Reading beginning to pick up some wins now, the bottom of the Premiership is beginning to tighten, Wigan quite capable of getting wins, so someone above us is going to be dragged into the relegation battle. Newcastle, for example must be wondering where their next victory is going to come from.
Their very next game....surely? If they can't even beat Reading at home, or Villa away in their game after that, then they really are in trouble. But even in this poor run of theirs, they've still won the two games which they absolutely should be winning: QPR and Wigan at home. Reading at home also falls into that category for me.
My screen froze at the wrong time, did Shaw commit the foul or was he fouled ? I thought a card was going to be shown, but nothing was
Didn't get to see or listen to the game today as I was stuck down in Bournemouth, but come home to a great result and a dubious penalty apparently. But as (i think) Adkins said, we haven't had any where we should have so it evens itself out Onwards and Upwards!
