Just thought i would post up my first ever away day in the premier league. Cant help remembering those days out at the likes of Lincoln, Bury, Shrewsbury etc etc. Our tickets were in the Stand opposite the Holte end, and our fans were to our left, approx 3,000 and very vocal. Got there in plenty of time and parked for a Tenner in some blokes garden not far from the ground, made me laugh as he got 6 cars on there in what is a council property !! Made our way into the ground, got our seats, fair mixture of Villa ST holders and people with their youngsters, so thought this would be ok, although we did realise we would have to sit on our hands if we scored. First half, i thought we had the better of it and with a little more luck could have nicked a goal, the locals were very nervous and started slinging the abuse at their players which i took as a good sign, going from the comments around us, this was a game that was supposed to be nailed on for them. Had five or six really nauseous 20 odd year olds behind us and on the whole they all referred to us as little old Cardiff and Sheepshaggers which i also found amusing but as there were lots of young children around i thought the stewards would have said something, shouldn't have worried though, at half time the leader of the paraletic gang, declared the performance of Villa as unacceptable and they all duly retired to the bar never to be seen again. Second half started and we looked under pressure pretty much from the off, and Villa started to take the game to us, and i suppose the rest is history. I read on a different CCFC forum that lots of our fans are concerned that our strikers are not scoring, well i will agree that they are not scoring, however due to our very negative tactics both home and away, our strikers are feeding off of very poor scraps, personally i believe with the right service Faz would score lots of goals and Odem is better off out wide, the game was crying out for Noone to make an appearance but that was not to be. On the whole the Villa fans seemed very relieved to have taken the points and they have all picked up on the Swim away thing, which was amusing. Although the biggest out burst of laughter was reserved for our fans when they started singing 'We will always be blue' everyone around us burst out into rapturous laughter at that ! Overall, i enjoyed the day out, enjoyed parts of the match apart from this set up for a draw mentality, and will be booking to go away for the weekend for the Newcastle game next year. Villa Park is an impressive stadium. Talking to a few of our fans on the way home, and thiers. The general consensus of opinion from our fans was, we have to be more positive, from thier fans, they expect us to stay up comfortably, but they would say that wouldnt they.
I think Noone should have come on for Cowie when we were 1 down. It looks as though Mason is off to Bolton. Gunner seemed to be in an advanced midfield role against Villa. Surely Mason could play that position much better.
Sorry to go off topic isawron, but I'll just comment on Hilts' post. Mason just wouldn't fit in with Malky's strategy so far this season. He's got no chance of a game whilst Malky continues to look for a point rather than go for the three. Far too risky for Malky to play Mason as well as a front runner - we might win a game. The preferred midfield is so defensively biased that when the ball goes forward we take an age to support it. I always thought Gunnar was very astute in going in for the half chance when we were well upfield or set pieces - he's scored plenty of goals that way, but expecting him to play in the hole behind the front man when we are coming off the back foot was a big, big mistake. A midfeld revolving around Cowie, Whitts and Gunnar must be the slowest in the Prem and it shows. Mutch is a better option but may not be the answer on his own. Kimbo needs to get a grip as well. His skills are not in doubt, but he needs to use his team mates far better than he's done recently - he sometimes plays like a one-man band. Quality and pacey mid and/or wide player required in January. What we have at the moment could get us over the line, but we need some insurance. Unfortunately, those sort of policies can be very expensive to take out. Over to you VT.
While Gunnar was given a forward midfield role he still has defensive duties. Joe could certainly do the forward bit and his pace there would be very useful and put the sh1ts up central defenders running at them from deep but he is not built to play defensively and is not known for his tackling/marking skills. If he goes on loan to Bolton I hope he gets good game time and a chance to show Malky he is worthy of a chance back with us - as opposed to being no. 5 in our striker order. By the way, 3 wins and 3 draws in the 6 games McNuggs has played for Bolton. Compare that to 4 draws and 5 losses before. That's a good, positive impact. Still not scored for them though!!! I wonder if he has had any infkuence in trying to get Mason up there?
good post isaw>>>>>>>>nowt worse than a brum lads calling you a sheep shagger is it>>>>>>>theyre voices are fking criminal.
Hey Aber, the accent should be a criminal offence dude, his exact words were (which made me laugh, out loud) 'Errrrr Cum on yow Villa its Cardiff were playin, we should be hammerin these sheepshaggin C**nts' and believe me he was loud and even their lot were gimacing, there was a bloke near us with a 5 year old with him and his face was a picture and he looked straight at us and said sorry for him to us, so at least he had figured out we werent from Villa. MM has got to change the tictacs somewhat, otherwise the price of the ST's is going to start to look expensive in entertainment terms.
If you were sat in the upper tier of that end then that used to be the Family Stand and each adult had to be with a child to get in. If still the same then that bunch of half brained tools shouldn't have been there in the first place. So much for positive stewarding!!!! About 4 years ago my nephew got slung out of there for standing and cheering when Spurs scored. They had a zero tolerance rule then. From the reports it looks like there wasn't much chance of that happening with you on Saturday. Lol!!!
