What a great result! I like when we won in a ” dirty way” . Its give a satisfaction like nothing else (in a football i mean What a load of sad bunch of losers those villa and their manager. They get away with a penalty call, kodejia was lieying down several times trying to get a fk and now they are whining about everything after match. Those commentators probably wear villa shirts because so bias with villa they were whole evening. Anyway our defence is made of steel and we were threating them everytime we get the posession. Wzolek really hit a beaty to score. I predict us to eight place and almost lose my faith but where are we now....?
Looking at the stats from the bbc site, we only had 32% of possession, which makes the win even sweeter.
I may be mistaken here but I thought that in the SW match we were out possessed b a similar number. Good thing results don't require that winner has the most possession
I've been saying it for ages that the best way for success in this league is to play your best team week in week out. Start with your best starting Xl. Sean Dyche's Burnley did it for something like 13 games in a row and got promoted. . We've done it for three and it's shown fruition. Ollie kept changing it, Stevie Mac seems to have adopted the successful formula ... keep it simple. Play your best Xl week in week out.
But also the players must stay fit, and must want to play week in week out. I cannot remember his name but over the summer we also recruited a new medical officer as I think our Tone ( or maybe Amit) mentioned the backroom staff were worried about the number of injuries we got not only in the matches but also on the training pitch. We have played the same players because they are fit enough to play, and winning makes them desperate to stay in team (Cousins gets injured, Pawel comes in and makes the position position his own) Last season some ( not all I must admit) of Ollies changes were forced on him by injuries to players, it is not happening so far this season.... If Lynch gets through the approach to Christmas, without his regular month off, I will be voting for the MO as the most influential person at the club...and I will find out his name too
In July Sir Les announced that we had appointed Aaron Harris as head of Physio department he had been at Spurs for 11 years. Dr Ahmed took over as MO.He too was at Tottenham before joining us 2 years ago....he also worked with England... The previous incumbent Dr May left the post in restructuring. Yet another great appointment by Sir Les then..
Villa fans and 'expert' pundits can say what they want but the only way you can describe last nights game is to say... ... we did a proper number on Villa. We had a plan. They underestimated us and thought they were too class before the first kick. Our plan worked. Their cockiness didn't.
Still in a bit of shock really. Really after our start who could have predicted this?. We've even got Grant Hall sat on the bench now ready for when it gets too cold for Lynch. Seriously our defence all four of them are looking solid as..
Nice to hear the old girl in full voice as well last night, HQ is really one of the great grounds under lights and at full volume....
That Dean Smith is a proper genuine whiner isn’t he! Geez... you lost because you didn’t score despite the ‘quality’ of your choice of forwards. Look at yourself Smith and admit you weren’t able to get it done. Maybe his players are too worried the arse-istant coach is busy eyeing up the Villa WaGs. Grealish really should spend less time preening his socks and hair and more time on getting away from players. Have to say I wasn’t too bothered about Villa (as a club), but I’ve taken a real dislike to them now (mostly because of their reaction to last night). Very proud my club ground out a win when they needed too. Takes a real team to do that. Pleased with the impact of Rangel and Cameron (if a bit concerned about Cameron’s stamina). Well done gents. Good to see the pics of the togetherness of the team at the end of the game and how pleased they were to get the result. Very promising indeed.
Finally coming up for air. 7th place of 24, after losing first four games, and it's not even November. Well done you R'ssssssssss!
Just saw the stats on Sky. Villa completed 460 passes to our 163, but for all that possession and all those passes, they hardly created any clear-cut chances and Lumley only had to make one save. Our defensive organisation was superb and the players' fitness levels must be incredible to be able play 3 games in 6 days with the same line-up, when in two of those games the other lot have had the ball most of the time. On Tuesday, Sheffield Wednesday also had a lot of possession but again without creating much, whereas our attacks where incisive, direct and effective. Possession stats don't mean that much.
I know I'm one of his biggest cheerleaders, but I can't agree that Eze was ineffective. Some nice touches first half, including a wonerful flicked pass to Pavel which should have resulted in a penalty. Second half, he held the ball up brilliantly, time after time drawing fouls to take the sting out of Villa. He also worked back to make a five in midfield. I actually thought it was a very mature performance for a 20 year old. Oh and Freeman, as good as he is, needs to pass to him more!!
Rangel is a beast imo. Fantastic commitment considering he's only on loan. Apparently he's spending time with the youngsters, trying to help them improve too. Loved his reaction following that last minute tackle!! Never saw that from the likes of other loan players like Boswanker.