Aston Villa F.C. v Derby County F.C.

[jimbo jones]

1-0 Boro 

[Curtains]

Boro 1 up against Millwall

[ram93]

Said before kick off is I’d take a point and I stick to that. However to defend for majority of the game and particularly in the second half and expect to still win is a joke. So frustrating watching us do this because you can see it coming. When we then manage to get the ball the guy on the ball has no options because no one wants to move for it as they’ve been chasing it for the last however many minutes.

still positive result and on to Barnsley 

[WharfedaleRam]

12 minutes ago, ramant62 said:

Not gonna be that simple though. Millwall usually do good at Boro and could well win, meaning all three of us will need to win next sunday to be in playoffs.

And Millwall will lose out on goal difference.........shame!

[McRainy]

51 minutes ago, 1977 Ram Raider said:

Take note of Preston where did they come from.

Lancashire 

[Mafiabob]

Curtis and Tom were men of the match..... 

[Millenniumram]

Just now, Mafiabob said:

Curtis and Tom were men of the match..... 

Curtis is the best defender to pull on that shirt in my lifetime, no question. Another absolutely rock solid performance, we robbed hull of him and the hudd.

[Ruud Aralliss]

17 minutes ago, Mr Tibbs said:

I don't think we sat back, we just didn't take any care of the ball and that means you're defending more than you should have to. It's not sustainable and it proved that it wasn't. 

We do seem to give the ball away unnecessarily when we’re under the cosh, a little bit more composure and I think we could’ve rode a 0-1 out. Still it’s still in our hands and it could’ve been a trickier last game so ........

[PistoldPete2]

59 minutes ago, Cam the Ram said:

It's a very good point but a little worrying ahead of the play offs (if we make it). If we manage to take a lead into the 2nd leg I really hope we don't try and just defend it for the whole game like we did the 1-0 lead today

Nothing wrong with defending a 1-0 lead away from home.. maybe w ecoudl have done  a better job of it tho. For those who wonder why we donty play vydra and palmer in the same team, i think we saw the answer today .. they both kept losing the ball, and Villa kept coming back at us. Odd choices as subs when we were 1-0 up I thought. 

[lukedcfc]

Vydra now level on goals with grabban, another incentive for our best players to perform against Barnsley. 

[BramcoteRam84]

Great result today!! We are what we are and we have what we have. Rowett mentioned Boro and Cardiff took it out of them and didn’t have the energy for that today, early in second half he knew we would have to defend for our lives. Even though we rode our luck, we still had chances to kill the game. 

Dont think we will bottle the last game, think we’ll win it. But looks like it will be Fulham which will be extremely difficult over 2 games.

[Cam the Ram]

12 minutes ago, PistoldPete2 said:

Nothing wrong with defending a 1-0 lead away from home.. maybe w ecoudl have done  a better job of it tho. For those who wonder why we donty play vydra and palmer in the same team, i think we saw the answer today .. they both kept losing the ball, and Villa kept coming back at us. Odd choices as subs when we were 1-0 up I thought. 

I can understand that we were just trying to counter attack, but it got to the point where our defence had no breaks between Villa attacks whatsoever. And this wasn't just a 5 or 10 minutes spell by Villa, it was for 20 minutes of the first half and 35-40 minutes of the 2nd. I think everyone could see the Villa goal was coming, but we continued with the same game plan instead of pushing the defence up the pitch a little and trying to keep hold of the ball more

[PistoldPete2]

Just now, Cam the Ram said:

I can understand that we were just trying to counter attack, but it got to the point where our defence had no breaks between Villa attacks whatsoever. And this wasn't just a 5 or 10 minutes spell by Villa, it was for 20 minutes of the first half and 35-40 minutes of the 2nd. I think everyone could see the Villa goal was coming, but we continued with the same game plan instead of pushing the defence up the pitch a little and trying to keep hold of the ball more

Our midfield isnt good enough.. villa have so many options in midfield. We certainly lost the midfield battle but defence was good, and we had our chances on the break too. Disappointed with both palmer and vydra when they came on though.

[1977 Ram Raider]

24 minutes ago, Lambchop said:

Lancashire 

Very good, put that on a plate for you there.

[Cam the Ram]

1 minute ago, PistoldPete2 said:

Our midfield isnt good enough.. villa have so many options in midfield. We certainly lost the midfield battle but defence was good, and we had our chances on the break too. Disappointed with both palmer and vydra when they came on though.

The subs really didn't help today. Unless he was knackered or carrying a knock (didn't appear so), I don't understand why he took Lawrence off as he was the only player willing to keep hold of the ball. I don't have a clue what the thinking was with Pearce coming off for Hanson. And I personally would have took off Jerome rather than Weimann. Mind you, it's easy for me to say in hindsight

[McRainy]

2 minutes ago, 1977 Ram Raider said:

Very good, put that on a plate for you there.

Sorry, couldn't resist. 

[lrm14]

6 minutes ago, Cam the Ram said:

I can understand that we were just trying to counter attack, but it got to the point where our defence had no breaks between Villa attacks whatsoever. And this wasn't just a 5 or 10 minutes spell by Villa, it was for 20 minutes of the first half and 35-40 minutes of the 2nd. I think everyone could see the Villa goal was coming, but we continued with the same game plan instead of pushing the defence up the pitch a little and trying to keep hold of the ball more

It's hard to counter when the midfield and defence give the ball away at every opportunity. There's nothing Gary can do to make certain players pass better.

[Sexydadbod]

2 minutes ago, lrm14 said:

It's hard to counter when the midfield and defence give the ball away at every opportunity. There's nothing Gary can do to make certain players pass better.

He can coach them though can’t he to improve their passing? Of course players have limitations but that’s what  coaches are there for. When McClaren came back last season, Johnson and Pearce especially improved with their passing(although admittedly were still not great). 

[Cam the Ram]

Just now, lrm14 said:

It's hard to counter when the midfield and defence give the ball away at every opportunity. There's nothing Gary can do to make certain players pass better.

I think the problem there was because the gap between the defenders/midfielders and Jerome was so huge. They got the ball, looked up and there were 3 or 4 Villa players between them and Jerome, so they could either muck around with it near our box or hoof it and they obviously chose the latter. We needed either the defence to push up or for Vydra and Palmer to be running into the channel like Nugent normally does. Mind you, I'm no football manager and doing that could have left us more open and ended up with us losing rather than coming away with a draw, who knows 

[lrm14]

3 minutes ago, McLovin said:

He can coach them though can’t he to improve their passing? Of course players have limitations but that’s what  coaches are there for. When McClaren came back last season, Johnson and Pearce especially improved with their passing(although admittedly were still not great). 

I presume he has been coaching them. The passing issues today weren't to do with the system or coaching however, we were misplacing very simple balls for a lot of the second half.

As someone mentioned earlier, it might have been a game too far for a couple of players who ran themselves ragged against Boro and Cardiff. That probably explains why Gary decided to have us sit so deep, with getting out quickly being difficult due to fatigue.