Well us front seat sitters got saturated today from rain and hail and did we care? Not one jot.
That was magic, best game I’ve seen down Villa Park in years. We played crisp, clean, passing football. We attacked, we didn’t worry about sideways and backwards, we … I say we, I didn’t actually have to do anything, maybe I should say they? Nah, sod it, WE… the 12th man was in fine voice after all….
where was I before I so rudely interrupted myself? (Imagine having to live with a scatty brain like this? Drives me mad, so no idea how anyone else feels…)
Oh yes, we certainly didn’t have to resort to long ball at all. It was lovely football. Some might say that West Ham were ‘that’ bad, I’d argue you can only play who are in front of you and if we’d not been on our guard, West Ham would have made us pay.
We could have been five up by half time, John Carew had a couple of chances that he – unusually for him I must say – missed and it also looked like he was brought down and that we could have had a penalty. I’ve not seen the replay, it was close whether the foul was in or just outside the box, no matter the ref didn’t give anything at all …! Will watch that with interest.
The atmosphere seemed good down there today, the players and caretaker manager I’m sure didn’t know what to expect reception wise, nor did Randy Lerner I’d suspect. What we needed to do was to get off to a flyer and off to a flyer we got off to! So much different to our first home game last season that is for sure.
The Villa fans, as usual, showed their class, they backed the team and Kevin MacDonald to the hilt and even had a chorus of ‘one Randy Lerner’ which must have been music to his ears. Long way to go this season as we all know and big decisions still to be made but taking a game at a time, today was a joy to watch.
The first goal was by Downing after the very lively Marc Albrighton had a shot saved. Next up none other than Stiliyan Petrov who appeared to have a bit more license to get forward and attack today? Then came the third, this one in the second half, and from a very surprise inclusion. Yup, none other than James Milner. Must say, whether he becomes James Mi£ner or stays at ‘our Milner’ he didn’t let us down today and if you’ve not seen the goal, stay in and watch match of the day. It was very well taken. Oh come on James, don’t go to City and sit on the bench, stay at Villa and be a hero!
All in all… and I apologise I don’t have the match patter with he did this and he did that, I have sort of given up on those types of match reports as you can get them anywhere.. this was a superb day all round. The fans were magnificent, the players looked like they were enjoying themselves on the pitch and Kevin MacDonald could not have dreamt of a better response from his players.
His players? For how long? If he keeps them playing like this and we keep winning… well, who knows?!
Player Ratings
Brad Friedel 8
didn’t put a foot wrong
Stephen Warnock 8
didn’t put a foot wrong… you can see where I’m going with this can’t you?
Richard Dunne 8
solid as you would expect of the Dunney Man.
Ciaran Clarke 8
didn’t look out of place at all
Luke Young 8
SO glad to see him back in the team, lets get him sorted on a new contract and keep him, a proper right back, he even got in an attacking position and nearly scored at one point
Marc Albrighton 9
lovely player, man of the match
Stiliyan Petrov 8
nice goal, great contribution, top notch
James Milner 9
Well, 9 if he is staying, £ if he isn’t!!!!!!!!!!!
Ashley Young 8
looks on form already, watch out PL
Stewart Downing 8
Scored, hit the bar, got forward, looked good.
John Carew – you tell me
Ok, you help me on this one… 6 or is that mean? 7 maybe? Thought Carew played well, got in the right positions but if you are going to be harsh, could only give him 6 out of 10 because he missed three golden opportunities. Others buried their chances today so those misses weren’t as crucial, but if they hadn’t then it would have been different. He would usually get at least one of those chances.
Reo-Coker (85) on for Milner
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Weimann (87) on for Ashley Young
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Manager Rating
Kevin MacDonald 10… perfect start, long may it continue. All the frustrations from MON swept away with hoof ball consigned to the bin?
Food
Had an early call in to have a look at the new healthy menu, the 2 second beer pump and then got a nice sample of a Heinekin poured in two seconds. Will do something on the food etc in the week. Some great improvements I think. Also had a lovely rare beef bap in the Holte Suite. Hmmmm, nice!
