The good, the bad, and the incomprehensible…
The good, the bad, and the incomprehensible…
Villa made it six wins in six on Saturday as they beat strugglers Burton Albion in what turned out to be a nail-biting goal-fest by the end. There had been much talk of banana-skins in the days building up to the game and the fact that Burton were kitted out in yellow and black for their visit to Villa Park, kind of reinforced the point. In the finality it turned out to be more Buster Keaton than banana-skin because despite a pair of calamitous mishaps things amazingly ended happily for Villa. Three classy goals and the three points were enough to gloss over the two horrendous errors, and everyone went home happy, even if their hair might still have been standing on end, after Burton’s belated second gift of a goal. If Villa’s solid away performance had suggested Villa were now in a ruthless frame of mind these days, the Burton game created a few nagging doubts.
Things looked a bit pedestrian in the opening minutes of the game, with Burton relying on quick changes of pace to spring their attacks with some decent pass and move, which had Villa scampering to nullify the threat. Akins enjoyed a couple of open opportunities to shoot at the Villa goal. Marvin Sordell was having some success down Villa’s left and we were not looking convincing. Then on the half-hour things changed and from an El Mohamady throw-in Villa worked it across the back line, John Terry found Bjarnason who put in a precision pass to Jack Grealish, who slipped in Snodgrass for a diagonal run infield. The Snodmeister exchanged a wall-pass with Hourihane and then sliced through the Burton defence with a perfectly weighted pass to Adomah, who unselfishly set up Hogan for a tap-in. It was a quality goal of trigonometric precision and delight. Burton were soon in trouble again as Man City loanee Davenport was caught in possession by Hourihane, who exchanged a pass with Grealish and shot straight at goalkeeper Bywater. A poor pass from Davenport was intercepted by Adomah and Villa attacked in numbers. Hogan turned on the edge of the Burton area and produced a rasping shot which Bywater was glad to beat away. A poor Burton clearance failed to relieve the pressure and Villa retained possession but the move finally broke down as a Villa deflection resulted in a goal-kick.
There was no doubting what Nigel Clough had told his team at half-time as Burton picked up the pace noticeably and created themselves a shooting opportunity, when Dyer and Brayford combined down Villa’s right and set up Jamie Allen for a shot from the edge of Villa’s box, but he scuffed it wide of Villa’s post. Burton slowed it down again and worked methodically across the back. Centre-back McFadzean sent a straight pass through midfield to Akpan who couldn’t control the ball and it bounced off him to Bjarnason, who quickly got his head up and sent Snodgrass away. Robbie checked inside and found Grealish in space and Jack flashed a shot past the Burton post with Bywater rooted. Just past the hour there was an outbreak of Villa quality. A Burton incursion down Villa’s right was broken up and Hourihane sent a long ball for Hogan to chase and retrieve. He fed Snodgrass on the touchline who sent the ball infield to Bjarnason who made a diagonal run right and returned the ball to Snodgrass, who jinked past Brayford and clipped in the perfect cross for the unmarked Adomah to head home Villa’s second, at the far post. With twenty-five minutes to go and the quality gap really beginning to show, it just seemed a matter of how many, but little did we know that the madness was about to begin. The referee started it with an outrageously poor decision to book Jack Grealish when he was clearly tripped in the box. The referee did not have the best of angles and if he couldn’t see he was not in a position to make a decision either way. The dubious decision he made just looked like a sympathy vote for the visitors. It certainly upset Villa’s composure because it looked like the culmination of a trend, and the replacement of Snodgrass earlier, with Axel Tuanzebe, looked more precautionary than tactical, as the Snodmeister was getting increasingly frustrated with the decisions he thought were in Burton’s favour. Villa’s disconcerted frame of mind was demonstrated within moments, when El Mohamady incomprehensibly lashed the ball the into the roof of Villa’s net, when under slight pressure from a Burton corner.
Villa came close to restoring their two goal cushion when Hourihane fed Grealish from a short corner out on Villa’s left. Jack made himself some space and clipped the bar with a fine shot from just outside the corner of the Burton penalty area. It was another quality triangulated move which led to Villa’s third goal. A Villa attack broke down when Onomah lost the ball on Villa’s left but Sordell’s attempted pass to Boyce was intercepted by John Terry, who combined with Grealish, and then El Mohamady, who had been moved to the centre-midfield since Tuanzebe had come on. Elmo fed the charging Tuanzebe, who collected the ball in the right-wing position, with El Mohamady calling for a return ball. Young Axel obliged and Ahmed put in the perfect cross which our Jack met with the sweetest volley seen at Villa Park for a long time. With only minutes to go it looked like Villa were home and dry, having scored three classy goals, only marred by a single aberration. But then with the ninety minutes up, Burton, after completing one of their leisurely exchanges across the back, gave the ball to Brayford, who put a perfectly weighted ball through the gap in Villa’s hesitant defence and Liam Boyce tapped home to make it 3-2. The Villa faithful trekked home in a happy glow, delighted with the quality of the goals and six wins on the bounce but were definitely downgrading their team’s chances of making it into the top-two and staying there. News that Cardiff had battered Leeds reinforced that doubt.
Doubts or hubristic over-confidence, the result probably will not make much difference to Villa’s approach to the home game with SHA this Sunday. With the stakes so high and local pride being in jeopardy, it would seem likely that both clubs will take a cautious approach. If the wheels are going to come off, the last thing anyone wants is for them to fall off against the Small Heath foe. With Steve Bruce away on compassionate leave this week, and sympathy and commiserations to him and his family, Colin Calderwood took the pre-match press-conference this week in his absence, and it is hard to imagine a more pragmatic and grounded fellah. He seems incapable of uttering a sentence which is not in the present tense. His praise is qualified but genuine and his general tone is so-far-so-good. No doubt the players will be privately delighted with recent results but I am sure they will be focused on the present task at hand.
Over at St Andrews Steve Cotterill seems to be slowly getting his team organised and recent league results have taken the Blues into the top-third of the form-table. Four wins and a draw in six games can’t be argued with. The blue-nose brethren tell me that they lack enough goal-scorers and the fact that they have cored the fewest goals in the league bears that out. The wheels definitely came off against Huddersfield this week but they defended tenaciously for ninety minutes before the sluice-gates opened. Their win at Sheffield Wednesday looked like it was quite a battle, as Wednesday got reduced to nine men. So it looks like keeping eleven players on the pitch may be an achievement in itself. I presume Jedinak will get a start as Villa’s midfield equaliser and Jack Grealish might be advised to don a pair of shin-pads for this one. A win would sure make for a glorious Sunday night along Whoop-up Drive.
Keep the faith!
