A strange game where we got 72% of the possession, oh so many chances and yet ended up with a draw. The vast majority seem to have loved the game as much as I did though.
See the Match stats for Aston Villa 1-1 Derby County here
Match ratings:
Johnstone – 6 – nothing to do for the most part.
Elmo – 7 – worked hard but didn’t have much joy going forward today.
Chester – 8 – composed and untroubled, neat & tidy as usual.
Terry – 8 – little to do, looked assured as ever.
Taylor – 5 – poor for their goal, his ‘injury’ was a blessing to be honest. Just not the same player since the Coleman incident, perhaps unsurprisingly.
Whelan – 8 – excellent again, solid in the middle, got forward well.
Hourihane – 7 – worked hard today, got forward into decent positions, not sure what the hell happened with THAT shot in the second half?
Adomah – 6 – an improvement on the past couple of displays, but seems a little off colour compared with the start of the season and the spell post-Christmas.
Snodgrass – 7 – not his best game, worked hard, looking for openings. Dead ball delivery not his best but didn’t give up.
Grealish – 8 – improved as the game wore on. Always looking to open things up, works well with Onomah and probably the classiest player on the pitch.
Grabban – 8 – looked a bit lost early on, and really should have buried his free header in the first half. Looked much better when he went out left and deserved a goal for his work rate.
Hutton – 8.5 – MOTM for me, worked hard, got forward far more than I remember at any time this season. Looked solid defensively with what little he had to do.
Onomah – 8 – one of his better games for us, a positive influence in forward areas which encouraged Hourihane and Grealish to get into advanced areas more often.
Kodjia – 7 – still looks short of fitness (unsurprisingly) but held the ball up better than Grabban and gave our old friend Curtis Davies a much tougher time. He should be firing on all cylinders by the play-off second leg and final, in which he will score the £140m goal (© Sky). You heard it here first.
Bruce – 8 – set us up well, although better when Hutton came on. Not scared to make early subs in search of goals and can’t blame him that Derby played a 10-0-0 formation and we just couldn’t seem to score (post, bar, Carson, the lot).
Forum thread for the match here…
