Tough Afternoon – The Verdict

Martin O’Neill has hailed the display of our defence as they nullified Stoke’s aerial threat – to be fair Stoke did that themselves by failing to hit the target but hey ho.

It was however a typical Villa match now, pointless upfront, with heroic never say die defending as we slowly watch everyone on the pitch drained of energy which no tactical change other than Carew MUST leave the pitch if he starts the match.

Bored of it now. The boos returned although no doubt fans were attacking Gabby again (DOH!) and the few positive comments – and let’s face it a draw against Stokie is not an entire disaster – but it seems most are fed up of watching the same dross, the same tactics, the same changes, the same predictability and it’s just one draw too many, and one idiotic performance too far.

It’s quite funny actually, before the match I’d have certainly taken a point but everything else gets in the way of that mild pleasure.

Speaking on the Official Site following the match O’Neill described it as (another) tough afternoon and was obviously full of praise for our defensive performance.

That is the only real plus, the lads at the back are putting their bodies on the line in order to give us a shot of winning games but surely they must be fed up of seeing us get into the 6 yd box at least 5 times and nobody with a position defining name of ‘striker’ getting on the end of it or even it seems trying to.

Stoke had the chances to win this game, but let’s face facts so did we. We probably had the clearer cut chances as well but again Carew was at half speed and I don’t think I even saw Heskey in the box when the balls were flying in from the wing.

I shudder at the thought that our defence will be too old to carry on by the time we actually sign a striker who can do the job.

Anyway, let’s have some positive spin and remember we are a team full of youngsters who play quick, counter attacking football that are a delight to watch every single time they play.

‘We defended stoutly indeed. The game didn’t have that many clear cut chances. I think a draw was probably a fair result.’

As ever Monny is delighted with the cleansheet and comments:

‘I think when you have not conceded from one of them (big balls from throw ins etc etc wibble) you can say it has been a satisfactory afternoon.’

Right he is to, now if only we could find a striker who turns up and scores we’d be laughing. Then again as we are usually down to at least 9 men for the final 20 minutes as sheer tiredness hits people, it wouldn’t be too bad if we could find some youthful exuberance on the bench but sadly we have no options do we.