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Aston Villa v Ipswich Town



Saturday 11th February 2017 – 15:00


Villa Park







Opening Thought – Jamma

Well I think we can all be agreed that Saturday was a big improvement on recent performances and results. After our season had taken another downward turn with the abject display against Derby, optimism was in short supply ahead of our latest clash with one of the play-off contenders. Pre-match predictions were almost unanimous in giving the Blues no chance of anything better than a defeat against Reading. And so it came as a pleasant surprise that it was hard to tell which of the two sides was eyeing up promotion and which was nervously looking over their shoulder at a potential relegation battle. Rather than sit back and allow the Royals to set the tempo with their passing game, Town got on the front foot straightaway, winning the second ball and bossing possession, as well as working some decent early openings. The breakthrough that our positive play had deserved arrived just before half time, with Emyr Huws, one of two impressive debutants on the day, bursting forward and releasing Tom Lawrence, who twisted the defence inside out before converting with a venomous shot off the bar. If the Blues’ opener had been just reward for a rampant first period, the manner of Reading’s equaliser was unfortunate to say the least, space opening up to present Jordon Mutch with a simple finish on his own debut. Even in the wake of this setback, we continued to press forward, and retook the lead with Lawrence’s second goal, this time from an exquisite David McGoldrick through-ball. The Royals rallied, and began to show glimpses of their fluid style of play. Steven Taylor, another standout performer on debut, produced a vital goal-line clearance from a wicked Garath McCleary cross, before a speculative long-range effort from Jordan Obita found the back of the net. While few could deny that Ipswich had deserved more than a point, the warm applause at the final whistle backed up the impression of a corner having been turned.

It’s nice to be talking about a strong team performance for a change, as opposed to another instance of Tom Lawrence single-handedly salvaging something for us with his inspirational play, not to mention goals. But it hasn’t escaped anyone’s notice that the Welsh Wizard (move over, Gareth Bale! ) has now scored an incredible eight of our last nine goals in all competitions. Such has been his influence that there no longer seems to be a debate over who is Ipswich’s greatest ever loan signing. On Saturday, it wasn’t just his latest Goal of the Season candidate that defined his contribution, he was also close to laying on two assists, with good chances for Taylor and McGoldrick, as well as coming within a whisker of claiming a hat-trick. But it was arguably his confidence on the ball and his willingness to take players on that had the biggest impact on the team. From looking scared of their own shadows against the Rams, Lawrence’s teammates seemed to discover a new-found bravery in possession which resulted in a far more assured passing display. Saturday proved that you don’t have to have a 6-foot striker of the ilk of Daryl Murphy playing up front if you are prepared to play to feet. This made such a refreshing change for all of us who have become fed up of watching the ball punted aimlessly upfield in the vague hope that Brett Pitman will somehow get on the end of it. The acid test, of course, will be whether we can carry this into our next matches. Having gone a club-record 26 games in the league without recording the same result back-to-back, now would be a very good time to buck that particular trend as well, against a stuttering Aston Villa…



The Opposition – Aston Villa







Aston Villa Football Club were formed in March 1874, by members of the Villa Cross Wesleyan Chapel in Handsworth, which is now part of Birmingham.  
 
Aston Villa's first match was against the local Aston Brook St Mary's Rugby team. As a condition of the match, the Villa side had to agree to play the first half under rugby rules and the second half under football rules. 
 
After moving to the Wellington Road ground in 1876, Villa soon established themselves as one of the best teams in the Midlands, winning their first honour, the Birmingham Senior Cup, in 1880.  
 
The club won their first FA Cup in 1887.  
 
Aston Villa were one of the dozen teams that competed in the inaugural Football League in 1888, with one of the club's directors, William McGregor, being the league's founder. Aston Villa emerged as the most successful English club of the Victorian era, winning no fewer than five league titles and three FA Cups by the end of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1897, the year Villa won the double, they moved into their present home, the Aston Lower Grounds.  
 
Aston Villa won their sixth FA Cup in 1920. Soon after, though, the club began a slow decline that led to Villa, at the time one of the most famous and successful clubs in world football, being relegated to the Second Division for the first time in 1936.  
 
Like all English clubs, Villa lost seven seasons to the Second World War, and that conflict brought several careers to a premature end.  
 
Aston Villa's first trophy for 37 years came in the 1956–57, season when they won a then record seventh FA Cup. 
 
The team struggled in the league, though, and were relegated two seasons later, due in large part to complacency. However, Villa returned to the top-flight in 1960 as Second Division Champions. The following season, Aston Villa became the first team to win the Football League Cup.  
Villa were relegated for the third time in 1967.  
 
The following season, the fans called for the board to resign, as Villa finished 16th in the Second Division. With mounting debts and Villa lying at the bottom of Division Two, and after much speculation, control of the club was bought by London financier Pat Matthews. However, new ownership could not prevent Villa from being relegated to the Third Division for the first time at the end of the 1969–70 season.  
 
However, Villa gradually began to recover and in the 1971–72 season they returned to the Second Division as Champions. 
 
In 1974, the club won the League Cup and, at the end of the 1974–75 season, Villa returned to the First Division and into Europe.  
 
Villa were back among the elite and this culminated in a seventh top-flight league title in 1980–81.  
 
In the 1981–82 season, Villa won the European Cup with a 1–0 victory over Bayern Munich in Rotterdam. The following season, Villa were crowned European Super Cup winners, beating Barcelona in the final. This marked a pinnacle, though, and Villa's fortunes declined sharply for most of the 1980s, culminating in relegation in 1987. This was followed by promotion the following year and a runners-up position in the First Division in the 1989–90 season. 
  
Villa were one of the founding members of the Premier League in 1992, and finished runners-up to Manchester United in the inaugural season. For the rest of the nineties, however, Villa went through three different managers and their league positions were inconsistent, although they did win two League Cups and regularly achieved UEFA Cup qualification.  
 
Villa reached the FA Cup final in 2000 but lost to Chelsea in the last game to be played at the old Wembley Stadium.  Again Villa's league position continued to fluctuate under several different managers. After 23 years as chairman, and single biggest shareholder, Doug Ellis finally decided to sell his stake in Aston Villa due to ill health. After much speculation, it was announced that the club was to be bought by American businessman Randy Lerner, owner of NFL franchise the Cleveland Browns. 
 
The first cup final of the Lerner era came in 2010, when Villa were beaten in the League Cup final.   
 
At the end of the 2011–12 season, Villa finished in 16th place, only just above the relegation zone.   
 
On 28 February 2012, the club announced a financial loss of £53.9 million. Lerner put the club up for sale on 12 May 2014, with an estimated value of £200 million.  
 
In the 2014–15 season, Aston Villa scored just 12 goals in 25 league games, the lowest in Premier League history, and Paul Lambert was sacked on 11 February 2015. Tim Sherwood succeeded him, and saved Aston Villa from relegation while also leading them to the 2015 FA Cup final. 
 
Sherwood was sacked in the 2015–16 season, as was his successor Rémi Garde.  
 
Eric Black took temporary charge of the team, but was not able to prevent Villa from being relegated for the first time since 1987.  
 
On 2 June 2016, Roberto Di Matteo was announced as the club's new manager, before being replaced by Steve Bruce on 12 October.



The Gaffer – Steve Bruce







Past Match - Video Highlights - Trev

A trip down Memory Lane, when we actually played football as it should be played:





Media Watch - K L Blue

Fans react to the Reading game:

http://footballleagueworld.co.uk/that-p ... h-reading/

Leeds fans react to Tom Lawrence:

http://the72.co.uk/74782/leeds-united-f ... rformance/

Loan watch - Benyu gets first senior goal:

http://www.twtd.co.uk/ipswich-town-news/31123/

U18s doing well:

http://www.twtd.co.uk/ipswich-town-news/31122/



Form Guide




Aston Villa Last 5 Matches – Currently in 14th place with 36 points



Nottingham F. 2-1 Aston Villa

Brentford FC 3-0 Aston Villa

Aston Villa 2-2 Preston NE

Wolverhampton 1-0 Aston Villa

Tottenham 2-0 Aston Villa




Ipswich Last 5 Matches - Currently in 16th place with 36 points



Ipswich Town 2-2 Reading FC

Ipswich Town 0-3 Derby County

Preston NE 1-1 Ipswich Town

Huddersfield 2-0 Ipswich Town

Lincoln City 1-0 Ipswich Town



Fixtures of Interest



LEEDS UTD VS CARDIFF CITY

NORWICH VS NOTT. FOREST

PRESTON NE VS BRENTFORD

QPR VS HUDDERSFIELD

WOLVES VS NEWCASTLE



THE DON CUP

I'll get the captions scored for next week, guys...... Work commitments and no reception in remote areas, etc..

Try this, though:





Match Referee – Tim Robinson





Final Thought - Bluemike

It's so easy to get carried away on the back of one good performance or one good result, and I suppose I am as guilty as anyone of doing just that at times, but the feeling I had walking away from Portman Road on Saturday having outplayed Reading was one I had not had for a fair while. Finally, it felt like there was actually hope for the remainder of the season, a belief that this Town team can actually play and compete with the best the Championship has to offer. OK, we may not have won, but on points it was a comfortable victory. Sometimes you don't get what you deserve in football and that was a classic example. No doubt the powers that be at Reading will tell us they were poor on the day. Well sorry but sometimes it is down to how the opposition plays that determines how their opponents play and for me this was the case. We actually looked like a "team" rather than a group of individuals, we looked like we cared for the shirt at last. A bit of pride was restored for me anyway.

Plenty has been said about how Marcus Evans has let Mick and the fans down where investing in the team is concerned, and that may or may not be the case, but I have always maintained it has nothing to do with what you spend but more how you spend it. The early signs on our new signings/loans look very encouraging indeed. Steven Taylor fitted in at the back straightaway, while Diagouraga and Huws both look very good midfield finds. A guy who takes a paycut to come here of all places tells me all I need to know about the player. He wants to be here, and his debut was top notch, very impressive. A couple of these guys may be loans but I doubt we would have too much competition to sign them up at the season’s end should things go well. No, for me money is not the answer. All week I have been reading how Wolves paid £13 million on Helder Costa. He played for Wolves on Saturday as they went down to the mighty Burton Albion. Big spending guarantees nothing. It's finding the right players and blending them. Hopefully we have done just that although I am fully aware that one swallow does not make a summer.

I have not been to Villa Park since 1981 so I am looking forward very much to this weekend’s game. I have renewed hope that if we play as we did against Reading we may have a squeak of a chance of a point. After all, they are not much better off than us in terms of points and league placing. With any luck, we will stick with the same line-up and go for it as opposed to trying to keep it tight and nick a point. We are now halfway through the difficult eight-game run that we have all been worried about and, while we may not have won any of the first four, we have drawn at Preston and against Reading when we should really have won them both. Maybe we are not as far away as we think we are. The crowd got behind the boys on Saturday so let’s continue with that instead of talking about childish protests and see where it takes us. Those five wins we need will be well within our grasp. COYBs



ASTON VILLA 1 IPSWICH TOWN 1

I didn't comment after the Reading game, but it was certainly a great improvement for many reasons.

I felt that the new additions all did well; nothing spectacular, just solid. Taylor had a good game but I still felt Berra looked shaky when trying to cover out wide.

In midfield, Diagouraga and Huws showed that it is possible to tackle (unlike Bru) and move the ball forward quickly (unlike Skuse). Nothing spectacular, but solid.

In fairness to Skuse, he was having a good game until he got injured - I think when he made an excellent defensive tackle. But without him I believe we moved the ball more quickly and effectively.

When I saw the team selection I was worried; not just because of 3 at the back which I still think will work better with Smith in place of Berra - but because I assumed Lawrence would play behind McGoldrick. In fact they both played up front almost side by side, relatively deep and it worked. both can hold the ball and run at opponents so they can play in a deeper role. It was unfortunate that McGoldrick's first touch was poor when Lawrence put him through as we should have been 3-1 up.

Perhaps the most positive thing was when I looked at the team after 70 minutes, MM could have substituted any of a number of players who looked knackered. Not just those short on match fitness, to a man they had worked bloody hard and it showed. I guess the goals gave them confidence and they were starting to move for each other.

Can we do it again? I hope so. I just hope MM doesn't try to change the team to negate an opposition who are on a poor run. I just worry about the left side of our defence. I'll settle for a 1-1- draw.

Town to win this. 2-1

Andym wrote:I didn't comment after the Reading game, but it was certainly a great improvement for many reasons.

I felt that the new additions all did well; nothing spectacular, just solid. Taylor had a good game but I still felt Berra looked shaky when trying to cover out wide.

In midfield, Diagouraga and Huws showed that it is possible to tackle (unlike Bru) and move the ball forward quickly (unlike Skuse). Nothing spectacular, but solid.

In fairness to Skuse, he was having a good game until he got injured - I think when he made an excellent defensive tackle. But without him I believe we moved the ball more quickly and effectively.

When I saw the team selection I was worried; not just because of 3 at the back which I still think will work better with Smith in place of Berra - but because I assumed Lawrence would play behind McGoldrick. In fact they both played up front almost side by side, relatively deep and it worked. both can hold the ball and run at opponents so they can play in a deeper role. It was unfortunate that McGoldrick's first touch was poor when Lawrence put him through as we should have been 3-1 up.

Perhaps the most positive thing was when I looked at the team after 70 minutes, MM could have substituted any of a number of players who looked knackered. Not just those short on match fitness, to a man they had worked bloody hard and it showed. I guess the goals gave them confidence and they were starting to move for each other.

Can we do it again? I hope so. I just hope MM doesn't try to change the team to negate an opposition who are on a poor run. I just worry about the left side of our defence. I'll settle for a 1-1- draw.

Andy, that is the exact point I have been trying to get through to people, up until Skuse went off they had hardly been in our half, it is no coincidence that soon after the injury and change they finally began to encroach into our half and had a attempt or two, it was a very good tackle which Skuse made in getting injured, I don't get this "oh we were much better when useless Skuse went off" opinion because we weren't, we were decent from start to finish.

What did you think of Ward when he came on as many fans are saying how well he played, I must admit I didn't really see anything to get overly excited about, again steady if unspectacular.

This has 1-1 written all over it.... So I've got to go 2-1 to town

Caption - match ticket £30, travel to the ground £25, buying replica shirt £40, realising you meant to support West Ham... Priceless

Or slightly more offensive caption - the look of regret the morning after when you can still smell your sister....

I so hope we go with the same starting line up and same offensive tactics, if Skuse is unfit I suppose Grant Ward is as good as anything to replace him.

Villa have not won a game since Boxing day so we should not be afraid of them for sure and it is a bonus having Jack Grealish suspended. Clearly the dangers are the front Two in Kodija & Hogan, bot costing bloody millions, Hogan has been spouting off about how he would like a goal on his home debut so lets keep the mouth quiet.

Play like we did saturday and at least a point is there for the taking, raise it a tad more and Three points could even be ours. They are as short on confidence as we are so lets give it a real go.

CAPTION...." I do not look like Jasper f**king Carrott with Alopecia FFS " !!!!

Anyone who has traveled to this fixture may recognize Witton as one of the more uninspiring, bland areas of all Birmingham, so can only hope whatever occurs inside the stadium, is more entertaining than the immediate vicinity outside it.

Voted for a home win. Maybe they started as something of promotion favorites back in August but haven't met with initial expectation. Nonetheless they possess some players of merit and the venue should prove the deciding factor. We ourselves have got some players that can make a difference, but it's going to take a team effort to reward games of this nature, not single individuals.

Aston Villa 2 Ipswich 0

Caption Contest:

"A classic case study example of ..... 'I am out of f**king ideas syndrome'"

Caption: Is that sh*t I can smell on my fingers.

Caption Comp : G&B losses bet with the missus.

Enjoyable preview.

Loved the highlights from 1981. Made me laugh though from the comments from Trev - "when we actually played football as it should be played " - because if you look at those highlights there was serious long ball stuff going on (Warky's up-and-under for the first goal" especially ) ... maybe not the best example to promote the nostalgic passing football that we believe we always had. Loved Gatesy's acrobatic celebrations after his goal - who needs Lomana Lua Lua's backflips, when you have Gatesy's roly-poly's.

Sad moment at the end of that clip when you see the Town players celebrate the victory as if they knew they had won the league with that victory.

Villa 1 : ITFC 1.

Caption:

Villa fan thinking: "I'll f**king kill that barber !!! Told him to give me a haircut to grace a football stadium ... and he gives me a Steve McClaren!!!! I've not only got a hair island ... I've got a peninsular as well !!! "

bluemike wrote:
What did you think of Ward when he came on as many fans are saying how well he played, I must admit I didn't really see anything to get overly excited about, again steady if unspectacular.

I agree. He did a good job, particularly as I think of him as a wide player and he had to fill in centrally quite a bit. But it's not his natural position. I wouldn't play him there every week. For once I agree with MM...it's hard to fit him in the team if we play wingbacks.

I'm hoping the Reading game was a turning point, and we'll put in a similar display at Villa. I'm expecting a hard fought draw, but I wouldn't be surprised if we win. Our new signings certainly 'seem' like the spark we've needed.

Villa 1 v 1 ITFC

Caption: How to contain a sick-burp...Cover mouth, Pinch nostrils....Swallow...mmm, yummy!

I'm thinking a draw here 1 - 1

Caption. "Now who the hell did I pick for the defence"

Nice preview as always...... and all seems upbeat after Reading. Hopefully they don't slink back to being unbelievably pish again.

Very surprised if ITFC actually win this. Coming away with a point would be respectable in my opinion. 4-0 Villa. Or 1-1. Not a feckin clue........ check out 16th position in prediction league.

Ref:

Player: FOUL REF, MUST BE!
Ref: Err, yeah, maybe, ...... I'll just go ask my buddy over on the touchline.

Both the Reading and U-23's against Watford were good performances, providing glimpses of hope to build on. The newbies all seem to be offering something positive, including pace and a bit of quality, and have given the place a much needed lift. By no means getting carried away, but Aston Vanilla provides an opportunity to show some consistency in performance, and ratchet up individuals' confidence levels that a good one brings.

Going for a 1-1.

Caption comp:

With the reality of supporting a sh*t team sinking in, all he really wants is his Mum and that little blue security blanket. OR

Sniff test time - definitely animal not human!

Caption
Hey Berra, stop calling that Villa fan Vile. He’s not in a good place at the moment.. And Billy no mates isn’t acceptable either Merlin.

Vile 0 Town 9

I have a sneaky feeling we are going to win 1-2

Caption: hmmm....I really should go back to the barbers for a refund

I hope Mile Jedinak is still out as he seems to be the glue that sticks it all together for them even if he is getting on a bit now.

Villa 2 Town 1

Caption: Who was the tw*t who told me that watching the Villa on a Saturday afternoon was 100 times better than going shopping with the missus?

Caption Comp: Scampi flavoured Nik Naks or is that the Wife`s ....?

BLUEBLOOD wrote:Caption Comp: Scampi flavoured Nik Naks or is that the Wife`s ....?

Town to win 3-1.

Villa fans stage mass protest after another defeat.

Ipswch haven't beaten villa since 94 & have a good home record but if we play like we did against Reading then who knows..cant remember the last win we had..hope its today.

Once again I think it will come down to the 11 that are picked and the tactics employed.
Last week there were some very good signs by all accounts - but it worries me that there are now more players to choose from and that will encourage MM to constantly make changes to the 11. I suspect he will still pick his favourites if they are available.

Villa 3 - Ipswich 0

Just arrived at ground, bloody freezing so time to go and get some grub and stay in the warm until near kickoff.

Shed on tour wrote:Just arrived at ground, bloody freezing so time to go and get some grub and stay in the warm until near kickoff.

Lets hope the Boys give you something to jump up and down for to keep you warm.

In the Witton Arms, omg f**king dump !!!

have seen the team now, and am very pleased - the only weak link is Berra (and that's a really weak link).

Think now we might just nick this........

Villa 1 - Ipswich 2