Heartbreaking stuff once more from Aston Villa, writes Villa blogger Gregg Williams.
Why wasn’t I sitting comfortably at 4-1? Because we always seem to have it in us to throw away games like this.
The turning point was the suicidal introduction of Harewood. What were you thinking Martin?
His brain-dead challenge for the penalty was unforgivable and his inability to retain possession cost us badly.
He wasn’t even chasing down the ball and putting pressure on the defenders, which is totally unacceptable.
The loud cries of consternation from Villa fans when he signed are now being replaced with cries of derision from opposition supporters.
I’m no Thierry Henry but at least i’d have put in some serious running at the end, in my FC Joker days that was the least that was expected of me, and to be honest I don’t think Harewood could have got in our University football team, not even ahead of Sir Slice-a-lot!
Are there any positives?
Well we scored some goals away from home, which is a first for this season.
If we’d been 4-1 down and come back to 4-4 we’d have been happy, we got the same number of points doing it this way.
It was a great goal by Gabby. Hopefully we’ve also seen Harewood in a Villa shirt for the last time, because quite frankly I’d rather we play the kids in future.
Sorry Martin, but big Marlon was a gamble that just doesn’t look like coming off.
Villa fans, what do you think? Have your say below.
31 Comments
Oh dear, oh dear! Typical Villa, so close to going 5th in the league. Lets hope Marlon plays every week………….
The Honey Moster should never play again for the Villa, can’t jump, can’t run, can’t hold the ball up, can’t pass! When he attempted to hold the ball up by their corner flag when it was still 4-3 he absolutely just booted it out of play. I think that was his attempt to win a throw in off an opposite leg. PATHETIC! That loss of posession eventually led to Spuds equaliser. Villa let you down so many times.
harewood always looked a really bad signing before he kicked a ball, and it was very clearly proved last night. this lad is no premiership player, he has a dreadful first touch, he never looks up when running with the ball and as for goalscoring he couldn’t hit land if he fell out of a plane. he cost us 2 points last night with that pathetic challenge on darren bent, surely martin o’neill can now see what a bad player he got, if you want to compete with teams for a place in europe we cant carry players like harewood.
As soon as Harewood & Petrov came on, it all went wrong for me. The midfield just disappeared in to thin air and the lack of assurance from these two just added to the panic. Will someone tell Marlon that holding a ball up by the corner flag, means exactly that! Not just getting bored after two seconds & wellying it into touch! Stupid! Martin O’Neil is right, we have got a long way to go. One thing is for sure though - we don’t have anything near a quality ’squad’ yet. Still, better than 2 years ago, eh?
Personally, i am not a fan of Harewood, but having watched the match last night i think he is being used as a bit of a scapegoat.
I thought ONeil made a bigger blunder in taking off Gardner who was protecting the fullback well. When Petrov came on he offered nothing defensively and little going forward, yes Harewood didnt play well, but he is a striker and at the point he was introduced all the play was in Villas half.
It was a great game to watch though, nearly as entertaining as the Baggies!!!
All the best.
i think harewood cost us the game with his foul simple as that petrov didn`t do anything wrong,but i thought it was a needless sub when gardner was playing so well.
We do have a quality squad its the same one that rolled chelsea over we just need to stop making mistakes.And come on now lets not be silly two years ago we wouldn`t have scored 4 at white hart lane we will be fine this season when we settle.
1 MARLON Harewood Theres only 1 Marlon Harewood 1 Marlon Harewood Theres only 1 Marlon Harewood! hahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahhaahaha
that should shut the polt end up!!
Marlon,Marlon he is such a donkey, not only was the penalty a suicide moment for us within the match, he then attempted to keep possesion by smashing the ball out of play, if i wasnt nearly in tears by his previous cock up i would of been in fits of laughter, we desperately need the likes of a Defoe in the January window, on the plus side 4 goals at white heart lane and gabby looked good leading the line up front it loogs good for the weekend.
harewood is not fit to wear the claret and blue he done a really stupid tackle for the penalty,he didnt run he didnt do anything really get rid f him january before he makes villa more of a laughing stock than it already is
We the long suffering villa fans should be used to going into work and being the butt of all footy jokes - i live in london were every one supports man-u or liverpool and my phone did not stop ringing at 4-4 but hey i am villa for life and used to being let down by villa over the last 10yrs
dear martin o’neal please buy players that can do more than put there foot through the ball its horrible to watch
I could not belive Harewoods inpetitude last night, I always give a player the benfit of the doubt and see how he settles, however Harewood is not good enough.
Too see him give away that penalty was just the last straw, he didnt run, close down and was a general lazy player.
I sit in the corner of the Holte and will for the first time ever be giving one of our players grief when he warms up.
Harewood should be looking at the way both Gabby and Luke played and copying them.
pls o’niell pls get the bench for harewood he doesn’t show any potentian as strikers and poor penalty let team down,
Midfield seems to be a real problem
Don’t you thing Reo-Coker isn’t playing anything like what you’ll expect from an England U21 captain? Where’s this box to box player (the new Ian Taylor)??
With Petrov that’s a lot of investment that isn’t paying off at the moment……
I can understand the feeling about Harewood last night, it was a ridiculous challenge, but lets not use hime as the scapegoat. I would ask the following:
How many times did we put more than 3 passes together?
How many times did we give the ball away (needlessly)?
When 4-1 up why did we surrender two thirds of the pitch and allow Spurs the freedom to attack? They had to go for the game so by keeping the pressure on there was the prospect of 2 or even 3 more goals.
I think that for once MON got it tactically so very wrong.
plz sum1 wak marlon over the head he looks brain dead i thought gabby was thick but marlon doesnt hav a clue
Believe it or not, Harewood actually gets paid 20/30/40K a week to jog around and generally look poor. If you put that much effort into your job, you’d be picking up a P45 pretty quickly. Where’s the reality in that for football players.Most of ‘em just haven’t got a clue how lucky they are and what they owe the paying fans in terms of effort and an attempt at a performance.
add john carew to the eleven that started last night that gives us twelve good players. Where is our strength in depth
I was there and was nervous all night - bringing off moore for Harewood at 4-1 up surprised me tactically - surely Osbourne would have been a better replacement, shoring up the midfield and defencing our lead. Fun evening though and a lot better than when they beat us 5-1. Remember ’show us the way to hammer Villa?’
being made scapegoat, why does petrov get away with not making a tackle, and reocoker? I thought Barry was poor aswell along with mellberg. Moore may aswell have been sitting at home in brum watching it on the box for his efforts. Harewood is an easy target for conceeding a penalty, nothing more. What about the ref that completely bottled the stonewall penalty on gabby?????????????????????????????????????
……and oneill effed up the tactics. why lock up shop with half an hour to go, keep it 4-4-2 and match them, the second the formation changed it went wrong.
West Ham in peace (honest). Er, well I guess I don’t really need to ask what you think of Marlene so far. You sound like us from last season. If he did nothing else (quite often, last term) he was capable of holding the ball up and his favourite trick is running up to the corner flag. Sounds like he ain’t even getting that right anymore. I like O’neil but sorry, he got that one wrong.
How are you all getting on with Nige RC? Yes I got bit fed up of some of his displays last season but ultimately I thought was a decent player. Didn’t want him out. Doing the business yet? Really wanted you to do the Spuds. Should be a good game on Saturday. We will win if we have all our players fit which is not likely. Good luck.
Guys for me i think blaming Harewood for this embarrassment is wide of the mark. Sure the lad is a waste of cash however:-
Watching that game i think we were awful from start to finish, even GB had a bad game by his standards. Throughout the game all our players gave spurs too much space didnt get challanges and failed to retain possession of the ball when we had it. All round shocking display and worrying that MON thought we were brilliant for most of the night.
REO Coker was he even on the pitch, hes slow, cant pass and gave the ball away. And please why do we just keep hoofing the ball down field giving spurs back the ball inviting them on to us.
After going out to Leicester and now this display a season that promised so much my well go up in smoke if we keep up that perfomance level.
Does anyone rate MONS buys???
Bring back Davies, Ridgewell and JPA
I am an ONeil fan but martin made the mistake he said the other day he had learnt from his mistakes this another one to learn from dont mess with a winning team
O’Neill did get it wrong by inviting Spurs on to us. HOWEVER, as soon as Harewood appeared a sense of foreboding spread through the Villa fans. If Harewood had done his job. i.e. Chase things down, make himself an outlet for our clearences AND not assaulted a Spurs player for the fun of it in the penalty area, then O’Neil might have got away with his tactical blunder. Harewood is just a bullying bruiser in a football kit, and every Villa fan in the crowd last night knew it BEFORE he blundered his way on to the pitch.
I am a Villa fan living in London, i went to the game last night and sat with the spurs fans as i couldn’t get away tickets!! I wanted to cry at 4-3!! I left the ground as soon as the clock said 89 as i knew what was coming!!! We can go back and forth with excuses and blaming individuals BUT not even Derby County would have let Spurs back into that game at 4-1 we should have gone and scored another 4…..honestly they look really shoddy at the back.
all I will say is the Villa FANS at the game last night were AMAZING i wish i sat with you guys as i really wanted to join in the rendition of HAPPY BIRTHDAY, if we were that loud at Villa Park we could beat everyone at home!!!
Up the Villa
PS: Marlon Harewood please leave our club YOU ARE NOT NEEDED OR WANTED, i cringe when i think my £50 on my new Nike Villa shirt went on your wages!!!
I think O’neal made a big mistake last night. Marlon looked slow and over weight, when ever a ball was passed to him he couldnt control it. As for the challenge in the box very very school boyish. Marlon you should asshamed of your performance. At least Davies publicly apologies I think you should do the same
I thought when Harewwod signed everyone expected big things….he has let every fan down and needs to seriously fight if he wants to play for us again.
Harewood is being used as a scapegoat.
Fair enough he gave away the pen but we could not get out of our own half for the last twenty minutes because when Gardner went off no one had the guts to take responsibility for their best player, young Gareth Bale.
Don’t know what the plan was but meant to be but as soon as Gardner was subbed at 4-2 Mellberg vacated his right back position and spent the remainder of the match alongside the Knight and Laursen leaving Bale with half the pitch in which to enjoy himself.
why did we get rid of angel who gave 100% to buy some donkey who can”t even control the ball!bring back juan pablo!