What a relief Saturday was for us Villa fans, writes Villa blogger Gregg Williams. We needed a win, and got an emphatic one.
We can now go into the final few games full of confidence, hopefully equipped to gain enough points to nab the Inter-toto place.
There is an outside chance of catching Everton, but we’ll need the Blues to do us a huge favour at the weekend if that is to happen.
I loved the new system employed by Martin O’Neill against Bolton. It brought the best out of two of our three players of the season, Barry and Young, and also gave Petrov a chance to shine.
He was simply outstanding and we can only hope that he has found his role in our team at last. It has been hard for him to perform when on the right side of midfield, he is clearly no winger.
In the holding position however he was able to show his range of passing and composure on the ball to much greater effect, and it was great to see the discipline he applied to the role.
This allowed Barry and Reo-Coker to get in and around the box to make things happen.
I’m pleased for Stan, and I’m still convinced he’ll be a big player for us in the future.
Gareth Barry was, as Martin would say, terrific, and his two goals and two assists speak for themselves.
There is no doubt that Ashley Young also has a big future ahead of him, but then you probably knew that already.
In his free role he popped up everywhere, and caused Bolton no end of problems. I’ve said before that he had been too easy to mark out of games, but with no strict position to stick to the opposite became true.
Full credit to the lad, who showed all the ability we’ve come to expect from him, and full credit also to Martin O’Neill, for whom this was probably his best tactical move yet as Villa boss.
While I’m busy handing out praise, I have to give a mention to the people who are now running our club for their latest good work.
There was an initiative on Saturday to attract people from the local community to the game, particularly Aston based Muslims, who sat together in the Doug Ellis stand in an alcohol free section with halal refreshments on sale.
This was a fantastic way to reach out to the local community, those living in the shadow of Villa Park should have no reason to hesitate to attend a match day, and with any luck they will have thoroughly enjoyed the experience and will come back many times over.
This is yet another example of the smart thinking at Villa Park these days, and any initiative to bring more Villa fans through the turnstiles for a match has to be commended.
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One Comment
Good work from the club about the local community, because unlike, lets say scumchester utd, football clubs are built on the relationship with the local community, its bread and butter fan base, not attracting the luvvies from m3/m4 corridor, or anywhere else for that matter!
As for the saturday performance, it was a good result for us, as most clubs are warned at this time of the season, when playing teams battling for survival, they often throw up the odd result you wouldn’t expect, they pick their game up and the likes of the mid table teams or those fighting to stay in touch with european league positions suffer for it.
Its good to see Ashley Young play such a free role, is this a glimpse into the future for him, or was it easier for him to play that way against Bolton? I think its something we should continue with in our next two games, 6 points out of 6 is nothing short of what we should be expecting, especially against the blues!
But when you look at Everton’s run-in they have some tough games, and the game at Goodison could prove vital, they have to play Chelsea(touching distance to scumchester) and Arsenal(out of the CL so will concentrate on catching scumchester), and when you look at Portsmouth there run-in, with the game in hand is by no means a stroll, away to Man City and Villa Rejects(Borough), they will be concentrating on the Cup Final so their last game of the season against Fulham may throw up a surprise!
I still think(though optimistically) that its all to play for!
One short grumble, why, OH WHY, have we not sat Wilfred Bouma down to discuss his new contract! June is not far away, and he could very well be walking away, he has been consistently brilliant for villa, my player of the season is a three way tie between him, Ashley Young and Gareth Barry, that is the sort of the player we should be keeping, securing, keeping happy!
UP THE VILLA!!
Keeping the Faith!