Villa blog: Life on a rollercoaster

Villa blogger Dave Bytheway talks derby wins, cup exits and joins the long list of folk still stunned by the goal that wasn’t at Watford.

Another week, another turbulent journey.

After winning in Lovech and doing ‘Fans Forum’ with Steve Beech, I was confident enough to predict a 2-1 win for Villa against Albion in my last blog - but only if Ashley Young played.

He did and we won 2-1. This weeks Lottery should be easy!

We went to the Hawthorns in the dark regarding injuries to Carew, Young and Davies. It turned out favourably, as they all played. While I classed Young as our main threat, it turned out on the day that it was Carew, who caused the Albion replacement centre-half Barnett problems all afternoon.

I have actually heard some Albion fans claim that he is better than Curtis Davies! Sunday proved that those claims are entirely based around bitterness and jealousy towards Davies joining Villa.

Barnett looked poor all game, whilst at the other end Davies shrugged off the taunts from his his old worshippers and proved how good a player he is.

Since Sunday, I haven’t heard one Albion fan say anything about Davies, but plenty about Barnett, and not for the reasons they used to!

It was a great day on Sunday to enjoy a football game. A good atmosphere from both sets of fans. At the Hawthorns the Albion fans are never any trouble, always ready to chat football and are a pretty welcoming lot.

It’s nice to go to an away game, looking forward to a few beers and the game, not having to worry about other things. For that the Albion deserve a lot of respect.

After last night’s game against QPR, I feel deflated. A strong Villa side should surely be able to overcome an understrength Championship team?

We played reasonably but seemed to lack desire. To blame it on so many games in so few days is to easy, so I’ll say we lost to the team who wanted it more on the night.

On a separate note, I still can’t get my head around what happened in the Watford v Reading game on Saturday. For a ‘goal’ to be awarded when the ball went four yards wide, with no appeals from either side is crazy.

Since the game, the linesman has been suspended and the 25-year-old referee given fourth official duties. If this point for Reading influences the table at the end of the season, will we see another case similar to the ongoing Sheffield Utd v West Ham example?

After all, if one player in Tevez can influence a season, surely one point can?

We welcome Sunderland this weekend, on Saturday at 3pm! I thought we had seen the last of those!

I predict another close game, but Villa coming out 3-1 winners.

Up the Villa!