Villa blogger Dave Bytheway experiences the ups and downs of a topsy turvy week as he prepares for the clash with Bolton.
A strange week down at B6, and two completely different teams playing in the same shirts.
On Thursday, a win against Zillina would see us through into the knockout stages of the UEFA Cup as group winners, meaning a next round tie against a third placed group team.
Martin O’Neill decided to rest eight of his current starting XI, and give some of the fringe players their chance.
To be fair to Martin, I don’t know of many Villa fans who would have done it any differently before the game, but his team selection was under scrutiny after the game.
Zillina resembled a pub side, albeit a decent one, and surely wouldn’t cause many problems to a team in the top five of the Premier League?
We were wrong. Two quick fire goals in five minutes at the Holte End left us rattled, so we were always playing catch up against a team who were never going to lie down.
Apart from the two goals, I didn’t feel they caused us any problems. When 17 year old Nathan Delfouneso scored a superb goal just before half time it seemed we would go on to win, but it wasn’t to be.
Too many players, who even if they were fringe players are good enough to beat teams like Zillina, had off nights and there was no creativity in the side without our regular midfield.
After losing 2-1 we now have to go and get a result in Hamburg, something I don’t fancy our chances of doing. Martin Jol’s side will need the points too to win the group, so it will be a very entertaining game on the night.
We then went to Everton on Sunday looking to put behind the failure of Thursday and did it within 34 seconds.
A good move down the left saw Luke Young drop it to the feet of James Milner, who laid it back perfectly to Steve Sidwell on the edge of the box, who made no mistake and rifiled it into the top corner.
We couldn’t have asked for a better start and when Everton failed to score their chances it looked like it would be our day.
When Joleon Lescott equalised I did worry a little, that the same old no bottle Villa would curl up and die, handing the result on a plate to the Toffees.
That we didn’t, a woeful backpass from Phil Jagielka allowing Ashley Young to get on to the loose ball and chip it past goalkeeper Tim Howard to make it 2-1.
We held on and on, managing it until the third minute of injury time, when Lescott again pounced in the six yard box with an acrobatic finish. His celebrations being a self confessed Villa fan maybe would have assumed to be a little muted? No way!
He took great pleasure in racing to the Villa fans, hurling his shirt into the air and patting his badge. He went wild running round, maybe that was the reason he couldn’t get anywhere near Ashley Young a minute later when he ran at him one on one.
All the celebrating had left him out of breath, shame really as it made him look a little silly. Young once again took his goal expertly, showing the new found confidence we have and the willingness to play to the whistle.
Bolton arrive on Saturday, so we welcome back Gary Cahill, Gavin McCann and Jlloyd Samuel back to Villa Park.
Im sure it will be a pretty hard fought game, hence probably not very tactical. Two strong sides will come head to head, but I feel our pace will prove too strong for them and us coming out winners 3-1.
Good luck for the weekend games.
Up the Villa!
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One Comment
The Everton game and result was a bit different to what we experienced a few seasons ago eh Dave
What is obvious is the lack of experienced back up players, and a play maker such as Merson, nobody has filled his role since he left, maybe this transfer window?
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