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Showing content with the highest reputation on 09/08/18 in all areas

  1. Bit harsh, he seems to value away supporter happiness quite highly
    3 points
  2. They are probably friends with Nyambe.
    2 points
  3. Think Waggott has made it abundantly clear where he ranks supporter happiness as a priority in the grand scheme of things.
    2 points
  4. So one of the clubs who were used as justification for shutting the Darwen End won’t bring anywhere close to the numbers that would have filled the old allocation, never mind the whole end. Waggott has totally misread the Championship if he thinks there’s a load of clubs out there that will bring hordes of fans - or as is probably the case, it was just an excuse to shut it.
    2 points
  5. As the International break is upon us, an apposite time to look ahead to our next Championship match. After both teams were thumped 4-1 last weekend, we sit 13th and 12th respectively, same 9 points, our negative goal difference, the difference! A good performance essential, now that we are back at Ewood and on the telly box. Our most famous defendant must be fit, after a few bouts of unpaid work, and hopefully back for the day job? Anyway, I play five-a-side on a Thursday, and one of my fellow fifty something five-a-siders is a Villa fan. More interestingly, his son is a budding radio football commentator and has done a bit already on BBC Radio Lancs, so thanks Rick and Scott for the following (they apologise for the cut and paste Wiki history!) : Questions for a Villa fan! A short history of your club?( Aston Villa F.C. were formed in March 1874, by four members of the Villa Cross Wesleyan Chapel (known as early as 1867 as Aston Villa Wesleyan Chapel)[1] in Lozells. The four founders were Jack Hughes, Frederick Matthews, Walter Price and William Scattergood. The first match was against the local Aston Brook St Mary's Rugby team.[2][3] 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. The club were soon playing the modern version of football though and the club won its first FA Cup in 1887.[4] 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. By the end of Villa's "Golden Age" at the start of the First World War, the club had won the League Championship six times and the FA Cup five times.[4] Aston Villa won their sixth FA Cup in 1920.[4] For the remainder of the inter-war years though, Villa were on a slow decline that would lead to them being relegated to the Second Division in 1936 for the first time in their history. They returned to the top-tier of English football by the outbreak of the Second World War. As with many clubs, the war brought much change to Villa Park and remainder of the 1940s were spent rebuilding the team. By 1957, Villa were a Cup winning side once again with the club's seventh FA Cup win. Even though Villa won the inaugural League Cup in 1960, the club were to enter into a very unsuccessful period. The 1960s saw much change at Villa Park. By the end of the 1960s, Villa were languishing in the Second Division and fan pressure led to the resignation of the Board and the introduction of Doug Ellis as Villa Chairman. The club was then relegated to the Third Division. In the 1971–72 season Aston Villa returned to the Second Division as champions with a record 70 points. In 1974 Ron Saunders was appointed manager and by 1975 he had led the club back into the First Division and into European competition.[2][3] The club was back among the elite and it continued to have much success under Saunders and won the league in the 1980–81 season. Saunders' resignation halfway through the 1981–82 season came as a surprise, with the club in the quarter-final of the European Cup. He was replaced by his assistant manager Tony Barton who guided them to 1–0 victory over Bayern Munich in the European Cup final in Rotterdam.[4] However, winning the cup marked a pinnacle and the club fell steadily down the League standings over the next five years and was relegated in 1987. However, the club was promoted the following year and achieved second place in the Football League in 1989. Villa was one of the founding members of the Premier League in 1992, and finished runners-up to Manchester United in the inaugural season. The 1990s was a decade of inconsistency; the club had three different managers and league positions were unpredictable, despite winning two League Cups.[5] They reached the FA Cup Final for the first time since 1957 in 2000, but lost 1–0 to Chelsea in the last game to be played at the old Wembley Stadium.[6] Once again Villa's league position fluctuated under various managers and in the summer of 2006, David O'Leary left under acrimonious circumstances.[7] Martin O'Neill soon arrived and received a rapturous reception.[8] After 23 years as chairman and largest shareholder, owning approximately 38% of the club, Doug Ellis decided to sell his stake to Randy Lerner, the owner of the NFL franchise Cleveland Browns.[9] The arrival of a new owner and manager marked the start of sweeping changes throughout the club, including a new crest, a new kit sponsor and new players in the summer of 2007.[10][11] After several years of narrowly avoiding the drop, Villa were relegated at the end of the 2015–16 season. Best moments? Undoubtedly winning the League in 1980-81 followed by the European Cup in 81-82 season. However, beating Manchester United 3-1 in the 1994 League Cup Final is up there What did you make of pre-season? Is there stability at the club? Overall our pre-season went well with a few of the youngsters coming through. However, the start of the close season was dominated by talk of the club going into administration and having to sell at least £40 million of talent to stave off breaching FFP regulations. We were partially bought (55%) by new owners worth £49 billion in June which has removed any problem with liquidity and we have now gone into the market adding 6 new players (2 bought and 4 loans). Stability in the form of Steve Bruce has been maintained and we have just appointed a new CEO, Christian Purslow, who is ex Liverpool and Chelsea. Both clubs have made a decent start to the season ( save for this weekend’s fixtures when we both got tubbed!)). From a Villa fans point of view, with all that was happening pre-season, what were your expectations for the campaign, and is nothing less that automatic promotion expected/possible and/or attainable? Early in pre-season it seemed that survival was the aim for this year as all the loans went back and we were looking to sell all the crown jewels. However, the new investors have changed that and we are now expecting automatic promotion given the quality of the players we have. Given the investment we will have FFP issues if we don’t go up. If not, would you be happy with the play-offs again? We would probably accept play offs but not be happy! Who are the players in the current team to look out for? Jack Grealish, Jonathon Kodja, John McGinn, Tammy Abrahams, Bolasie, Al Ghazi Are Villa fans generally happy with Steve Bruce? No – generally thought to be too negative/cautious and getting the sum of the team to add up to less than its parts. Particularly hostile at the moment due to his total failure to build a balanced squad and insistence on playing players out of position. For example, current back 4 are: RB Tuenzebe – MU loan, normally CB (We have 4 genuine RB’s at the club, Hutton, De Laet, El Mohammady, Bree) CB – Chester – ok CB – Jedinak – a defensive midfielder (He also loaned Elphick to Hull our only other genuine CB) LB – Hutton who is a RB. He won’t play Taylor who is the only LB at the club How have you bedded in to life in the Championship? Was it an eye-opener? Quite enjoyed the championship and to be competing for something each year is better than 5 years of struggle in the Premiership. However, the quality of football when compared to the top of the Premiership is light years away Predictions for top six places? Middlesborough, West Brom, Derby, Villa, Swansea, Brentford Predictions for relegation? QPR, Reading, Hull How are ticket sales going, bearing in mind it’s a Saturday evening game on Sky? Our allocation is 5000 and we normally sell out but I’d predict 3500-4000 will travel Prediction against Rovers? We can’t defend but will probably have Bolasie, Abrahams, Kodja, Al Ghasi all playing so I’ll go for a high scoring draw – 2-2. So there you have it. A Villa perspective. Head to head: Rovers W: 62 Drawn: 35 Villa: 75 First meeting: 13th October 1888, Villa 6 Rovers 1! (First Football League - both inaugural members) We got our revenge just over a month later winning 5-1, with a Southworth hat-trick, in front of 9,000. Villa went on to finish second in the league behind the Nob enders, Rovers finishing fourth. Our last meeting was in April 17, when a Danny Graham goal was enough to seal victory, but it was too little too late to avoid the drop. No doubt the Sky cameras will affect the attendance, and I see that prices have not been slashed to encourage the masses to go. I just hope that we put Bristol behind us and TM motivates the team he puts out as much as he did to persuade DJ Clark not to send BD down...... I'm rubbish at predictions, hard earned 2-1 win, 16,000. I'll take 13th season end. COYB's.
    1 point
  6. An assessment of player performance v Bristol City Each player was judged on the following criteria: Instance of excellent play * Instance of decent/good play * Instance of disappointing/poor play * Instance of terrible play * E&OE Ratings Raya **** **** ** * Nyambe(65) * ******* * ** Lenihan **************** ******* * Mulgrew ** ******* ** ** Bell *************** ****** *** Smallwood *********** ********* Evans(76) ******** ****** Bennett * ********** ******** Palmer(71) ****** **** Armstrong * ***** ******** * Graham(55) ****** Brereton(55) * * Rothwell(65) * ** Nuttall(71) * * Highlights and Lowlights (A justification for the main ratings above) 6. Bennett on one of his chases manages to charge down the goalie’s attempt at a clearance. Goalkick. 8. Hunt goes past Bell easily and Smallwood is slow to close him down. His shot is well saved by Raya. The ball comes back towards the goal and Mulgrew is perfectly placed to head clear as the City man looked to score. Bennett is bamboozled by a short corner but the dangerous move fizzles out. 10. Eliasson leaves Nyambe for dead and his cross is perfect for Weimann but Raya makes a wonderful save at point-blank range. 12. Armstrong fires a decent shot from outside the box but it’s deflected for a corner. Mulgrew takes it and the ball fools everyone and nestles in the net. 15. Rush of blood for Raya who comes charging out of his area but his clearance goes straight to a City man. Fortunately his ball forward catches City offside. 17. Bell sells himself completely in an aerial challenge but he chases back and recovers - then his backpass to Raya is dangerous and causes panic! 18. Armstrong receives the ball in a very tight position but he controls beautifully and lay off a good pass. 19. Persistent Armstrong challenge causes the City man to kick the ball out of play. 22. Terrible misjudgment by Mulgrew who allows the ball to bounce over his head. Fortunately the whistle blows! 25. Palmer does well to chase down a ball into the box but he hits the bar when it seemed easier to score! 36. Difficult to see on my feed but Nyambe fouls the City man in the D. It looked harsh. Brownhill smashes the freekick into the top corner. Not sure Raya could have done better. 39. Graham plays a lovely ball through to Armstrong who is one on one with the goalie. But his shot hits the goalie’s legs. It should have been a goal. This is the third time Armstrong’s shots have been blocked by the man directly in front of him. 42. Bell and Palmer are bypassed too easily and the City cross hits the crossbar! 43. Smallwood and Evans are both bamboozled but fortunately the attacker’s shot is weak. 47. Nyambe’s lazy, attempted clearance is blocked. Fortunately Lenihan clears up. 49. For the second time Nyambe shepherds the ball out for a goal kick. Impressive shielding technique. 50. An impressive attack by City; Lenihan is slow to react (not the only one) and Raya pulls out another good save. Nyambe and Lenihan clear up. 54. Eliasson glides past Bell easily, Palmer is a spectator and Lenihan fails to deal with the cross. Mulgrew is marking no one. Watkins scores. 72. Rovers have put Nuttall on to boost the attack but the strategy fails. Smallwood and Nuttall tangle in the City D and the ball is fired forward leaving 2 on 2. Lenihan makes a poor do of challenging Diedhiou who finds the net. 74. O’Dowda cuts inside Bell (very similar to Watkins in the last game!) but his shot is off target. 78. Good driving run by Rothwell but his final shot is weak and wide. 79. Armstrong is dispossessed on the wing. Bennett pushes the City player and gives a foul. 81. Yet another City corner. Raya gets a decent punch under pressure. Nuttall heads it straight back to the corner taker. When the cross comes in it grazes Lenihans head (not for the first time!) and Pack heads into the net. Too easy! 82. Excellent driving run and lay-off by Rothwell. Bennett’s cross is disappointing. 84. Lenihan and Bell fail to clear the ball allowing a cross into the box. Fortunately Lenihan is well positioned this time and clears. 84. Rothwell drives forward again and sends Brereton haring down the wing. He gets in a decent cross but nobody’s there. 85. AND AGAIN the winger cuts inside Bell and unleashes a shot. Raya makes a decent save. 86. Smallwood and Evans come second in the midfield battle, the City players waltz through our box and a neat backheel nearly results in a goal but Raya saves. From the corner, Mulgrew is beaten to the ball on the near post. The flicked header is plucked from the air by Raya……..could have been City’s sixth!! 88. Long ball from Evans is neatly kept in by Brereton but Nuttall can’t get there.
    1 point
  7. Just had to check . . . yes Alli Anonymous is still on the pitch.
    1 point
  8. I agree we need deep playmaker. I would have like Cook or Ward Prowse in the squad. Maddison has been good for Leicester from what Ive seen. Very talented. I would have like us to play a different way/formation like 4-3-3 second half.
    1 point
  9. I know - confusing isn't it. A couple of friends who were at the game with me have asked if we missed something. I note that one site has Everton missing a penalty - it was actually Rovers who missed the penalty. It was raining pretty hard, and we were sheltering as best we could under umbrellas but I don't think we imagined Everton scoring so many!
    1 point
  10. Surely, it would have been more, if a normal kick off time and not on TV?
    1 point
  11. Why do you make a big thing of Nyambe needing help.All defenders need help when two on one. I would challenge any defender at any level to cope with two attackers on there own. If that was any managers tactic they would soon show up as being unsuccessful. You state that helping another player weakens the team in other areas. On the contrary I would say that if you win the ball back the team is in a better position to win a game.
    1 point
  12. Usually they play down at the academy and there is a car park but it can soon get full. It is free to watch. You can see the car park on the ariel view on this page - https://www.rovers.co.uk/teams/academy/academy-directions/ I was thinking of going today but the weather put me off. It ended 0-0
    1 point
  13. You’ll never hear about it again.
    1 point
  14. Don't be coming on here with your research and evidence. If Dack isn't tarred and feathered by the morning and strung up outside Ewood with his woman dancer friend then the country, justice and football have all gone to the dogs.
    1 point
  15. This is a permanent deal in all but name. That's really all we need to focus on
    1 point
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