Lucky to get away with that, IMHO and demonstrated what happens when teams close us down. Maybe Man U and Leeds had off days and let us play, but those lads still aren't good enough to make space. If Speed had a virus, he shouldn't have started - a couple of awful passes straight to the opposition suggested something was wrong. But the crucial thing for me was the substitution - why on earth bring on Cordone for Speed? Surely to goodness it should have been Glass. there was little enough width to start with but after that sub even more of the play got sucked into the centre where Villa shut everything down. What has YBR got against Glass? It was made doubly bad by the fact that Cordone is clearly Bobby's worst signing to date - at least an effective striker might have given us something if we'd reverted to the long ball.
One more thing - we keep hearing how confident Ameobi is. So why won't the bastard shoot!?

-- Anonymous, January 07, 2001

Answers

Agree about the sub- made no sense to me- surely a great opportunity to put Acuna+Bassedas in centre and Glass out wide. Didnt see Amoebi have any opportunity to shoot apart from once when he ran on to the ball and hit a cracking shot against the post.

-- Anonymous, January 07, 2001

Just in from the Strawberry post-match tipple - Ciara, Dougal, Steph, Softie, Screacher and Pit Bill send their wishes.

I don't really agree with Dan that we were lucky to get a draw, although we weren't good enough to win it.
Villa are a very hard team to break down, as many teams have found. They play five in midfield, have width via Ginola and Stone, and we never really got on top in this key area.
We tend to play better against 4-4-2, but seem to be totally incapable of responding tactically to 3-5-2, with Stone in particular having far too much space in which to operate. Nevertheless, while Villa were the better side in the first half, I thought we shaded the second, and finished in the ascendency.
In actual fact, against a tight, well-organised defence we created quite a lot of half chances, but persisted in trying to walk the ball into the net.

A draw was the correct result, and we live to fight another day.

A word of praise for the Referee for a change - I thought Mr. Durkin had a very good game.

I have to say I felt very disappointed that when David Ginola was subbed and applauded all round the ground as we walked off, he was greeted only by another chorus of boos. He was a fabulous player for us, albeit for a few fleeting moments, providing some wonderful memories like his goals against Ferenvaros and manure. This might have been his last appearance at SJP, and a generous round of applause would have so much more endearing than the childish derision. Very sad.

-- Anonymous, January 07, 2001

For once I have to agree about the referee......now there's a first!....the only criticism I would level would be the 'penalty' in the second half. It was clear that when they player went up he brought his hand up and round to the ball, not using hand and arms to 'extend' his jump, therefore it was defo hand to ball and not ball to hand.

Other than that he was pretty good.

-- Anonymous, January 07, 2001

Robson was happy enough to have got a draw after seeing his injury- plagued team further depleted when midfielder Gary Speed left the field drained with just 28 minutes gone. "It was a typical, hard, fiercely contested Premiership game of football, albeit in a cup tie," he said. "We got behind again, but having lost a goal, we fought to the end and we turned the match around. "You have to remember that four days ago, we played with nine players at Tottenham for a long, long time, and those players fought for the club to get a bit of respectability out of it."

-- Anonymous, January 07, 2001

Just watched it aal again on video. We looked worse on TV than we did in the flesh. I honestly thought Villa were cr@p in the first half, and we weren't much better. If YBR learns anything from this match, he needs to realise that we need more width on the left further up the field. Barton had a stinker, but I believe this was due to two things - being plyed out of position (tho I suspect he could lose his place to Quinn) and no outlet availbale ahead of him. I agree about the substitutiion.

IMHO, Dyer has looked better further upfield, so why drop him back when you could kill two birds with one Stone? Glass would have given more width and kept Steve Stone quiet. Easy from 10,00ft, eh?

-- Anonymous, January 07, 2001

We also need a striker. Ameobi looked good in the air, but his finishing is not yet good enough. Had Shearer had half the chances he had, we'd have won comfortably. Stil, we have an opportunity with Nobby and LKD missing in the replay, for some creativity in the team selection. As Buffy would say, stick Glass oot left and keep him there for 4 or five games. If he ain't good enough, sell.

As for the striker - will YBR stick with what he's got, plus Gally when he's back, or will he buy? If he wants to progress in this comp, he should buy.

-- Anonymous, January 07, 2001

He should definitely buy, but I for one would be oer the moon if Gally is back in there for Coventry or Villa replay.......so who's going to Villa Park then.

BTW Screacher, who was it that took the captains armband when Barton went off?

-- Anonymous, January 07, 2001

Griffin showed again that he is a class defender, even after getting booked for clattering Ginola. I'd hate to see Barton mark Ginola because he wouldn't cope IMHO. Griffin managed to get forward and pull a defender wide a couple of times, something which we were lacking yesterday.

Interesting to see Clarky make the point about our inadequacies against 3-5-2. Quite right and if we are to go anywhere in the FA cup we must be able to counter this. First Villa then Leicester, two teams who play that way all the time and know it inside out. Quinn coming in on loan as a player who is a comfortable left wing-back could mean a back three of Barton, Goma and Hughes.

Goma was outstanding again yesterday and I hope the French transfer window closes soon and he stays for the rest of the season at least if not another four years! Hughes looked a bit vulnerable yesterday but after Speed went off we were a bit out of shape anyway.

If Robson doesn't rate Glass then sell him. We need width on the left, everything was down the middle yesterday and Villa loved it. It took an exceptional shot from Solano to break that because until then there was no real way through.

Finally when is Bobby going to sit down with Shola and Kieron and say you are the front men, you are supposed to be takiing shots at goal. Twice yesterday in the first half I was watching the match and shouted "For f#@%£'s sake why don't you just shoot?".

-- Anonymous, January 08, 2001

By their standards, Barton and Hughes had stinkers. The substitution did not make sense - I think Glass needs to be on from the start these days. I agree about Ginola. It must have taken a lot for him to clap all round the ground after being booed all day and the least we could have done is applaud him back.

-- Anonymous, January 08, 2001

Without Dyer and Solano, Bobby has got a major headache for the Villa game. IMHO Glass has to come into the side in place of Solano but play on the left naturally. We must have somebody who is going to go wide. Villa must be looking forward more to the replay than the match yesterday.

Up front with Ameobi is anyone's guess as Cordone was inneffective yesterday and I can't see him improving without a decent run in the side like Acuna and Bassedas have had.

Come on Bobby get the thinking hat on.

-- Anonymous, January 08, 2001

Ginola was happy enough slagging off Newcastle when he was Player of the Year, yesterday Griffin had him in his pocket and he whinged all the time.

I appreciate what he did for this club but yesterday was about us versus Villa and the way Griffin was backed up by the crowd helped in the process of snuffing him out, no mistake.

When he left the pitch, I agree that the crowd should have applauded him. It would have been a terrificly ironic gesture!

It is not as if we boo every returning player if you look at Les, Batty and a few others we genuinely welcome them back to the city. My West Ham supporting mate cannot get over the fact that we still cheer Shaka Hislop.

-- Anonymous, January 08, 2001

Why should we have applauded Ginola? Because it simply says "thankyou for what you did for us - we appreciate it", and it shows CLASS, and sets us apart from the neanderthals.

BTW, regarding what Daveeeed may or may not have said about the Toon - how do we know what he actually said? We quickly dismiss 99.9% of what we read in the Press - unless perhaps it happens to fit our insecurities!

-- Anonymous, January 08, 2001

Can I just say that the players were understandably knackered after Tuesday's exertions, not to mention having played at 150% in the Leeds/Man United games? It's unfortunate but there you have it. Hopefully they'll get a rest this week. Incidentally, I don't agree re Hughes... - I thought he was fine. He was also organising them to defend set pieces which no other bugger was doing.

-- Anonymous, January 09, 2001

A very good point Dougal re: set piece organisation. It has been obvious all season that we need someone to do that. Unfortunately it is not always apparent that these things go on, especially from TV.

-- Anonymous, January 09, 2001

Bobby has told Hughes that'll be captain one day and that, since he reads the game so well, he should be bossing the defence. He is apparently a bit shy but he has being making an effort in this regard. The other thing is, Villa had only played two games over Christmas owing to snow whereas we had three knackering ones. IMHO, Villa have more reason to be concerned with their form than us.

-- Anonymous, January 09, 2001