Aston Villa 2 - West Bromwich Albion 0

Date:	Saturday 7th March 2015
Competition:	FA Cup (QF)
Villa: 5.0
WBA: 3.8	Myhill 4.5, Dawson 5.3, McAuley 5.0, Lescott 4.1, Olsson 5.2, Brunt 3.9, Morrison 7.0, Yacob 4.2, Gardner 5.3 (Mulumbu, 85 3.6), Berahino 6.0, Ideye 3.2 Unused subs: McManaman, Foster, Wisdom, Baird, Pocognoli, Sessegnon Manager: Tony Pulis 3.6
Referee:	Anthony Taylor (Cheshire) 3.8
Attendance:	39,592 Home Fans 2.4 Away Fans 4.6

Mark Koppel:

Today proved that our squad is far too weak in many areas and again the lack of getting new players in for crucial positions in January really showed. For example:

We again played two full backs who are NOT FULL BACKS. Both wings were exposed all game long by Villa, even in the first half this was our main vulnerability.
We had to play the only 2 "fit" strikers we had. One on a pain killing injection and the other, who as feared, has peaked after just 2 good games.

If you are still not worried about how bad we are away from home remember this is only Villa, and without their best Defender and best Striker.

Myhill - 6 Better than Foster on Tuesday but that is not saying much. Did ok but the first goal did seem to be straight at him.
Dawson - 5 Not his fault as he is not a full back and they did have loads of space down their left wing second half. Great ball for The Flop in the first half who should have scored.
McAuley - 4 Again quite solid in defence but not one long pass he made all game went to a West Brom player.
Lescott - 3 The only thing I can say in his defence he is not a full back. Was exposed in this position by Blues and Spurs so why play him here again ? Either Pulis made a massive mistake or again the Chairman did not back him in January to get a full back. Either way if we do stay up(not a certainty after this week's poor games) yet again we need two good new full backs.
Brunt - 4 Cannot remember him doing anything positive. I do remember nearly all his passes going to Villa players.
Mozza - 8 Heads and shoulders above any West Brom player today. You do have to feel sorry for him though having to play with muppets around him.
Yacob - 3 He did improve under Pulis to start with but has regressed again. Too slow, too negative, cannot pass forward accurately more than 10 yards. Unlucky to get sent off maybe but he did jump in with 2 feet off the ground yet again if not only slightly this time. That is the third time he has done that this season so he is taking a chance and did not get away with it this time. The other problem with Yacob is that I think he only has 3 brain cells.
Gardner - 5 Just like Tuesday, cannot remember him doing anything positive.
Berahino - 7 Tried hard and shielded the ball very well. Always laid it off to an Albion Player.
Ideye - 2 I asked on Tuesday if he has peaked already . The answer looks like yes. His open goal miss in the first half was absolutely criminal and it would have changed the game.
Olsson - 6 Good to see him back and was unlucky to go off instead of Lescott.

Subs:

Mulumbu 2 - Stopped running and didn't attempt to chase back for Villa's second goal. Still looks fat and unfit to me.
Mac 4 - Is he the new Sick Vic?

Brendan Clegg:

Another away game, another pretty dreadful performance. And despite missing 2 or 3 chances we really should have scored from you can't really argue against Villa deserving it. And that hurts.

The selection worried me again - happy to see big Jonas getting some minutes (and individually he acquitted himself quite well for a comeback game) but we know that shunting Lescott to left back doesn't work and we know that Brunt's days as a midfielder/winger against decent opposition are over.

The absence of Sess and/or McManaman in midfield also meant we'd have very little creativity or ability to keep the ball and so it proved. Just Brunt playing 2 yards in front of Lescott and Gardner grafting with zero creativity.

Just look at the Villa alternative - they went with 2 wingers in Nzogbia and Sinclair and they ended up being instrumental in winning the game. Bacuna and Lowton are both liabilities defensively for Villa and we didn't really ever test them. This was a cup match too, you have to go for it.

Pulis hasn't been giving Sess much game time when he has been fit/OK, so having an excuse that he has personal problems isn't a reason for not playing him to hide behind. McManaman is nowhere near fit either. Remind me why we got rid of Varela again?

Although we started brightly and pressed high, having failed to take the lead when we were on top in the first 30 minutes or so it then pretty much descended into awful kick-and-rush nonsense.

Villa put pressure on our back 4 and so the ball was boomed often out of play or beyond our strikers and straight to Given.

Whenever we won the ball back from Villa from this point, irrespective of where we were on the pitch, the aim seemed to be to release it over the top as soon as possible. Villa dealt with it easily. We didn't try to keep the ball and work it forwards. We didn't have the players on the pitch to dribble with it. It was just desperate rubbish again and again.

Although we might well have sneaked a goal from a set play, I don't think the joke decision to send Yacob off changed the course of the game.

I can't write anymore - it's been a really depressing two games of negativity and lousy tactics against a poor and struggling Villa side who deserved to beat us twice and earned their luck by being positive in their approach and pressing us all over the pitch to expose the number of out-of-position players we have.

Myhill - 6 Was fairly sound but could have done better with the goal.
Dawson - 6 Did well enough but struggled in possession.
McAuley - 6 Another fairly solid performance but another of the boom brigade.
Olsson - 6 For his first game back he did quite well, perhaps backed off too much for the first goal but didn't have much choice.
Lescott - 5 AWOL for the first goal and struggled again in all aspects of being a fullback. Not his fault. Stupid decision from TP and his goldfish memory.
Gardner - 6 Effort, good tackling, poor on the ball, out of position.
Yacob - 6 Didn't deserve to go and was his usual self.
Morrison - 7 Our best player again and although he gave the ball away cheaply a few times it was actually by trying to pass the ball not hoof it. He looked visibly angry a number of times with others who were just hoofing it, and with Ideye's awful quality and movement.
Brunt - 5 I cannot think of a meaningful contribution but he tried.
Saido - 6 Did as much as he could with the awful service, including the crap pass from Gardner who had done well to win the ball .
Ideye - 4 Another performance to forget. Missed a sitter and a good chance. The service was useless but his touch and decision making when he did get the ball were both really poor and his movement off the ball was pretty bad. Okore totally dominated him. Needs Sess in the team to create space for him.

McManaman - 4 Won one free kick but was limping almost instantly. I would rather Gamboa or Nabi on the bench than injured players. It's disrespectful to them and unfair on the injured players.
Mulumbu - 6 Tried to keep the ball. If genuinely the reason for all the shuffling about is because McManaman and Sess can't play then aside from asking why either of them were on the bench, you have to say that Mulumbu should have started and Mozza should have gone out wide.

Tony Putin - 3. This was crap and the players out there in the main did the best that they could under the instructions they were given.

T Reeve:

Don't dismiss this out of hand, please, but I am a Villa man through and through. There is a difference, though, between me and the idiots who invaded the pitch the other night. I am utterly ashamed of the lot of them. I also could see no reason why the idiot in black sent off your man. If anything the foul ought to have gone the other way, even to a booking.

My personal position is that as a long-time Villa fan I consider the Baggies to be our true local rivals. Rivals, that is, not enemies. I always look for the Baggies' result after the Villa's and I want both to be in the top flight. This year it's our turn to make hard work of it. I would have exchanged Saturday's cup win for another three points any day.

All I can do now is wish the Baggies almost every success (i.e. where it doesn't interfere with the Villa's) and to commend Mr Pulis's restrained response to the events of the other night. We are certainly not all like the nutters who invaded the pitch. It also begs the question whether those who invaded the pitch are the ones who have been staying away recently.

Best wishes from a real Villa man.

COUCHCRITIC:

What a shambles! I had great hopes when Tony Pulis was appointed & although he can't be blamed for the lack of quality in our squad the second game against the Villa was about as low as it gets No shape, no pace, ball in the air more than on the deck, players being played out of postion etc etc.

You cannot play Lescott as a full back, he's a natural centre back who's too slow anywhere else. To me it's better to have Poco at the back and either Lescott or Olson(not both) in the middle.

We desperately need a replacement for Brunt who's only attribute is with free kicks & corners, Yacob is a liabilty. Gardner tries hard but has limited technique, Mulumbo is too slow & unfit. Sess. should always be played as he is the one player with the pace & guile to create things. Up front Ideye needs replacing but with whome? We don't have anyone any better as a partner to Ber.

Villa made us look what we are and on this form I can't see prem. survival

Bobby Hope:

Well I'm afraid TP was found out again on Saturday and it annoys me. Why play without two 'proper' full backs? Villa were crap in the first half because they were too timid and afraid. Once they had had a team talk from Sherwood they started to have a go and they succeeded in showing up a very vulnerable defence. The writing was on the wall at the end of the first half when Sinclair had a dribble into the box and then hit a lame cross/shot. That must have given them all the encouragement they needed!!

Saying all that if Ideye buries his first half chance it would have been a different game but may be not a different result because Villa would have had to come at us. The first goal defending was laughable but embarrassing. The second was a well taken breakaway goal from a player that we failed to get anything out.

Pulis is a good man and will probably keep us up and then it will be same old, same old, next season and for eternity most probably. I guess most supporters will be happy with that and they are all that matters in reality.

Kev Buckley:

The joke's on me.

Yes, yes, I know I should not have even countenanced the idea, even as a joke, just in case it should come true and I apologise for tempting fate when I did, but please believe me when I say that never in my wildest nightmares, and not even, having just woken up in time to see Olsson walking out, did I ever see the spectre of the Albion playing four centre-backs, and nor, it would seem did the person who does ESPN's initial line-ups, as, for the second televised Albion Cup game in a row, they got it oh so wrong in suggesting a back three, behind a five of Dawson, Yacob, Morrison, Gardener and Brunt. Having said that the ESPN pundit for this game, Matt Jackson, had done enough homework to "highlight" the "alternative" deployment of Dawson, McAuley, Olsson and Lescott.

Whilst the Albion's two banks of four had much the better of the first half, it was much the better of a half in which boths sides seemed happy to give the ball away far too easily, some times being caught in possesion but most often with the footballing equivalent of Monty Python's "I fart in your general direction", the Python's passing of wind being replaced by the passing of the ball, by all and sundry.

And yet when, in the first ten or so minutes, Albion did use the ball well, they did more than enough to have built up a two-goal lead to defend for the remaining eighty, first when Ideye, in target-man role from a goal-kick, won a header under challenge which the defender sweeping up flick-ons failed to control and was subsequently disposessed by Gardener, with a tackle that would, had he been Yacob late on, seen him booked. As it was, five minutes into the game, the ref just let play continue, Gardener playing in Berahino but he could only shoot tamely, albeit on-target, from just inside the box.

The second, gilt-edged, triple-A rated, government-backed bond of a chance came a few minutes later when Dawson, once again popping up in his touchline-hugging-centre-back-as-full-back role - a role in which he wasn't completely overshadowed by Lescott either - fed Gardener, playing more inside, who advanced to the right side of the penalty box to delivered a glorious, on the ground, ball across the edge of the six-yard box where it was met by Ideye, who had worked just enough space ahead of his marker to create a tap-in opportunity.

Better players have put the ball higher, and from closer in, than he would, but probably not in a game where the miss would end up costing so much, let alone in an Albion shirt at the Holte End.

From the TV, it appeared that the "Justice for Jeff" applause was well observed by both sets of fans, although the thrust behind it was obvioulsy lost on the ESPN commentary team, who thus missed out on the opportunty to link Astle's sporting injuries from the 60/70s with the current clamour for more protection in the major US sports, fans of which would, no doubt, have comprised a large part of ESPN's audience.

With no sign of a diamond in the midfield, Morrison and Yacob's creativity lacked lustre, although both did put in the kind of defensive shift that will have pleased the gaffer, so no surprise that it would be Dawson's wing trickery that created the third best chance of the half which seemed to find Berahino not quite making contact just in front of Ideye, whose stooped attempt at a header to a ball he probably didn't think would reach him, wasn't then powerful enough to trouble the keeper.

The next closest we came to a goal was when Brunt, outside the box, slammed the ball into Olsson's arse, also outside the box, and the deflection headed goalwards, in that looping baloon-like way that only arse-induced defelctions can, requiring Guzan to tip it over the bar just to be on the safe side.

It wasn't until the 45th minute that Villa's Sinclair gave us a glimpse of why he wasn't good enough for the Albion, when after a dribble that saw him go past three players into the box, his cross let him down, although Olsson might well have got the all important deflection - all important if you were a Villa fan that is - however, the ball merely ended up clutched by a relieved Myhill.

Not clear what happened after the break, as it's not clear we altered all that much, though I suspect that Villa simply squandered posession less, resulting in them having more of the ball, at which point the law of averages kicked in, in their favour.

The opening goal came when, for probably the first time in the game, a Villa player got to run across the front of our back four, without it being protected by our four defensive midfielders, that lack of cover then compounding the effects of the run of Sinclair, which turned out to be a dummy run, in from the left, dragging Dawson out of the right-back area and it was into that space that Delph arrived to take the pass and finish, after five minutes of the second half, from a similar position to that from which Berahino had missed after five minutes of the first. Although much more fiercely struck than Saido's, Delph's shot seemed to go both under Dawson, doing his best to recover, and through Myhill, so perhaps we could claim to have been unfortunate, as on another day, it might have been blocked by either.

Have to say that I couldn't really see either yellow card that led to the two sendings off being worthy of a caution, the referee even letting Yacob come away with the ball before pulling up play to book him for a second time, whilst the injury time explusion of Grealish, only on for 10 minutes in total, for diving in the act of avoiding getting clattered seemed harsher still.

It would be Albion's need to throw caution to the wind, at one goal down, and one player down, that would see them concede a second goal. A free-kick just inside our half saw us push the centre- backs up - all four of them I think - with Myhill coming into the centre circle out to launch it into the Villa box, however, when our aerial threat failed to materialise, the resultant counter saw whoever was left holding the fort struggling to cope with the pace of the Villa break, and a neat turn turn inside the box by, who else but, Sinclar, left our defender on the deck, leaving the former to cap a fine performance against his former club with an instep-curled pass into the far side netting - a very well taken goal.

If there are any positives to be taken from a second loss in a week, and this one in the Cup, to a fierce local rival, they would have to be: the chances we created in the first ten minutes when we did seem to pass to each other; the fact that both clubs' relegation worries would have been eased by QPR losing earlier in the day, and the return to us now having a full complement of four centre-backs from which to choose, Olsson having got seventy or so minutes under his belt, although it'll obviously be be a while before his distribution gets back to its imperious best, before the Swede was replaced by McManaman, who will, longer term, surley be asked to do the job that Sinclair wasn't up to, although in this game, our latest potential holder of that role hardly got a touch of the ball, let alone enough time on it to make an impact.

A final (no pun intended) point. At the start of the game the commentary team were talking about how Villa Park was one of the "great grounds" of English football, but not bothering to mention the FA's move of as much as possible to the national stadium for such a long time now that many home fans are probably too young to recall the last time it hosted a non-Villa game, so just how long are the FA going to drag fans from all over the country down to a double-booked weekend of semi-final action, and over-priced accomodation, in the capital?

Paul Gainham:

I was going to pen some thoughts on Saturday night but found myself so consumed with anger any outpourings would have been full of expletives.

I should have guessed the evening would turn sour when the bloody official coaches did not get us to Villa Park until 10 mins after KO.

Anyway, another season passes without anything but survival to ‘look forward’ to. I know there have been many discussions on this but just how the hell are we ever going to attract tomorrows supporters when all that is on offer is blood, sweat, toil and tears to quote Churchill? Yet again, a seemingly good opportunity to progress and maybe even go on and win the bloody thing lost.

Question is why?

Villa are NOT a good team BUT what Sherwood has done if nothing else is inspire them, to believe, to fight. They wanted to win on Tuesday and Saturday whereas we under Pulis were set up not to lose both tactically and mentally. Within those differing approaches and perspectives lies the answer. I have no doubt if you were to analyse them both, Pulis is likely the better tactician and coach BUT he does have a fundamental flaw alas and that’s his inability to adapt, to change when things are not going well. Sherwood made two substitutions in the 2H to try and change things, Pulis did nothing until it was too late. One manager wanted to win the game, one wanted not to lose.

If a Pulis side takes a lead it will defend that as well as anyone. If it does not, there is NO plan B, it’s as if everyone looks at each other thinking s*** what do we do now, this was not in the script. His style worked really well at Palace because they had plenty of pace and craft in that team, we are utterly devoid of it.

The set up last night was weird, was it 4-4-2, 3-5-2??? At times I could not fathom it – it looked as though we had set up to maybe counter the threat from Benteke who of course did not play. But why oh why oh why dos he persist in playing players out of position. A RB who isn’t, a LB who isn’t, a LM who isn’t, a RM who isn’t and ZERO pace or craft. Is he doing this to make a point, is it arrogance?

Either way, Sherwood made him and us look like fools on two occasions because he did not adapt and that’s what really hurts.

We started the game OK and could have been 2-0 up but poor finishing did for us. It then looked like Sherwood rallied his troops and they came out fighting in the 2H and in Delph, Nzogbia and Sinclair they have a really mobile and skillful midfield trio who can cause damage as was to be the case.

Compare and contrast that to our labouring, pedestrian midfield (Morrison apart) – all we seemingly did all night was pass side wards, backwards and finally end up punting the ball forward to a very ineffective front duo.

Like on Tuesday, it was crying out for some creativity, some real craft in midfield and what does Pulis do, nothing. He brings on Mcmanaman with 20 mins left, Mulumbu with 10. Simply not good enough.

So all we have to look forward to, again, is a really dour scrap for survival. I have been a fan of this club for some 35 years and even my patience is now wearing really thin, god only knows where the support of tomorrow is going to come from.

Player Marks

Myhill 6 Could probably have done better for the 1st goal, overall was ok and his kicking was spotless.
Dawson 5 Not his biggest fan but I feel sorry for him, he is NOT a RB and it shows
Lescott 5 Did not always look comfortable, missed a real sitter of a header in the 2H
McCauley 6 Not his best game
Olsson 6 Did OK in the first half but not totally clear to me what role he was meant to be playing
Brunt 6 Better than Tuesday but still limited – no pace to get forward.
Morrison 7 The only real bright spark for me. He tried hard, tried to move the ball but at times looked lost
Gardner 3 Useless. Wayward passes, blind alley runs. He is out of position in LM but that was no excuse for his performance
Yacob 5 Made some useful tackles but he is oh so slow. Did not deserve to be sent off but that made little difference, Villa were on their way to winning by then
Berahino 4 Had a couple of half chances but did little else all night
Ideye 3 Missed a golden sitter in the 1H, overall play was shocking, a case of as you were

Subs

McManaman 4 Did little but only had 20 mins. Should have been on from the start
Mulumbu N/A Only had 10 mins, stupid substitution, he should have been on from the start

Pulis 1 Sorry Tony, twice you have been out maneuvered by Sherwood and have shown us the real flaw you have, an inability to adapt.