MikeMcKenna

Indeed it was Mark. Just got home to bournemouth after a wonderful day! It was great walking away from the ground, everyone was buzzing, heads held high and rightly proud. It's been a long time coming. We have just beaten the league leaders fair and square!

Agree with your point about KEA, he worked his socks off, didn't stop running and harried all game. However I would also disagree with John on Westwood. He doesn't give the ball away but in my opinion he isn't strong enough to be our kingpin, he cannot put his stamp on games and ultimately that is the big problem. Also apart from a couple of nice moves I thought this wasn't one of Delph's best games.

Despite everything I decided to back Lambert a few months ago and it has been very, very difficult. So as I could say little that was positive I decided to keep my comments to myself. However on Sunday I did for the first time in a long time wonder following the Bacuna goal if he might be onto something. I know Benteke's goal got all the headlines, but Bacuna's goal was a fantastic team goal and great finish. Our midfield is still generally poor but IF Lambert can persuade Lerner to spend on a bit of CM quality in the summer the tide may start to turn. I am still of the opinion that Lambert took on a poisoned chalice in agreeing to manage the club on a shoestring and that few others would have made much difference. In for a penny etc - I would give him another season. The fans have had to suffer some absolute **** for the last four seasons and it would be great if Lambert's "project" could start to click next season.

I I have to say to an extent felt for Lambert during the first 25 minutes, he was getting the dogs abuse from a couple of complete ***** behind the dug out and it was clearly getting to him. I know it goes with the territory but these guys were pretty abusive and despite everything I think it is unacceptable.

I really hope that isn't what happened. It is definitely what happened. I couldn't hear what was said but the actions were as I have said. Lambert wanted a word with the guy, was pointing and shouting in his direction, took his coat off with a clear intent. Fortunately a few fans and security got to the guy first and bundled him away - lambert was absolutely fuming.

I don't know if this has been posted but following our third goal, Lambert celebrated and then immediately turned to a Villa fan behind the Norwich dugout who I assume had been giving him grief. Lambert was gesticulating that he wanted a word and shouting at this bloke who then came rushing down the front row to the edge of the Villa dugout and was pounced on by a few fans and security. Lambert took his coat off as if he was going to go toe to toe for a scrap and was going crazy. The "fan" was escorted away by a couple of security fans and I assume thrown out. If you have video'd the game, watch how lambert snaps round and looks at someone behind the dugout after the goal and a moment later you will see him without his coat, despite the fact that it was pissing down.

Maybe! He makes some very interesting points but sounds like a bitter man to me.For me, HairyHands was a total Lambert apologist, as well as being somewhere in the Lambert "magic circle"and Howard H, despite sharing his initials, doesn't sound like he's been too pally with PL for a while. Absolutely not the same person. Howard Hodgson may have got bits and pieces from the Directors box but not on the coaching side. Hodgson whether you agree with him or not has never hidden his identity.

I go to the VP in the hope that: 1. I will be entertained 2. See some good football played by AVFC 3. We will get a result Edit and 4. I can support my team - however it's all one way and the love isn't returned! The reality is that none of these have happened very often this season (or in any of the last three) but we still pay through the nose for the lack of pleasure I know some go to see mates, have a piss up or a combination of both but ultimately you could do the same at the local pub and have more money to spend on beer and avoid all the angst and boredom!

Without getting carried away with the likes of Cantona who we could never have signed, I reckon Robbie Keane first time round. He would have been a legend and made a massive difference at the time. John Gregory not signing him was a massive **** up!

Irrespective of what OGS did WE WERE better in the second half. I am all for being critical where it is due but we played better and if you didn't think we did you need to check your vision.

Sorry ozvillafan, but I cannot see how anyone can claim that we can get into the top 6 unless our current investment strategy changes. If PL revolutionised the coaching, tactics, formations etc tomorrow it may bring us some short term entertainment but everyone knows that our squad is just not good enough. We are to dependent on a few key people. If Vlaar sustained a long term injury our defence would be very shaky. Without Benteke (even out of form) even less of threat. We have no one in the middle who can make a difference or change games. Marc Albrighton who many of us have never rated as anything special is now one of the few bright lights in a very poor team. Our defence and midfield are probably the worst we have had for years. I am not saying we need "truck loads of money" but that at the moment it is seems more like a couple of bucketfuls are being employed. In fact I am also not saying (anymore) we must attain top 6 to be fulfilled as fans. We are one of 20 clubs in what is supposed to be the top football league in the world acting like a club from the championship, signing championship players and playing championship standard football most of the time. Yet every home game 34-38000 of us mugs turn up hoping to see just a glimmer of some premier league standard football only to see us win but three games this year, five last season, and only four the season before. The only game we won fair and square this season was against Cardiff and even that was dire. The Baggies game has been the only exciting one all season and that could have easily gone either way and we were lucky to beat man city 3-2. No wonder the Holte has lost its voice - they are probably finding it difficult to stay awake never mind sing! It is unbelievable that we have won just TWELVE League home games out of 50. We need just two wins out of six to equal last seasons tally but I wonder how many people would bet on it. I applaud your optimism but cannot see where it comes from. The so called "project" is a joke and PL, RL and PF are either on a fools errand, feeding us BS or living in cloud cuckoo land if they think we can rise again - UNLESS they intend to start spending again in the summer and even then it might be too late and not enough. Like many I very naively believed that PL could break the mould but the "project" isn't progressing and I do not think it ever will.

Agree to an extent he never set the world of fire and maybe he has grown in confidence. He hasn't had many starts and at least gives us something that no one else does - width.

When I first read this, I said to my son "you watch Bent will now come on for Fulham and score!"

Mark, I see your point and would say that my post is in the context of the current ownership and the strategies being employed. Currently whether we the fans "keep our expectation high and never stop striving.." IMO it makes no difference at the moment - we are more marginalised and more apathetic than ever before. The protests under Ellis may not have had a significant impact on the ultimate outcome but at least they gave those involved a channel for their anger and passion. Now we point a finger at the over commercialisation of football, our inability to compete, wring our hands, accept our lot and thank whoever for small mercies! Now many view our current strategy as progress and believe that there is something at the "end of the rainbow" - 8-10th place is considered our new gold standard.

The reality is that we have had bad spells under most if not all of our owners in the past 50 years but there is a difference now to any time before.We always fervently believed that we could turn the corner, pick ourselves and in time generate new momentum. Given what we know about our strategy, project Imho top 10 is the BEST we can ever do. If some are happy with that I respect your opinion. However I am not, as it seems like we have given up on all but surviving and are in some kind of limbo hoping that a miracle will happen while playing absolutely dire football most of the time. That said I am also a realist and accept that unless we are taken over by an even richer billionaire we will never compete for CL and I reiterate I can accept that. BUT I would like my team to show a degree of ambition, do better that winning 4/5 games a season at home, give the likes of Everton and clubs of a similar level a run for their money and not be constantly fearing relegation.

I am not saying we are "fading into obscurity" - I think we are already there. Surviving in the PL is not for me at least anything to be proud of and that is nothing to do with "disrespecting" other clubs. Many of our fans may get something out of still being on the periphery of the "elite" but I am only interested in what we do. You say the "situation isn't quite as bad" and i disagree totally. In all my time supporting AVFC this is the worst ever - if you have no hope, you have nothing and surviving or thinking top 10 is satisfactory is ambition less. Unlike most of our fans I am very, very lucky and have seen Villa win everything bar the FA Cup and visa versa have known harder times than now in terms of our league standing. The difference now however is that despite everything in the past there was always hope, a belief that we were punching below our weight and that better times would eventually come. We rightly believed back in the 90s and early 2000s that we could have done better than the occasional 6th position, but now many fans view top ten as the best we are likely to achieve and more strangely seem content using as you do the argument that "others" are worse off and we should simply be happy to be in the PL and not having "been relegated for years".

Of the seven teams who have been ever present in the PL; Man U, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, AVFC, Tottenham, Everton, we are the only ones that have really been cut adrift with little or no hope of challenging again for top 6. In the final months of ellis's ownership of the club, I posted something about being on the "The Road to Obscurity" and that the club would eventually end up as a non entity in the grand scheme of things if he didn't sell. Under his leadership we were destined never to achieve, win any honours or even challenge. Even when we were in the old third division no one would have said we were in obscurity; insignificant, unimportant, deficient of light. Villa fans and others always knew we would come back. However at the time, I envisaged "obscurity" as us being relegated and fighting it out in the lower leagues for years. I never thought just 7/8 years later that "obscurity" would become a reality in the bottom half of the PL. But IMHO that is exactly where we are now. Now it would take a brave man to forecast that we will one day rise from the proverbial ashes and as a minimum challenge for top 6. With this in mind as each season passes I am finding it harder and harder to sustain the 300 mile round trip every fortnight. Especially as I also know that whether I attend or not will not matter to the powers that be. Despite all the crap coming out the club, we no longer count. As a club we have lost our way, have no vision for the future and the current strategy is not going to achieve anything other that a constant battle for survival. The constant round and round arguments & bitching on VT illustrates that we must be among the most disunited fans around and the negativity/positivity makes not a jot of difference to what is happening to our once great club. We are now in obscurity.

While our defending was poor, the reality is that our inability to break down teams going forward was the main cause of the defeat. We simply hadn't got a clue when we had the ball. I really cannot understand why we didn't start with Albrighton. Every time he plays he has a significant effect. Whereas Wiemann drifts in and out of games yet seemes to have a guaranteed place in the starting line up.

Really don't like sports journos from the rags, but when I see "articles" which state "no time frame" and that are simultaneously supportive in that "owner Randy Lerner and Villa CEO Paul Faulkner are their own men who do not bow to fan pressure" it really suggests to me that Nursey has been briefed. Only my opinion of course but yet again, it seems that PF et al are talking "off the record" to the press but have got sweet **** all to say to the fans. I understand the need to keep the press on side but I **** hate the fact that the fans are always very secondary and very much taken for granted! Frankly I don't give a **** whether they sell the naming rights - it will always be Villa Park for me and thousands of fans. How about a bit of honest communication Mr.Faulkner instead of allowing rumour and speculation to fill the vacuum?

I have been thinking for while now about what RL is up to and despite all the rumours that he is likely to sell, I reckon he could be in for the long haul. While he has not shown a great deal of business nous at times, it might be wrong to think he is quitter and the thought of failing again might be unpalatable for him. I have absolutely no substantial ITK other than as I wrote on here last year, that someone at the club told me that they were "very excited by the future plans for the next 18 months" . I trust this person, they had no reason to BS me but they were convinced that there are exciting times ahead but would divulge nothing further. So my theory is that once Lerner/Lambert have cleared the decks of the remainder of the bomb squad (Summer 2014?) we may see a major round of investment in the squad. While it may be true that RL is looking for additional investment! I wouldn't be surprised if he has no intention of selling up. Cleveland browns was his Dads club, I don't think his heart was in it. He inherited as he did his wealth. AVFC was (is?) his chance to achieve something in his own right and maybe he doesn't want to walk away? As regards his non-attendance at matches, I think it maybe that, knowing the history of Villa fans protests against Ellis and his wish to avoid the limelight, he doesn't want to become a lighting rod for discontent during our period of "austerity". My theories might be off the wall but I really wouldn't be surprised if we "go again" starting this summer, albeit in a different way to the MON years. Putting my helmet on!!!

John during the 5-5 v Spurs I witnessed what I think was the best headed goal I have ever seen . IIRC either Willie Hamilton or Jimmy McEwan (probably McEwan) crossed a ball from way out on the right, Hateley was outside the penalty box (20 yards) and headed the ball which such power it shook the back of the net. The header was as powerful as many direct shots - stunning! I was talking about that game with Tony Hateley and Alan Deakin 18 months/ 2 years ago and they were having some banter about the dying moments of the game when they were both trying to force the ball over the line to win 5-6 but it was so muddy they couldn't get a boot on it :-) in the 2nd half, despite the conditions, we were absolutely incredible and ran Spurs ragged.

He may not be "malicious" but he has certainly been incompetent. He took a club that was very poorly managed (from a business perspective) and within 5-7 years turned it into a club that is as poorly managed. Mr Lerner means as much to me as I am do to him. He is but another mega rich man who fancied a dabble with a famous sporting institution. Whoever he eventually sells to will be much the same but will hopefully have deeper pockets, realise that success in the PL require big investment and good leadership.

FFS Den That would be pathetic!

Rubbish player - still cannot believe we signed him!

John I saw the 5-5 against Spurs, incredible game. I remember their pitch was like a quagmire. We nearly nicked it in the final minute but due to the state of the pitch none of our players could get the ****** ball over the line!! One the greatest Villa come backs I ever saw.