ciggiesnbeer

Today lets face it, in the first half Samba owned him. That is not a slam on Tekkers, it is praise for Samba who was truly immense the first half. As always though Tekkers came through, I was dissapointed when he ignored the open Zog in the second half though and selfishly took a shot.

The last tie I saw such a dodgy ref was when we played Manchester City, the other money bags club.....

I like the tippy tappy stuff. Because it is possession and when you have possession you are not defending and lets face it defending is still a massive problem for us. The past two games we have played the possession style we did at the start of the season, we are a much better team when we do it. Also because of our forwards mix (Gab=pacey+ strong, Tekkers=big + accurate, Weimann=workrate+vision) we can always throw in a direct ball or ball into space when we like. It is a great mix to put in front of a team playing possession football. More please Lambert, more please.

I loved the moment when he was a clear ten yards behind two QPR defenders running after a ball into space and he beat both of them. He isnt that fast he is just willing to have his lungs burst for the cause. Class lad.

Don't jinx it FFS. saying that will bring bad luck Bad luck? I think Villa have tapped out the bad luck well, there aint any left Nah I am supremely confident we will be fine. I have no evidence for this, my bit has just flipped. I am now convinced we will stay up.

Glorious win. I have complete confidence we will eat QPR as well. Safe, safe, we are gonna be safe.

Out of the relegation zone today chaps and never to go back into it this season. Done. We may not be better than many teams but Reading is one of them.

Good that is how they should be read Monkeeeeeeeeeee!!!

For no reason I have just woken up with an unjustified sense of optimism. I am now convinced we will stay up. I have no idea where this bolt of unwarranted optimism just came from , but there you are. Yes I am sober.

Hey Paul. Lots of goodwill from the fans all season mate. Time to start winning some games son.

\Mark I absolutlely love the outlook you have there, and I would love to share it I really would. I guess my acceptance of relegation is basically an attempt for me to spend longer living with that eventuality so that when it happens I am deadened to it and it has less of an impact. Same. I admire supporters who still believe we will stay up I just cannot do it. For me the club announced loud and clear they accepted relegation after non action in the January window I simply accepted their decision. Our form is poor and while we may have some decent performances occasionally they translate into nothing points wise.

I love your positivity. Not sure we are playing better than a few months ago though. Glancing at the past ten games we have got 6 points. Wigan 9, Reading 14, QPR 10 Southampton 11. Even if you just take the past 6 games (our slightly better results) thats still just 5 points, only Stoke are worse with 4 points.

Surprised by so much optimism. For me the season was over after the club surrendered in January during the transfer window. Our spine was broken by the three terrible games of December. We have never recovered. No amount of "must win" games is going to change that. This team cannot recover because it does not have the players to recover.

He remains a fairly generous owner. Has put a lot of money in and is gradually scraping his way to making the club breakeven. He made some very poor hiring and spending decisions but boy has he paid for them. I still think for someone who wants to put in another hundred million AVFC could be a packed stadium again and profitable even with high earning star footballers, but that is not the plan any more. I accept he tried for that and it didnt work out so now we are going to be run cheaply. It is what it is.

Nah its Mike Dean. edit: beaten * *much like we will be. :

Zero optimism. This team always snatches defeat from the jaws of victory. Sorry they have beaten the hope out of me. I now just expect us to lose and assume we are already relegated. I try and watch a game with an eye to next season seeing how well we might play in the championship. Assuming we retain a few of our average players (the good ones will be gone obviously) I think we may be mid table. Which is better than the Wolves freefall going on.

Considering the dogs abuse he got from Villa fans over the years I thought Rafa was a gent after our spanking. He said very complimentary things about the team and went out of his way to ease the pain as much as he could. I remain grateful to him for that, he could have put the boot in.

Optimism rising after Black January. I still think we are going down but I am getting more optimistic for next season in the championship. If we can hold onto our good players we maybe in with a shot at coming bac up next year.

Yeah. Dont get me wrong , relegation sucks, but I would sooner that than a club meltdown.

Mentally I am now in the post relegation era. I am quite optimistic the club will get its costs under control after a season or two in the championship. I would sooner have a stable championship Aston Villa than doing a QPR which is going to melt down and possibly cease to exist as a club when their crazy spending catches up with them.

35 points might be enough. But we are not going to get 35 points so it doesnt really matter. Mathematically relegated at the Norwich game I reckon.

I am the same. I am not really even angry about it any more. It is what it is.

Yeah, its a shame but I am past the anger now. Just gonna try and look forward to next season as much as I can. We wont come straight back up but we may win a few games.

I started the window thinking we would spend the 20 million needed to keep us up. By the end as I realised the club have assumed relegation and planning for the championship I expected no signings at all. The two at the end are a nice little bonus at this point. They maybe useful next season in the championship as we bobble along mid table. Grats Villa you have changed my expectations. It hurt less than i thought it would!

Why the hell are people shocked and angry? The time for that was Jan 1st. The club signalled then they were willing to let us go down. We have all known the club have assumed relegation for weeks. If anything I am pleased we have got in a few championship level players for next season to give us some continuity when our good players leave in the summer.