John

"And Sanchez and cissokho who are Nailed on XI players now." Agreed StefanAVFC but the summer budget we signed them from was still some way off what was needed and only Burnley spent less than we did I think.

It does not look cast iron does it? But any sort of news/rumour of money coming into the club or Randy getting the money he wants to make the sale he wants to make is welcome at the moment. Now show us the money Fruity King....

We are playing them at the wrong time but there is never a good time for us to play them these days. I think we might as well have a go at them because we will not keep a clean sheet no matter how negative or deep we may try to play.

These recent errors are a worry and will not help his confidence. I wonder whether Lambert is having him play short passes and throws to defenders because his longer clearances have been losing us possession too often?

Anyone but that Nose to score. Poor from Guzan.

As far as potential signings that did not quite ever happen how about Bergkamp, Lineker, Hans Krankl, Gazza and Dave Mackay? "Darren Fletcher was the kind of player that was ridiculed for large parts of his career, always not been good enough for United, but in the end he became a very important player. He has excellent tactical and analytical skills on the pitch, he makes other players better. A bit like Carrick at the moment," Or a bit like Cleverley might yet become Papillon? I think the question is whether Fletcher's illness has and will have an ongoing impact on him. A loan move would be worth considereing but I would guess the usual clubs for ex-Manchester United players who have already been linked with him will be a more likely destination for him. If Keane is available and wants to join us I would not say no to that. He is another player we almost got and that we did at long last see in a Villa shirt albeit for only a couple of games. He is not getting any younger but he would offer us an option that we would need up front in the event of another injury or suspension and the price would be right for us.

"The loans will be part of a sale price I think" and that is why the price he wants has put potential buyers off suttonpaul. He made cash from selling the Browns but then lost big money to Mrs L. He cannot expect to break even without selling off the family jewells or should I say the clubs? Is it time for Randy to have a word with our former owner to suggest he puts some of the millions he took out of the club to have the stand that has his name on it kept on it?

We should have offered him a new contract during last season. He might have signed it then as might have Delph but we took our eyes of the ball and neither would now following their respective World Cup and England call up. What part of "The manager has said he won't let me leave during the season" does Vlaar not understand? He clearly cannot wait to leave us can he? He adds "but I don't know what will happen if clubs come in for me". Let me explain Ron. You will stay where you are and see out the contract that we have with you unless someone makes us an offer we cannot refuse at a point we think your departure will not put our safety in question. So you had better get those boots on, start getting points on the board for us and tell your agent or the club you may have had a word with that their bid needs to be something other than peanuts to stand any chance of being accepted! Shades of Dwight about this sadly. Don't let the exit door hit you on the backside when you run out of our club sooner or later!

He did have a decent game and is getting better with each one lexicon. But he does still make the odd rash challenge around his own penalty area and hit the occasional wayward pass. He did both in this game late in the second half when giving away a free kick on the edge of the box and with that 50/50 ball he played to Westwood. He was near to a 7 for me but I went for a 6 in the end although it is a matter of opinion and I thank you for adding your own.

"Peter Withe John?" That was not a direct move ROTTERDAM82 as would be a move for Gray now. Peter had served his time having been out of Small Heath for 4 years and at 2 other better clubs than them before he joined us.

Nice draw. We will not be playing many if any of the first team but surely can win this one at home... 540 minutes from Ron or Gabby going up to lift the FA Cup?

"Apparently Ings could be available for about £3m as he is out of contract in the summer". I guess Burnley would feel the same about selling him for £3m as we would selling Delph and Vlaar for the same Rotterdam1982. As far as Gray is concerned he looks good in flashes at that level but he is tarnished goods now he has been on the dark side for me. I think we need to set our sights a touch higher in this window.

"I hate the FA Cup, always have done, always will". I have what has happened to the FA Cup R.Bear and what Lambert said about it was an insult to a competition that we have a very good record in albeit not for many years now. I hope to see us win it one season rather than to see it as just something that gets in the way of our annual relegation battle. But as Villa fans we are all entitled to our opinions different as they may sometimes be.

Thanks for reading osmark86.

Bring them on! Any team outside of the top 4 divisions that is.....

Source: Player Match Ratings: City outfoxed as we win again!

Is this our worst ever five game unbeaten run? We have clung on grimly to either avoid defeat or to hold onto a lead at the end of these games or for the majority of them rather than claimed these points with free flowing football. But two hard earned back to back wins following on from our three previous draws has given us 9 points. These points have taken us half way to the 38 points total that should prove sufficient to secure our place in the top flight this season which currently represents the limit of our club’s ambition. This run of games has moved us from the edge of the relegation zone to the top of the bottom half of the league. The grit and determination shown by the players we have been able to call upon during these games has seen us move above Everton and within 2 points of Spurs and Liverpool. These are teams that nobody would class as being relegation candidates so although our run has seldom been pretty it has been effective. We must also remember that we started this run of games in a fragile state following 5 successive defeats. Our team now has the confidence that comes from two successive wins and an unbeaten run. We are not yet clear of relegation concerns as another dismal run of results could see us plummet down the table again. But we are in a far better situation than we had been and can now face our coming trip to The Hawthorns with some degree of confidence. Our visitors arrived looking up at all of the teams above them but hoping that our poor home record could see them take a positive result from Villa Park. The attendance was again low albeit for a televised game on another cold Monday night with the festive spending season fast approaching. But it was boosted by an increased away support rather than by any significant influx of returning home fans from the 25,311 who were at the Southampton game to the 27,692 who witnessed last night’s second home victory of the season. We had more possession, shots on target and most importantly goals than our opponents last night. We responded well to going a goal down drawing level 4 minutes later rather than allowing our heads to drop. We also scored our first second half goal this season to claim all 3 points at home for the first time since August. Prior to last night we had taken only 61 points from our last 61 home games and had dropped 8 points in the last 10 minutes in games this season. But we were solid at the back and retained the ball well last night although particularly in the first half our build up was slow and we did drop back too deep against 10 men as the end neared. We were the better team last night. It was not as comfortable a win as it might have been but it was a deserved and an important one. My player ratings from a game during which fireworks were seen behind the North Stand in the second half that I take it were celebrating our rare home win are: Brad Guzan – 6 – Looked less comfortable than we have come to expect last night and continues to find difficulty with distributing the ball. He will have been unhappy to not have done better with their goal on 13 minutes. Brad was wrong footed by Mahrez’s shot that had taken a slight deflection off Clark on its way through and which he could only push with one hand to the lurking Ulloa. He was also a touch hesitant in coming off his line on 24 minutes when Cambiasso played the ball for Vardy to run onto but he still just managed to reach the ball first. However he produced the save of the game on 68 minutes when he did so very well to push over a well hit goal bound shot from the edge of the box from Nugent. Alan Hutton – 8 – MOTM – Has been a revelation this season and maintained his consistency last night. Solid at the back and a threat when moving forward Alan scored his first Villa goal and our winner last night on 71 minutes. Gabby made a great run from the edge of his own penalty area before finding Benteke who in turn found Alan who had made a good run into the box. Alan then proceeded to chest the ball down before coolly drilling the ball between Schmeichel and the near post. On the downside Alan was fortunate to stay on the field when he reacted to the late challenge from Konchesky that led to his 80th minute sending off. He showed he had learnt nothing from Benteke’s sending off against Spurs in similar circumstances by jumping up, going head to head with Konchesky and then pushing him away to give the referee an opportunity to make him see red. But Konchesky had stood over him having made a tackle that merited a yellow card in itself and rightly was considered the guiltier of the two. Ciaran Clark – 8 – Continues to look very solid in partnership with Okore. Scored our equalizer on 17 minutes when he did so well to run onto Westwood’s inch perfect free kick and plant his diving header past Schmeichel having lost his defender. Ciaran was denied a second from a 79th minute corner when Schmeichel kept his header out at the foot of a post. Jores Okore – 8 – Another very encouraging performance. Aly Cissokho – 6 – Played his part in securing our win. Charles N’Zogbia – 5 – Disappointing and his starting place must be under threat from Grealish. Ashley Westwood - 6 – Ashley was having a decent game before he was felled by a reckless and late challenge from Vardy. With Ash on the floor following the incident Vardy then had the cheek to argue against the yellow card he got away with when a red had seemed the more appropriate punishment. Ashley’s perfectly flighted and executed free kick led to our equalizer and we can but hope that his injury is not as bad as it had looked. Carlos Sánchez – 6 – Looking more comfortable with each first team outing he gets. Tom Cleverley – 6 – A competent display and might have scored on 48 minutes when Benteke found him with a nice ball but he snatched at the opportunity sending it over the bar. Gabriel Agbonlahor – 7 – Cleverley found him well on 56 minutes but his cross which was bound for Benteke was deflected clear by Schmeichel’s outstretched leg. His runs, crosses and pace were a regular threat for City. Hit a dangerous cross to the near post on 51 minutes which both Richardson and Schmeichel went for and which resulted in a corner. Christian Benteke – 7 – Might have had two or three on another night and is near to his match winning best. Christian was unable to quite get into position in time to stretch out a leg to a dangerous 2nd minute cross from Cissokho and was inches wide with a shot that flashed across the goalmouth 10 minutes later. He was found on the edge of the box by Cleverley on 39 minutes but his shot was deflected wide by a defender. Richardson then provided him with a one on one situation with the keeper on 53 minutes but Schmeichel’s knee deflected his shot just wide of the post. Christian was again denied by a good reaction save from Schmeichel on 78 minutes when he got a header on target following a great cross from Grealish. Substitutes: Kieran Richardson – 6 - Replaced Westwood on 44 minutes and did well. Jack Grealish – 6 - Replaced Cleverley on 62 minutes. Jack is prepared to run at defenders and did so to some good effect following his introduction. Might have settled the game on 84 minutes when Bacuna played a nice ball to Gabby whose pace took him past a defender before he crossed for Jack but his shot was blocked by a defender. Leandro Bacuna – Replaced N’Zogbia on 76 minutes and did well enough in the time he had which was not long enough to gather a rating. Up the Villa! John Lewis

I would like to think as a club we would want to try to hold onto Benteke by buying a few players of the right quality to play alongside him during this and the next window. But I suspect he will be gone during those next windows albeit having secured our status with his goals before his sadly inevitable departure.

I doubt we would be able to get enough for naming rights on individual stands to make it worth doing at the present. If we were going to do it I would think we would need to sell the naming rights for the whole ground but I doubt we would attract the sort of names we would need to attract to pay enough to do that. It would smack to me of looking for short term money either for players because the owner is not prepared to spend any more of his own money (or the SKY money) on that or he is looking to get back some/any of the money he put into the club in any way possible through this and possibly "profitable player trading" as it was once described at Villa Park. I hope we will not sell naming rights to any bidder at any price for short term gain but take a grain of comfort in the fact that the story is in "The Mirror".

We really need to win this one and to keep our unbeaten run going. I think we might just do it. A crowd of 28,000 for me at best given the time of the year and because it is on the box again despite our visitors not having too far to travel.

I have aways thought Graham Taylor would make a good director of football but we seem to think we can do without one MuleAthon. It is a number two/coach we need to replace Roy as it stands tonight and I think the vacancy is not one for a relative unknown.

"When did we last beat Palace?" In 1998 3-1 at Villa Park BleedClaretAndBlue and our last league win at Palace was 1-0 in 1980. In the FA Cup we also beat them in 2010 2-1 at Villa Park.

Curbs is more of a number one than a number two. But he has been waiting for the right job offer for a very long time now so he might well make the move with one eye to being in the right place at the right time should we need a caretaker manager at some point. That may be why he might not get that call from our current manager.

We would be mid-table if games only lasted 80 minutes. We had the better of the game and should have won it but we just cannot see out games. Cole showed his class today and we showed how fragile our confidence is to the extent we could have lost the game at the end.

"I said RON!!!!!" and I mentioned Dean NIVillan.