John

Thanks for that OBE. Things can only get better next season although I will miss those derby games. :winkold:

Someone phoned Tom Ross after the game and said he had heard he is to retire from broadcasting at the end of the season and that he plans to move to the south coast and is planning trips to Brighton, Portsmouth and Southampton to look at retirement flats from next August onwards. That had followed a nose having said it was the worst game he has seen in 35 years and that his kids were crying in the back of the car on the way back home. That brought tears to my eyes as well. :winkold: I also likerd this one: Alex McLeish was presented with a gift at the BCFC presentation evening tonight. It was the latest satellite navigation system. He tried it out on the way home and it told him to head to the expressway ignoring the sign for Villa Park and to head north bound on the M6 ignoring the M5 junction for West Bromwich and the later Wolverhampton turn off. It also advised him to carry straight on past the turn off for Stoke and the later turn offs for Manchester and for Liverpool. On continuing he was then advised to take the next turn off and after a relatively short journey was informed he had now reached his final destination of Oakwell.

Friedel, Walker, Cuellar, Clark, L.Young, A.Young, Delph, Reo-Coker, Bradley, Downing & Bent for me. With Robert coming on for the last 10 minutes to claim his standing ovation and our late winner! :winkold:

I think Luke Young answered this one for me ozvillafan when he said: 'As players, we can't make excuses. It's not ideal. We know, as a group, that where we are in the league isn't good enough". I can appreciate that the lack of stability will have been difficult and that our players did not known who their boss was likely to be at the start of the season and that they are now unsure who will be their boss at the start of next season (assuming they will still be with us) but we have some well paid pros who are better than they have shown on the field at times this season (particularly when playing for either KM or GM) and they have us and the shirts they wear to play for whoever sends them out to play. I had not expected sixth in these circumstances ozvillafan but I had not anticipated the fall from grace that we have seen and for us still to be looking over our shoulders with 2 tough games to go is not acceptable for me having had full regard to the circumstances and managerial merry-go-round. I know we have a history of finding wins hard to come by against both Stoke and Wigan at Villa Park but I had hoped that we would have taken 4 from the possible 6 points available from these 2 teams alone AVFCinSpain and having been given a goal start against a WBA team that ended the game with 10 men we really should not have lost that one either. As Luke has said things are in a mess and I agree that a decision needs to be made on who is to take us forward next season sooner rather than later to end this further instability as soon as it is reasonably possible to do so given our manager's ability to continue is currently open to question for both the players and I guess for GH and his family.

I had not heard that Cracker which explains things to some extent and yes I thought Gabby had his best game for a long time and ran a 7 close for me. I would have gone for one of the other options I mentioned Nigel and given what has been said on Marc I would have brought on Clark if I had made a change at all. Pirès made no impact on the game and for me at his age needs more time to influence a game than a few minutes at the end. But as you say all is well that ends well.

I doubt whether we would have been able to have found the cash at the time for Downing had it not been we were signing him when injured and for me that was a master stroke. Johnson like others who often share a bench with him put a move to Manchester City and the salary it brings them above football reasons for making a move there and may still view a move elsewhere to get regular first team football in much the same way.

Are they guessing like last time we would only be looking at managers who are not currently employed by a football club? If so, that would cut down on the options once again and leave us as possibly the only football club taking that moral high ground.

I share your dream Mantis!

Not his respect dodgyknees. :winkold:

I would put Cowans in charge for the last few games rather than KMac if we changed things at this stage.

Are we building a new stand? :winkold: I think Moyes will move to Manchester United when he does leave Everton and I don't want a manager in Rafa who is with us but would prefer to still be at Liverpool. :winkold: The special one it is then...

It is a very bitter pill to swallow spoonman and it has come as a shock although so did 86-87 so soon after our glory seasons and going back even further I did not see 69-70 coming at the start of that season. There are highs and lows as a Villa fan and I had not thought we could sink this low again so soon but we have the time to turn it around and the players to make it happen as England's second goal today shows. But I wish I could feel more confident about us doing it as things stand.

He is Ironsid and he is a Villa legend!

I'm with you JPA18 it has to be worth another look but I suspect our manager will not go that way as he seems reluctant to change his mind once it is has been made up as Warnock's absence whatever our player shortage has been has demonstrated.

If we can't turn over Wolves at home we really are in trouble! For me it is a question of how many we beat them by rather than if we beat them. We did Blackburn 4-1 last time at Villa Park and I see us taking Wolves by the same score or they might have a good day and get a late goal to make it 4-2. :winkold: I know local derby games can be tight but I think Billy Wright was their captain when they last started a game against us expecting to win it.

Oh and there was also that blatent push on Ash by Steinsson as he prepared to take the penalty. But, it was not a good penalty was it and we do have a very able potential replacement for our spot kicks in Bent.

So the Manchester City selections gave us no points although we did play well for much of the game but when we missed that penalty that would have made it 3-1 and out of reach for them I did fear the worst as we struggle to see games out near the end even with a full strength defence. I thought Wheater was lucky still to be on the field to head the ball into Klasnic's path for their winner given he had been booked after his challenge on Ash that led to the penalty (how on earth was he not booked for that?). Had he gone off no doubt Cahill would also not have been pushed up so often. Sour grapes? No doubt about it!

Yes he did theunderstudy and thanks. Nelsen's first card was for for the foul on Ash in the lead up to our third. Good points RotaxMax125. But, I would suggest that Pirès may have been happy enough to come off when he did (he is no spring chicken after all) and the job was done by then. :winkold:

I think it was a nice simple message that came from the heart. I have no problem with this banner or with the chant from the Holte End and I'm sure Small Heath would have expected nothing less from us. I just wonder why Arsenal would need any luck given who they are playing (surely that is more than enough luck already)...

Enjoy it, welcome and let us know what you thought of the experience afterwards.

Without Brad they may easily have doubled their score tonight. This was always going to be tough for us and losing a goal at the start might have led to a goal fest a few weeks ago as it did at Citeh and we also showed good spirit to peg them back to 2-1 having gone 2-0 down at the end of the first half. The signs are positive for the rest of the season as they are for Makoun with us and if we perform like this (other than at the back) we could well do the same to Fulham at the weekend (in what remains a 6 pointer) as was done to us tonight.

Not a lot aztattooedsean. It has given us a massive mountain to climb and could not have been worse in my opinion. I see Manchester United & Arsenal got two the clubs I was after for us. But, I think it will be a little closer up there than the league game was. :winkold:

Thanks Richard, why I used a z above is beyond my comprehension. :oops: Pirès it is then. :winkold:

It is a horrible, horrible draw. Manchester United getting Crawley just stinks as does Arsenal getting little Orient, Chelsea facing a home tie against Reading and Spurs getting a home game too. I know it was not a fix but this draw for all the current top 5 suggests the sort of combined luck that is stretching things very near to being implausible. Manchester City have been poor away in the cup to date against teams they should really beat at the first time of asking. But being at home will ease their concerns as will our record there. We face a huge mountain to climb. Getting the trophy was never going to be easy and we were bound to face a tough game or two but I had hoped we would not have faced one such as this quite as early and not away from home at the very least.

The ITV coverage was terrible nothing other than the goals and the sending off it was a shock they had time to show that!