roonst83

Agree with this. I really like what I have seen of Tish so far and I'm always disappointed when I see his name missing from the starting XI. It's as though Bruce made up his mind about him from the Wolves game.

Feared the worst when someone posted that we're the only unbeaten team at home. That and the fact our midfield is weak as piss. Need to fo for them now.

Excellent.

100% This.

Yeah SB said he had a very bad dead leg and I also recall reading that he said Saturday may come too soon. But I could be (and hope I'm) wrong.

The analogy is quite apt considering we've been getting screwed at home for years...

Time to stop pissing about and stand up and be counted. Go get the win.

We need three in the middle. The current formation isn't working. We have to rely on our attackers to get us the win whereas having a protected defence and a tight back line would be able to see us over the finish line in games when we're ahead. Just don't ever expect us to win. We have a weak mentality at the moment with conceding late so often and throwing points (and games) away. Add to that the fact we haven't won way in nearly 14 months means we're desperate to get this monkey off our back. Need to win away at some point. Hope we do it tomorrow.

I'm only keeping my eyes on how far away from 6th we are as that's our best chance of promotion, in my opinion. There's just far too much work to do since RDM took over in clearing out the dead wood, bringing in new faces and getting them to gel etc to enable us to mount a strong challenge for automatic. The playoffs may prove too far a stretch if we don't start getting results soon, then we'll be in a position where we're playing catch up to try and reach mid table.

Better than us, for sure. But not bigger.

Win. Please Villa just win. Big local derby with Forest on a high on the back of a couple of wins and us on the back of a very poor loss. Hopefully have a couple more additions into the squad by then and also Tish back in the midfield. Really need to pick ourselves up and do what we can to win here. We've got two weeks to have a long hard look at ourselves in training and pull together, unite and get a much needed three points.

Really could do with getting three points here. As always, every game is tough in the Championship, especially away from home. We have been unlucky to not get more from recent games but there will hopefully be a game, like against Rotherham, where we take our chances. Having a full week to prepare could be vital and hopefully gives opportunity for Jedinak to work with his midfield as well as Gestede chance to recover from his injury. Dr Xia has spoken quite openly about trying to secure a no.9 and a full back this week so a couple of new players could be brought in as well as a couple departing. Bristol City will make it difficult, of course, but we need to get an away win sooner rather than later so it doesn't become our Achilles heel. Hoping this Saturday will be the day.

Can see this being an open game. I am hoping Derby come at us strong as this may give us chance to catch them on the break and open them up. Feels similar to the Wednesday game. Derby have some decent players and their fans will be well up for getting behind their team for a first home win of the season. I agree with some of the other comments above that whilst I'm never confident with villa, I do think e have shown more about us in the opening few games. A draw wouldn't be a bad result at all, but we should be looking at winning this. No f*ck-ups from our defenders and keepers would help, and hopefully Jedi can get in amongst it for his first start to add some steel to the middle. If we play Gestede, then we need to be using him effectively and supplying him where we can. I think he's linked up quite well with McCormack. An away win would bring us masses of confidence and we are due one. The longer we go without winning away, the more it becomes a hoodoo and a hurdle we need to get past. Saturday is an opportunity for this. Teams like Blues and Wolves seem to be able to deliver on the road in these situations, so we need to be getting some wins away from home. Wont be easy at all, most games won't be in this league, but it could be massive for us if we can get an away win at Pride Park in front of the SKY cameras.

Good work Chewie. What about the games where we're not on sky? Do you think there's any chance of getting highlights?

Like the look of this team. I mean, it won't happen but I like the look of it.

Clark, for me, is our modern version of Ridgewell. Gives you boundless effort, but ultimately isn't good enough. The problem with Clark is his faults in games cost goals, and he's cost us plenty. His mistake for ROI against Belgium was indicative of the player he is unfortunately. He over committed and completely missed the ball and got punished on an attack. It's happened countless times for us. Always liked him as a person, he seemed to have the right attitude but wasn't cut out for the Prem. He'll do okay for Newcastle but we need better CBs if we want to lose our weakness in defending.

Aside from Ravel following some of our players on Twitter, is there anything else that tells us he could join us?

Very tough opener. Am expecting the side that started against 'Boro to be our starting XI which worries me as it contains Hutton, Cissokho, Bacuna and Gestede. Feel our defence is unsettled and could struggle against teams with strikers who have good movement. Wednesday will come at us and want to take the scalp of one of the big boys. We need to try counter where we can. Ayew needs to play up front where he can have some impact and not be stuck out on the wing. Would be be great to get a win here if we can.

There's no way that that video is from us celebrating winning a corner - the cheers are obviously from the goal we scored from the corner. Can anyone who went to the game on Saturday confirm? But I agree that our away support has been nothing short of fantastic this season, both in numbers and voice. Hope we keep it up next season.

Agree

Inevitable loss. Would be hilarious if we fluked a win but this game has been set up for our humiliation since last June when the fixtures were revealed.

He frustrates the hell out of me because for every good thing he does (winning the ball) is immediately followed by him giving the ball directly to the opposition, often from positions where he isn't under pressure.

Kieron Richardson

You've clearly missed my point. If you read my post I referred to when Leicester were on their "unbeaten" run not when they were at the end of January. We're currently on an unbeaten run in the league (albeit a small one) but we're not winning enough or even looking like winning games without a huge slice of luck. Leicester were winning games when they were on their unbeaten run and playing very well as well. Ahem.

The reason we won't be making a great escape is because when Leics were unbeaten last season they were winning games and at best we muster up draws. We have got better at not losing but we never look like scoring and without anyone who will give everything they've got to get into the box and stick the ball in the net we won't change that. Seeing Naismith and Austin score today just shows the return you get when you invest in quality.