Villarocker

Yep, you clearly see Mings telling him to get up and seemed to even gesture to the physio not to come on. Grealish then - in an agitated manner - told him to get off the pitch so they could keep up the momentum and take the corner. That itself says it all - they were happy to play on with 10 men!

That Sir, is a brilliant post!

On the flip side, we could go down, storm the Championship and, go back to the Premier League with more settled players who have adjusted and grown together over a couple of years plus have £100m in the bank to add to the next £130m the owners wish to spend. Instead of an overall maybe next time we simply add 5 or 6 £30m players to give the squad some real quality?

This is going to hurt but........ Yesterday, whilst watching the game together, I asked my Dad if he thought THIS team would get over-run so easily and lose so regularly if Steve Bruce was in charge now. We both agreed on a sorrowful "No". I like Smith but my God that whole defensive situation is a shambles and just appears to get no better. Even Reina caught the bug yesterday! The thing is, even if they did sack him, who would they replace him with? Would that person be someone willing to stay if we went down? It's pretty much all too late now. It appears to me that Smith stays no matter what. Having seen that yesterday, I feel we will go down. If those players have saved themselves for Wembley and they get battered again that will probably just finish them off confidence wise. Obviously I want Villa to stay up but I'm mentally prepared now for the Championship, two trips to the sty next season to play two lots of Blues and, the thought of watching Mings, McGinn, Luiz and Grealish playing for other clubs.

Absolutely agree that Jack should play behind the striker every game.

That was almost (a couple of exclusions who actually tried) a team of players who pretty much knew they were certain of playing at Wembley next week and didn't want to risk missing out through injury so never gave their all. The fact they gifted 3 points to Southampton is worrying. Maybe they feel OK at playing Championship football next season or have prior knowledge to better climes should we go down. Grealish is included in that because today he was rubbish!

See, when you say that, it makes me think you are a kid, just signed up to the Villa or, you have memory loss in the last few seasons because, believe me, the last Premier League season was by far the worst season of being a Villa fan in my 48 years.

Clearly, something isn't working. We don't need you, Screwdriver or the next ultra negative person to see that because - wahey - there's a thing called the league table. You and others may well be right that Smith just isn't up to this level. But, our position shows that neither are the players. I am one of those that sees the bigger picture of the major overall and huge culture difference from playing in Turkey, Belgium or the Championship to playing in the Premier League. Maybe, just maybe, we go down, lose three stars for £140m, then rebuild for £50m and go back up and spend £200m and make us top 6 contenders?

Mark, I totally agree about their effort today. I can only assume that the majority wanted to protect themselves for their day out at Wembley. Smith himself alludes to that in his post match comments. He said a few played themselves out of contention. It will be interesting to see which three - at least - he changes. Konsa and El Ghazi are at the front imo. But, today, only Targett and Samatta played anywhere near good enough.

Right, PLEASE give me an alternative that WE CAN GET?

These players are saving themselves for Wembley, it's plain to see. They gave their all last week against Spurs and 50% of that performance would have seen them compete today but they simply haven't. Reina has been terrible. Loads of them have. Only Samatta and Targett can come out of this with any credit.

Jaguar for sure.

No offence Danny but, please forget your boots tomorrow.

He did make contact but he slid on a straight line like you said. It was very minimal contact and if the ref gives that then shouldn't he give a pen every time a corner goes into the box and a defending player leans on the attacking player before making the clearing header? It was a bullshit decision.

I watched the game with my Dad and said to him that, if at any time Smith subbed him off it would be a huge mistake because he looked fit as a fiddle and was a threat all game.

Something isn't right behind the scenes when three previous centre backs cannot organise the defence and our goalkeeping coach is giving our attacking substitutes instructions before they take to the pitch.

One thing's for sure, Southampton are dog shite at home and average less than a goal per game. We have to go into that game full steam ahead and we can win that one.

He was poor second half today. Don't know why but he was hardly in the game.

Spot on. He looks like a 17 year old running around trying to fit in and make a good impression but only making mistakes.

He could have.

If we stay up, Hause needs to be replaced. He's a complete liability.

I'm a fan of Smith's but find it hard to counter against what you you've said there about Drinkwater and Wesley. Today, the inclusion of Drinkwater totally baffled me and I said straight away it would be a wrong decision unless he'd ripped up trees in training. During the game, I also stated that if he took off Samatta he would be making a huge mistake as at no time did he look tired or out of the game. Smith has my support but man is he making some howlers recently. Deano, stop playing Drinkwater and make sure Engels is on the bench. Play Ally all game as he is our main goal threat. We will get through this but we need you to stop with the mistakes.

Absolutely mate. He's switched on to all things goal bound. He will be our saviour, if there is to be one.

Let's not kid ourselves, our defence is shite. Spurs scored 3 without a recognised striker. Let's hope that we struggled with that and not that a striker would do even further damage. Overall, we did great today. Engels apart, we win that game. He had an absolute mare and showed why he wasn't even on the bench recently. Which, begs the question, why let Chester go when he was rated ahead of Engels? That seems a really bad decision after today. Smith said we will beat one of the top 6, two are gone. We need a win against Liverpool, Man Utd, Chelsea or Arsenal now. Bring back Mings and sail Drinkwater out to a far away island somewhere and we may have a chance.

I'm surprised there's not more positive posts about Ally. This guy is a proper centre forward who hungrily looks for the ball in goalscoring positions. Sorry to say this but if Ally played for a team that created 5 scoring chances per game he would pretty much score every game. We have ourselves a quality centre forward at last.