S-Platt Posted December 22, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted December 22, 2018 6 minutes ago, villalad21 said: F***ing blues above us again don't worry mate they could win the league but if they lose to us twice they will still be crying. Half the season gone after we play tomorrow so still loads of points to play for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markavfc40 Posted December 22, 2018 Share Posted December 22, 2018 Not a bad day for us. Two of the top six dropped points and the team in seventh lost. I don't think we can expect more than 2 or 3 results of those above us to go for us any week. We can move with in 3 points of 4th tomorrow and 9 points of second. Even failing to win tomorrow we have a number of fixtures that should allow us to put a run together to take us into the top 6 by the end of January. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eastie Posted December 22, 2018 Share Posted December 22, 2018 18 minutes ago, markavfc40 said: Not a bad day for us. Two of the top six dropped points and the team in seventh lost. I don't think we can expect more than 2 or 3 results of those above us to go for us any week. We can move with in 3 points of 4th tomorrow and 9 points of second. Even failing to win tomorrow we have a number of fixtures that should allow us to put a run together to take us into the top 6 by the end of January. Hoping to be in the top 6 at the start of January - we have a run of games where we must look to pick up maximum points and hopefully by New Year’s Day the table will look much better for us -with a transfer window to follow . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cjay Posted December 22, 2018 Visiting Supporter Share Posted December 22, 2018 2 hours ago, OutByEaster? said: I think that's more important for you than us. For us, they're now 14 points away from us - we need to win five more of the next 23 than they do. I think they'll fade away, but they've put in a hell of a first half. True, just to be 5mins or so from being practically guaranteed 1st at xmas (you would have had to beat us by 5), to needing to win at a ground that we tend to struggle at is a right kick in the baubles. They have done extremely well tbf, cant fathom how, we battered them at Carrow Road, dreadful that day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted December 22, 2018 Share Posted December 22, 2018 Looks like Norwich are this season's Cardiff. Never mind. We just need to get in the top 6 and establish ourselves there and then see what happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted December 22, 2018 Share Posted December 22, 2018 2 hours ago, The Fun Factory said: Personally I think any talk of auto promotion is a tad optimistic- Villa would have to go on a ridiculous run til May to achieve that. Once again a slow start has killed us. I think a lot of fans are still in the new manager feel good stage. Yes we have improved and yes we are playing well in spells, but the fact is we are 11th 1 game before Christmas, 12 points from 2nd. If Bruce was still here in the same position the placards would be out. Even if we win tomorrow we would be 2 points down from this stage last year. We had a much easier run of games under SB compared to what we've had under DS so far. The easiest game we've had on paper in his reign so far was Bolton at home and we won that comfortably enough. As I keep saying look at how we're playing in next two months up to WBA at home. I'd be amazed if we're not comfortably top 6 by that point. Will probably be still a way off top 2 unless Norwich have a 1 win in 6 run which we really need to stand a chance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippo Posted December 22, 2018 Share Posted December 22, 2018 3 hours ago, Shropshire Lad said: I didn’t see any mention in the discussion of dropped points being being confined to this recent good run and at no other time during the season. I would say we should have been picking up more than three points in four home games against mid table or lower fodder. If we miss out on the play offs or whatever, I won’t look back on draws against Forest and Stoke, it will have been the earlier games against weaker opposition that will have proved to be our undoing. Well the point I responded to was that the wba result killed us. despite the circumstances a point away at wba isnt a bad result. where as if we are looking towards top 2 ...Forest and Stoke at home have to be wins. If we dont win tommorow, thats 1 win in 5 .....barely play off form TBH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villalad21 Posted December 22, 2018 Share Posted December 22, 2018 (edited) Forget about top 2 I've said it for weeks. Bruce have messed up our season, now it's just about trying to get into the top 6 and keep picking up points. Edited December 22, 2018 by villalad21 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidcow Posted December 22, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted December 22, 2018 24 minutes ago, hippo said: If we dont win tommorow, thats 1 win in 5 .....barely play off form TBH You can't ignore putting those results in the context of who we've played. 1 in 5 against lower half teams I agree, but we've beaten and held most of the teams around us and lost to none of them. Put in context it's very much play off form. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippo Posted December 22, 2018 Share Posted December 22, 2018 9 minutes ago, sidcow said: You can't ignore putting those results in the context of who we've played. 1 in 5 against lower half teams I agree, but we've beaten and held most of the teams around us and lost to none of them. Put in context it's very much play off form. stoke were lower half when we played them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Albrighton Posted December 22, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted December 22, 2018 13 minutes ago, hippo said: stoke were lower half when we played them. And well into their current ten game unbeaten run. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippo Posted December 22, 2018 Share Posted December 22, 2018 3 minutes ago, Shropshire Lad said: And well into their current ten game unbeaten run. so what ? ...we can,t just beat the dross and hope for promotion ...we havent closed the gap on the top six, because we arent winning back to back games - ok we have a run of easier fixtures coming up - but we can't keep drawing at home and pretend everything is falling into place.... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidcow Posted December 22, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted December 22, 2018 29 minutes ago, hippo said: stoke were lower half when we played them. Again, you can't ignore the context. They were bang in form. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Mark Albrighton Posted December 22, 2018 VT Supporter Popular Post Share Posted December 22, 2018 (edited) 5 minutes ago, hippo said: so what ? ...we can,t just beat the dross and hope for promotion ...we havent closed the gap on the top six, because we arent winning back to back games - ok we have a run of easier fixtures coming up - but we can't keep drawing at home and pretend everything is falling into place.... Yes you’re right. If we draw tomorrow and in the end not make the play offs, we’ll look back on these five games where we picked up one win and remained unbeaten against five promotion hopefuls as the reason for our failure. It certainly won’t be the run of five games against the Championship heavyweights that are Ipswich, Brentford, Reading, Sheff Utd and Blackburn which yielded zero wins and four points. No, that run of results is far more impressive. Edited December 22, 2018 by Shropshire Lad 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Albrighton Posted December 22, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted December 22, 2018 6 minutes ago, hippo said: so what ? ...we can,t just beat the dross and hope for promotion ...we havent closed the gap on the top six, because we arent winning back to back games - ok we have a run of easier fixtures coming up - but we can't keep drawing at home and pretend everything is falling into place.... Also, “can’t just beat the dross”?? Someone’s made you aware of the Derby and Boro results yeah? Might be worth catching the highlights. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomaszk Posted December 22, 2018 Share Posted December 22, 2018 Don't feed. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junxs Posted December 22, 2018 Share Posted December 22, 2018 1 hour ago, hippo said: stoke were lower half when we played them. They would have gone above us had they beat us, this fits into the not losing to teams "around us" category that you responded to, Stoke are not dross but a very good side and in fantastic form Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted December 22, 2018 Share Posted December 22, 2018 44 minutes ago, hippo said: so what ? ...we can,t just beat the dross and hope for promotion ...we havent closed the gap on the top six, because we arent winning back to back games - ok we have a run of easier fixtures coming up - but we can't keep drawing at home and pretend everything is falling into place.... I don't think we have enough to make it into the automatic promotion spots, but in fairness we're in the tail end of a ridiculous run of fixtures where we've basically played all of the top teams in a row. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post SirSteveUK Posted December 23, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted December 23, 2018 (edited) Just to clarify our recent fixtures, these are the current positions of the teams that we will have played under Smith including leeds 1st2nd3rd4th5th7th8th9th 10th12th23rd Edited December 23, 2018 by SirSteveUK 10 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomaszk Posted December 23, 2018 Share Posted December 23, 2018 (edited) Worthwhile post from @SirSteveUK There seems to be a few comments appearing half-criticising Smith I think. I can't really tell as there's plenty of caveats, maybe it's just criticising the squad we've ended up with. Hope the sensible people don't get too carried away if we lose tomorrow. Smith has done a brilliant job picking up from the carcrash of Steve Bruce. Losing Grealish and Tuanzebe is too much for us I think. Edited December 23, 2018 by Tomaszk 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts