Season 2007-2008

NEWCASTLE UNITED

0 v 0

ASTON VILLA

Post Match Comment:

Big Sam said:
“Aston Villa have been with Martin O'Neill for 12 months and they have a very stubborn defence. We cancelled each other out....We both tried to change it during the games but there weren't many chances...It's disappointing not to create more chances or score but a clean sheet is very important. It's a good platform to build on."

Martin O'Neill  said:
"We were playing away from home against a good side yet I thought we were the better side.....I thought we bossed it. We defended very strongly and had a lot of possession. Deep down I'm disappointed not to have won....Our second half-performance was really good. I'm delighted with the effort and with the energy we showed."

It was a grey, drab day at St James' setting the scene for what was to be a drab match.

The Toon started the brighter of the two teams, putting Villa on the back foot and conceding a couple of corners. Then, for some unknown reason, our players started playing very close to each, then falling over each other.  When our players started giving each other a bit of room the passing started to get a bit wayward and Villa suddenly found themselves back in the game.

We where playing a 4-3-3 formation with Geremi, Butt and Smith across the middle of the park and Martins, Viduka and Milner up front.  Milner seemed to have free reign on which wing he chose to play on but Villa played off this by attacking down the opposite wing and creating problems for the full backs.  Zogs pushed forward a lot more than Carr, who was also covered later on by Alan Smith, and this left huge amounts of space behind him which the opposition found all to easy to play men into.  Carr on the other hand, while not breaking forward as much tended to stand off his man, allowing them to run down the wing. Either way, if Milner wasn't there we where getting murdered.  Thankfully Villa's front two where well kept in check by Rozehnal and and Taylor.  Tho later on the the game Taylor started making a meal of some easy balls and his passing turned to kack, lets hope the England manager wasn't watching.

Big Sam wants to dig out some Smoggy dvds and see how they played Viduka, coz today he was just not with it.  Admittedly he had some good shouts for three of four free kicks that the ref ignored.  The bloke just made no real impact on the game and, by half time, he looked worn out.  He only lasted 15 mins of the second half.

Martins, as per usual, relied on his fantastic pace to take him past players, but when he came up against Melburg he found a player who could match him.  He shifted back to torment their midfield.  This worked for a while but then it became a case of him either running into dead ends or he tried to pass the ball, and the less said about that the better.

As y' might have gathered by now I wasn't at all impressed with the first game at St James' under Big Sam.

There was no real creativity, they ran out of ideas early on, I divint think Sorensen had a thing to do all game and I started to think I was watching a Graeme Souness team at times.

There is some positives to be taken tho.  Harper only had a couple of saves to make, the one in the first half was a belter.  Geremi and Butt owned the centre of the pitch, had either of them been able to stick that final ball in the we could have taken all 3 points.  Rozehnal looked class.  Alan Smith had a solid, no messing game.  Milner made the Villa full backs lives a nightmare, we should have taken advantage of it more.  If we can get hold of a good creative midfielder before the end of the transfer window we'll be laughing.  Yeah. Yeah. I know we've got Barton, but he's crocked for 2 months and could be spending 5 years at her majesties pleasure soon.

By Rogue Pieman

AUSSIE MAGS