The blame game

[Stratfordbaggie]

Bartley, Big Sam, Sam J, the subs, not playing Phillips, taking AMN off with 4 mins left.......it goes on.

The facts.....Villa 70% possession, Villa over double the shots on goal, Villa almost 3 times our corners, Villa almost 3 times shots on target ......it was inevitable and we did well to be in front....move on, we are getting relegated based on the season not this draw.

[Fido]

Bartley, Big Sam, Sam J, the subs, not playing Phillips, taking AMN off with 4 mins left.......it goes on.

The facts.....Villa 70% possession, Villa over double the shots on goal, Villa almost 3 times our corners, Villa almost 3 times shots on target ......it was inevitable and we did well to be in front....move on, we are getting relegated based on the season not this draw.

How many of those were in the last 15 mins when we allowed them onto us though?

[Spandaubaggie]

Epitome of one eyed fandom the post match reaction has been.

We were under the cosh constantly most of the second half, sheer weight of pressure meant something would give be it a deflection or an error.

I gave up hoping we’d stay up a while ago just with an eye out that we’d go on a blistering run. Leicester ended the faint odds on that. Yesterday would’ve been nice for bragging rights, but that’d be small comfort only.

Fact is if we had woken up a couple of matches earlier we’d have had a chance. If we had this team a month earlier we would have stopped up.

No blame game here.

[Black Lake Victoria]

Epitome of one eyed fandom the post match reaction has been.

We were under the cosh constantly most of the second half, sheer weight of pressure meant something would give be it a deflection or an error.

I gave up hoping we’d stay up a while ago just with an eye out that we’d go on a blistering run. Leicester ended the faint odds on that. Yesterday would’ve been nice for bragging rights, but that’d be small comfort only.

Fact is if we had woken up a couple of matches earlier we’d have had a chance. If we had this team a month earlier we would have stopped up.

No blame game here.

Getting the players at the start of January instead of the end is the difference between us going down and staying up IMVHO

[garyowensneck]

Epitome of one eyed fandom the post match reaction has been.

We were under the cosh constantly most of the second half, sheer weight of pressure meant something would give be it a deflection or an error.

I gave up hoping we’d stay up a while ago just with an eye out that we’d go on a blistering run. Leicester ended the faint odds on that. Yesterday would’ve been nice for bragging rights, but that’d be small comfort only.

Fact is if we had woken up a couple of matches earlier we’d have had a chance. If we had this team a month earlier we would have stopped up.

No blame game here.

Getting the players at the start of January instead of the end is the difference between us going down and staying up IMVHO

Very true but reckon most of the players we got in were waiting for better offers earlier in the window hence us getting them last minute, our relegation was sealed with last summer's transfer business.

[Spandaubaggie]

Epitome of one eyed fandom the post match reaction has been.

We were under the cosh constantly most of the second half, sheer weight of pressure meant something would give be it a deflection or an error.

I gave up hoping we’d stay up a while ago just with an eye out that we’d go on a blistering run. Leicester ended the faint odds on that. Yesterday would’ve been nice for bragging rights, but that’d be small comfort only.

Fact is if we had woken up a couple of matches earlier we’d have had a chance. If we had this team a month earlier we would have stopped up.

No blame game here.

Getting the players at the start of January instead of the end is the difference between us going down and staying up IMVHO

Very true but reckon most of the players we got in were waiting for better offers earlier in the window hence us getting them last minute, our relegation was sealed with last summer's transfer business.

Well said. 

How many fans still haven’t a clue how the transfer window works. We have to see where we are in the pecking order. We deal with where we are in the chain. 

I stood by Bilic initially but can see now how woefully under equipped we were.

[Johnnykayeengland]

Epitome of one eyed fandom the post match reaction has been.

We were under the cosh constantly most of the second half, sheer weight of pressure meant something would give be it a deflection or an error.

I gave up hoping we’d stay up a while ago just with an eye out that we’d go on a blistering run. Leicester ended the faint odds on that. Yesterday would’ve been nice for bragging rights, but that’d be small comfort only.

Fact is if we had woken up a couple of matches earlier we’d have had a chance. If we had this team a month earlier we would have stopped up.

No blame game here.

Getting the players at the start of January instead of the end is the difference between us going down and staying up IMVHO

Yes. But...at the beginning of January Sam wasn't after Okay, Diagne and AMN iirc?
Choudhury for a few weeks, maybe Deeney, one or two others...
Who knows how they would have worked out.

[Spandaubaggie]

Epitome of one eyed fandom the post match reaction has been.

We were under the cosh constantly most of the second half, sheer weight of pressure meant something would give be it a deflection or an error.

I gave up hoping we’d stay up a while ago just with an eye out that we’d go on a blistering run. Leicester ended the faint odds on that. Yesterday would’ve been nice for bragging rights, but that’d be small comfort only.

Fact is if we had woken up a couple of matches earlier we’d have had a chance. If we had this team a month earlier we would have stopped up.

No blame game here.

Getting the players at the start of January instead of the end is the difference between us going down and staying up IMVHO

Yes. But...at the beginning of January Sam wasn't after Okay, Diagne and AMN iirc?
Choudhury for a few weeks, maybe Deeney, one or two others...
Who knows how they would have worked out.

We were after Lingard too!

[Johnnykayeengland]

Epitome of one eyed fandom the post match reaction has been.

We were under the cosh constantly most of the second half, sheer weight of pressure meant something would give be it a deflection or an error.

I gave up hoping we’d stay up a while ago just with an eye out that we’d go on a blistering run. Leicester ended the faint odds on that. Yesterday would’ve been nice for bragging rights, but that’d be small comfort only.

Fact is if we had woken up a couple of matches earlier we’d have had a chance. If we had this team a month earlier we would have stopped up.

No blame game here.

Getting the players at the start of January instead of the end is the difference between us going down and staying up IMVHO

Yes. But...at the beginning of January Sam wasn't after Okay, Diagne and AMN iirc?
Choudhury for a few weeks, maybe Deeney, one or two others...
Who knows how they would have worked out.

We were after Lingard too!

Yes forgot that. Sam seems to have a good eye for a player.

[Duffers]

Bartley, Big Sam, Sam J, the subs, not playing Phillips, taking AMN off with 4 mins left.......it goes on.

The facts.....Villa 70% possession, Villa over double the shots on goal, Villa almost 3 times our corners, Villa almost 3 times shots on target ......it was inevitable and we did well to be in front....move on, we are getting relegated based on the season not this draw.

Stats alone don’t give a fair indication of a match though.

Possession means very little these days, some sides like to dominate the ball others are happy to to barely have it and play on the counter. Having 70% of the ball means nothing if you’re not doing anything.

First 60 minutes were pretty even I’d say, two soft penalties and an OG as a result of a defensive error suggests neither side were cutting the other open. We had easily the best attacking player on the pitch in Pereira. Last 30 we sat back, which is natural considering we were away and absolutely desperate to hold on to the win, you’d expect Villa to come at us strong, that’s just a natural part of the game. Even then we had three or four moments where we could/should have made it 3-1. We may have ridden our luck before they equalised but had we held out people would have been talking about a great away performance. The disappointment is how we conceded and the timing.

Talking to my Seal mates afterwards the view was that on balance a draw was a fair result.