Aston Villa 2 Brighton and Hove Albion 0

 When I bought the tickets for this game I wasn't expecting too much from it. Villa were on an atrocious run of form, and not looking like getting back on track. A lot of Villa fans will disagree, but when Dean Smith was sacked after we lost 1-0 to Southampton, it was probably for the best that he departed. In the meantime Steven Gerrard was given the job and it made for what looked like a more intriguing fixture and for me gave us some hope. I predicted a 2-0 victory and I was not to be disappointed, even though Villa left it until late.

For large parts of the game this still seemed like the Dean Smith performances of late, but with the ever impressive Emi Martinez in better form and making some key saves. For me the midfield looks a bit week and Marvelous isn't the answer although his break away led to the Watkins goal. Targett looked out of sorts for a big part of the season at left back and despite playing better today, you have to think he is probably the type of fullback who doesn't really fit in with Gerrard's plans. Watkins looked better once Ings had departed, and you would hope that Gerrard has the courage to not start them both and Tyrone Mings silenced his critics with a heroic performance.

Gerrard unlike Smith made some decent substitutions and it was these changes that led to the goals. Ashley Young came on and slipped the ball into Watkins who finished the move with some style, but the decoys provided by the other 2 substitutes, El Ghazi and Bailey were also important to him having space to finish off the final move. The last minute goal from Mings where he won the ball to put it back in the box and was first to react when it came out again rounded off a successful day and start to the Gerrard era. 


 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

shirt history AS Roma

Image
Roma were the club that I followed in Italy and although they are most famous for wearing red and yellow, hence the nickname giallo rosso the club didn't always wear those colours. AS Roma were formed in 1927 by a merger between SS Alba-Audace and Fortitudo-Pro Roma SGS with Italo Foschi being the driving force behind the merger. AS Roma could also trace their lineage back to FBC Roma who were formed in 1901 and who wore red and yellow, but the first shirts they wore took the red, white and blue of Fortitudo-Pro Roma. Roma soon established themselves at the top table of Italian football and in 1931 finished runners up to Juventus and by now had settled on red and yellow as their colours. However, you'll have to take my word for it because the picture below shows Attilio Ferraris in black and white. In 1942 Roma went one better and won their first Scudetto with Amadeo Amadei scoring 18 goals to help them secure the title. Pictured below he is wearing the change shirt with a repl
Read more

Boca Juniors shirt history

Image
The first game that I will be at on Sunday sees Boca Juniors take on Paris Saint Germain. I have always wanted to go and see Boca Juniors and I can't see me getting over to Argentina any time in the near future, so I am going to have to make do with seeing them in North London. On my travels I have met plenty of Boca fans, but funnily enough they have all been Russian or Ukrainian. I am a bit disappointed that Martin Palermo has now retired, but I am still looking forward to it. Obviously to do justice to the club history of Boca Juniors I'd probably have to write a book, so here's a quick history of their kit and colours instead. When Boca were formed in 1905 they originally played in pink, but obviously came round to thinking that this was a bad idea and changed to a light blue colour later in the year. They didn't stick with this shirt for very long either and for the 3rd time in a year decided to change the shirt colour, this time to black and white stripes. The fol
Read more

Sud Tribune, Dortmund

Image
The Sud Tribune at Westfalen is famed for the noise and support that it gives the BVB team. They started up early and carried on until well after the match had finished despite the poor result. At the end the team looked suitably disappointed when they thanked the fans. Nobody apart from the Hannover fans probably expected 96 to win. Hopefully better times for the Sud Tribune are just around the corner.
Read more