By Dave Woodhall.
This season’s had so many turning points it’s looking like one of those contraptions you get at church fetes where you have to pass a metal thing along a wire without setting a buzzer off. In a strange way, the real turning point might prove to be that defeat to Wolves. Embarrassing as it may have been, it seemed to trigger a response in the whole club. The players began to publicly declare themselves up for the fight, while supporters were determined to get behind them. Everton last week was a start, and Newcastle yesterday was another step on the road to recovery.
It was a bit like watching an old-style Villa performance, 4-4-2 with Agbonlahor and Young counter attacking. Newcastle had a couple of chances, but once Ashley Young’s perfectly-flighted cross had been headed home by James Collins, the visitors seemed to give up all hope. Villa continued to improve, and should have been two goals up at half-time, with Darren Bent unlucky to have a goal ruled out for offside. It was one of those that could be argued about all night which means that the ref was probably right to disallow it.
Had the goal counted the second half might have been a lot different, but as it was Villa’s situation meant we couldn’t risk going mad for goals against a limited Newcastle side. Ashley Young is a lot more effective on the wing, despite wanting to play down the middle, and Stewart Downing faded as the game wore on. Stilyan Petrov looked good while Jean Makoun continues to be a foul waiting to be committed. Give him a proper pre-season and Makoun will impress. Richard Dunne and James Collins seemed back to their best (maybe those fines did them both good) and although Houllier was criticised for bringing on Robert Pires in the last few minutes, he can answer that we didn’t let in our usual late goal, kept a clean sheet and won the game. Never underestimate the importance of experience and a calm head. Talking of experience, when Newcastle did finally try to play, the recently-maligned Brad Friedel pulled off a couple of good saves.
The results went our way on Saturday (even Albion’s win can be viewed in the light of Sunderland getting dragged into the relegation battle) and Sunday. A win at West Ham next Saturday could see us in the top half of the table and more or less safe. Then the rebuilding could begin in earnest. On second thoughts, don’t get carried away. Stay focused. Look what happens when you don’t. I like going to West Ham and I’d much rather they stay up than some exponents of bleak Lancashire football from a bleak Lancashire town, but more than that I hope they don’t start getting the points they need just yet.
An finally, that Bells Are Ringing nonsense. Well done to everyone who turned up to start it all off, but the best thing you can say about the club’s input was that they tried. They should have learned by now that atmosphere comes from the supporters doing it for the club, not the other way round. But that’s a minor grumble on a day when the sun shone and we remembered what it was like to win again.