Dave Woodhall in the claret and blue corner of Saturday’s Hawthorns derby.
Last week’s game against Leicester was described as gaining a point and losing two. This one was more of the same. There’s a new-found resilience to the team and you can’t knock any defence that concedes just one goal in three league games, but once more the lack of a striker prevented Villa from getting the win they needed.
The line-up was interesting, with Jordan Veretout dropped after a poor couple of games – further proof that Remi Garde has no favourites and a bit more hope for a brighter future. But the most significant thing about it was that, for the sixth time this month there were no new signings in the matchday squad.
Again, like Leicester were, Albion under Tony Pulis have a limited approach and you know they’ll never try to win if there’s even the remotest possibility that it might cost them the point they started the game with. It didn’t make for an entertaining afternoon and although I don’t hold much with statistics the home side’s 39% possession without a shot on target and being booed off at the end would normally be the basis of a job well done for the Villa. There aren’t normal times, though.
To labour the connection with last Saturday, Villa should have had another penalty but it seems referees have declared open season every time a Villa player gets into the opposition box. Maybe the shock stuns them into inaction. If those two decisions had gone the other way you’d be looking at four extra points and a team that would not only be closing on those above them but would also be the form side of the bottom six. Instead, we had another round of fixtures gone and the gap between Villa and safety is as wide as ever.
Credit should go to the ever-improving Joleon Lescott and the back in form Idrissa Gueye. In fact the whole team should get some praise because for all the criticism they’ve had this season, and it’s been deserved, they’re proving now that they’re not that bad.
Villa will go down because the team apallingly under-achieved from the middle of August until the start of January, not because they weren’t good enough in the first place. Our last three opponents have been, in true Countdown style, two from the top and one from the middle; we were unbeaten against them and could easily have got three wins. Throw in a straightforward if not exactly pleasing to watch cup replay win against Wycombe and had the first half of the season not been so diabolical it would have represented a good fortnight’s work.
One final point about that booing from the home fans. It was fully deserved – in fact, Tony Pulis teams should be booed onto the pitch as well – but I do wonder what the media reaction would have been if our supporters had been doing it. No doubt it would have shown further evidence of the Crisis At Villa.
And so on we go, to the final week of the transfer window and a weekend away from league duty when the FA Cup rolls into town once more, in the shape of Manchester City. There seems to be a lot of pinning hopes onto the idea that the sort of players we need will join at the last minute after not getting a better offer from anywhere else. It might happen, but I think we have more chance of being in the FA Cup fifth round.
