Dave Woodhall sees Villa beat Nottingham Forest at a sub-Arctic Villa Park.
One of the things worth thinking about in the debate about whether football is better now than in times gone by is that Saturday’s match with Nottingham Forest would very likely have been called off back then. It was, not to put too fine a point on it, bloody cold and even if the pitch had somehow, miraculously, escaped the worst of the frost, there was always the suspicion that clubs would prefer a game like this moved back a few months, when better weather would have meant a bigger gate.
Undersoil heating and buying tickets in advance meant this idea was never going to happen so it was time to put the big coat on and hope that the Villa could warm up the crowd, which was again in excess 
of forty-three thousand. There was the usual array of injuries, so while the team were as expected, the squad was looking a bit thin with TJ Carroll the latest unknown arrival into the matchday squad. On the opposite bench was Douglas Luiz, who must be wondering exactly what went wrong to go from a starring role in a top four side, via Juventus, to being unable to get a game for relegation candidates.
That particular mystery aside, Villa started off well and should have gone a goal up when John McGinn’s harrying of the Forest defence gave Ollie Watkins an open goal, although he seemed as surprised at the opportunity as anyone. Villa had most of the possession but came no closer to scoring than a good penalty shout when Morgan Rogers was pushed over, then in first half stoppage time Watkins took the ball twenty yards out and made no mistake this time. Four minutes later, if you don’t count the interval, Villa passed holes in the Forest defence and John McGinn got the second.
Of course, it wouldn’t be Villa without a scare and after some slack marking led to a free header from close range than ended up further from goal than when it started, Forest did pull a goal back from a long ball that caught the Vila defence square. Still, never mind. The Forest keeper had the sort of rush of blood previously only reserved for their Villa counterparts and McGinn made certain with his second of the game.
Luiz came on towards the end, receiving a long and thoroughly deserved ovation, but the best that can be said about his performance was that it showed why he can’t get a game for relegation candidates. To tactical genius, perhaps we can add that Unai Emery knows exactly when to get rid of a player.
With hardly any other games on Saturday afternoon Villa weren’t able to continue with the recent habit of watching rivals drop points but there’s still time for that over the rest of the weekend. We did our job, which is all that matters, and can look forward to a midweek trip to the Great Beyond with a bit more hope than usual.
