Villa draw at Nottingham Forest as Dave Woodhall’s attention begins to wander.
It’s that time of the season where what’s happening elsewhere is as important as what’s unfolding before your eyes and conspiracy theories begin to break out.
Villa’s trip to Nottingham Forest hadn’t got properly underway when Emiliano Martinez broke down during the warm-up and Marco Bizot was pressed into service. As is in variably the case where our keeper’s involved, the news had scarcely broken when the stories began circulating of how this was proof of agreed deals and summer departures. In truth, the real reason for what’s becoming a bit of a habit is probably nothing more than a niggling injury and a justifiable reluctance to risk a player who isn’t 100%.
The rest of the team included Victor Lindelof making a surprise appearance, with Ezri Konsa on the bench and Ross Barkley also in the team. Clearly squad rotation is beginning to gain in importance as the season reaches its climax.
Forest are the sort of team who always seem to save their best performances for playing the Villa and they’re on a decent run of form, so this was never going to be an easy game. Both teams had already had chances when Morgan Rogers’ cross midway through the first half was bundled into the back of the net by a Forest defender with no Villa player near.
It seemed as though this would be the start of a successful afternoon as it was quickly followed by Ollie Watkins just going wide and Rogers hitting the bar but this was followed by Forest being allowed far too much space and getting a resultant equaliser.
Early in the second half Bizot did well to stop a shot that had been deflected off Matty Cash but this was the only concern as Villa began to dominate. John McGinn had a good chance go just wide while Rogers and Watkins should both have scored before being replaced. Rogers in particular has been off-form lately, and again such an occurrence invariably leads to rumours that he’s off already – although this isn’t helped by the regular media reports of him being sold because God forbid that Aston Villa should hold onto a player that a Big Club might want.
Despite Villa’s dominance there were no further goals and at the final whistle it looked like two points dropped. At least there was the sight consolation that it made Spurs going down a bit more likely – although I’m sure that the Premier League are currently employing an army of legal experts to go through their own rules to ensure that can’t happen.
Then came the other aspect of getting to the business end of the season, and the welcome news a couple of hours later that Chelsea had been beaten. Another round of games has gone and the gap between us and sixth place is wider than it was on Friday. We’re still on course for our most successful season in over four decades (which in itself is nothing to boast about) and if everything works out as it should we know that a couple more games against Forest should hold no fears.
