Aston Villa 2 - West Bromwich Albion 1

Date: Tuesday 3rd March 2015 
Competition: Barclays Premier League
Villa:
6.0
WBA:
4.2
Foster 1.5, Dawson 5.6, McAuley 6.0, Lescott 5.2, Brunt 3.8, Morrison 5.7 (Baird, 92 3.1), Yacob 5.1, Fletcher 5.8, Gardner 5.0, Berahino 6.2, Ideye 4.8
Unused subs: Myhill, Wisdom, Olsson, Pocognoli, Mulumbu, Sessegnon
Manager: Tony Pulis 4.4
Scorers: Berahino (66)
Referee: Jon Moss (West Yorkshire) 5.3
Attendance: 31,272   Home Fans 5.4   Away Fans 6.4

Mark Koppel:

Lucky not to lose by more and Villa were up for it , we were not from the first minute.

You will see that most comments are reserved for our so called Keeper who wins this year's 'Lugano Award'

  • Foster - 1 Probably the worst West Brom Goalkeeping performance since Super Howler. I hope this wasn't because of another evening trip down Broad Street. Dropped or fumbled everything all night including giving away 2 penalties, one of which he got away with. He was so bad tonight it would have been better if he was sent off after the first one.
  • Dawson - 6 Strong in defence but poor crossing even when he had lots of time.
  • McAuley - 7 Won lots of headers and made zero mistakes.
  • Lescott - 6 Poor defending for the first goal and gave away some unnecessary fouls. Great header to set up Saido's goal.
  • Brunt - 4 Like the kid at School who says "Look everybody how far I can kick the ball ?" Problem is it always goes out of play.
  • Mozza - 7 Again our best midfielder who I'm sure ran more miles than Gardner and Fletcher combined.
  • Yacob - 5 Disappeared for long spells of the game, especially second half.
  • Fletcher - 6 As per Yacob.
  • Gardner - 5 Cannot remember him doing anything positive.
  • Berahino - 8 Quiet game, maybe because of the injury but he did what no one else in our Team can do, score.
  • Ideye - 6 Has he peaked already?
  • Baird - 2 Main contribution was helping Foster to fumble again for their winning penalty. Looking at the black rings around his eyes, he does need to get more sleep though!

Paul Gainham:

The most disappointing thing about tonight was that Pulis had no plan B. Well before the Foster debacle we had a period after our goal when we were on top - ideal moment to drive the advantage home. Villa were rocking and we let them off the hook.

Have to say we were truly awful overall. Passing, movement and tempo were mostly non existent. People mock Sherwood but it was definitely Sherwood 1 Pulis 0 tonight. Villa out thought and out fought us and moved the ball around really well. We laboured badly, Morrison apart we were awful in midfield. The game was crying out for width and craft and Pulis gave it neither.

I hope there is better in store for Saturday, I really do.

oshawabaggie:

I thought we had got away with a poor performance, but Foster made sure the better team on the night won. His handling was awful from the start, his kicking was all over the place and the penalty was criminal. He was surrounded by defenders when he chose to hand Villa the victory by blundering after the ball when there was no need, and bringing down Lowton.

We improved a little in the second half, but our first half performance was reminiscent of the Burnley first half. If we want to win at the weekend we need to press further forward and think about winning, not avoiding defeat. I think the goal was our only shot on target. A defeat on Saturday to a very vulnerable team would undo a lot of the good we've achieved in the last 2 months. I am pissed off, so I will end on the only positive I can think of, at least SB and BI played through their injuries.

Brendan Clegg:

Of course, we should all remember that thou shall not question Tony Putin.

However in all honesty this performance was almost identikit to our other away offerings under TP.

We did not really try to attack in any way. We did not try to play the ball through midfield, commit men forward, put pressure on the ball or anything else. We just defended deep and generally, sporadic moments aside, boomed the ball into the corners, out of play or straight to a Villa shirt. The amount of times we won the ball back and a break was on but rather than anyone being able to carry the ball forwards and then make a pass we just went for the quick release over the top. Good grief.

We played like we did against Burnley, Everton and Sunderland. Villa just had a bit more of a pacey threat than the others in behind. The other thing they did, which Burnley and Spurs did to us, was put pressure on us high up the pitch and in wide areas and that's where people playing out of position get found out.

You can see why Pulis sides don't win many away games. Fair enough, we've averaged 3 points from these 4 away games against teams below us. Is that a good enough return? Probably, if we keep winning our home games.

Would have been so crazy to go and attack a team that had lost 7 on the bounce? Get at them from the start, get the crowd onto their backs? Hopefully the starting 11 and tactics that destroyed West Ham will be returned on Saturday and maybe we'll find out.

The first goal was so avoidable; Dawson playing Benteke on side, Brunt losing the header, Lescott getting caught ball watching and Foster should probably have stayed on his line with Lescott and McAuley coming across, and then having rushed out letting it go through his legs.

Remarkably we might have snatched another point, and thwarted Villa from gaining 3 on us, had Foster not gone into suicide mode in the last minute, but as much as it hurts we didn't deserve anything and Villa did.

Final point - what a nasty foul from Hutton. Like Cattermole's it was totally unnecessary and deliberate. They've both gotten away with them too.

  • Foster - 4 Pretty horrendous all game. One to forget ASAP.
  • Dawson - 6 Kept going valiantly but shown up on the ball
  • G-Mac - 7 The best of our back 4.
  • Lescott - 6 Struggled first half but improved 2nd.
  • Brunt - 5 Was clearly under orders to try the same thing (and fail) every time he got the ball deep. Boom it down the line around their fullback. Most ended up out of play. Would a short pass to Gardner have been so bad?
  • Mozza - 7 We didn't get the ball anywhere near him all first half but at least in the second half he got into the game and was then probably our best player.
  • Yacob - 6 Couldn't live with the pace of Delph, Gabby and Cleverly but got some good tackles in.
  • Fletcher - 6 As above, we struggled against their quicker midfield but again showed bits of quality when he got on the ball.
  • Gardner - 6 Lots of effort, running and some critical toe-ins but offered nothing on the ball whatsoever.
  • Ideye - 4 And that's probably being kind. Can only play with lots of support around him. Offered very little.
  • Saido - 7 Another poachers goal and showed good touches but the general service was abysmal.

Didcot Baggie:

Woke up this morning still hurting from the hardest kind of defeat to take - a really needless last minute penalty. I don't think we played as badly as some have suggested. Worked hard in midfield and a draw would have been fair. The problems were that Foster had the worst game in an Albion shirt of his career and that Brunt seems to have lost the ability to pass with any kind of precision or accuracy.

Will be interesting to see if we try a more attacking formation on Saturday. Their defence is very suspect - Sess or MacMan should be able to exploit that and maybe give Pocc a start too. I'll take a semi at Wembley to ease the pain.