Villa Thoughts

[baggiebuckster]

After the final whistle on Saturday my initial thoughts were that we had a mountain to climb and had little chance to progress. However in the cold light of day I think that opinion was formed by seeing us throw away a lead fairly late on and then have the disappointment compounded by the sending off. The reality is had we been 2-0 down and then pulled a goal back like we did at Swansea all those years ago then I may have been more positive post game.

I now believe there is every chance that we can turn this around and here are a few reasons why:

• Villa were not as good as I expected them to be based on there recent form.
  
• They struggled massively to break us down and Johnstone barely had a shot to save.
  
• We hardly had any attacking intent and yet still hit the bar, scored a goal and caused bedlam in their box which should have resulted in a penalty.
  
• Despite what the their arrogant fans say now the reality is they have been poor for most of the season and the play offs looked very unlikely until that late run.
  
• They have been very brittle for a couple of seasons - that sort of mentality doesn't change overnight. If we get at them they are likely to crack.
  
• There are no players in their team that has achieved any form of success - for the majority of their time at Villa they have been failures.
  
• Their fans think they are already at Wembley - if we can get at Villa from the off then the old doubts will resurface and transmit to their players.
  
• Dean Smith is hardly Tony Pulis in terms of organising a defence - his teams are always likely to concede. We just need to make sure that we score first and ride the momentum.
  

My 11 year old is always moaning about how I have experienced incredible games in the past, Swansea, Pompey away, Bradford, Palace, Pompey at home etc. Well for anyone who is of an age not to remember much about those days YOUR TIME HAS COME. Stand up and be counted - games like this are what football is all about. Stuff taking selfies, videoing the crowd etc - just sing your hearts out and roar us to Wembley. That Swansea game all those years ago was incredible and I am not sure it can be replicated in an all seater stadium but I will be giving it a bloody good go and I hope that I will be adding May 14th 2019 to my memory bank of treasured Albion memories.