I turned down a chance to go to The Hawthorns today, as I couldn’t bare a defeat, and instead found myself watching on my laptop with a pillow in front of my face at times.
It was the perfect chance for West Bromwich Albion to well and truly stick the knife in to Aston Villa, and wouldn’t their fans have just loved it.
As well as one eye on the game, I couldn’t help but keep an eye on results at both Wigan and Bolton, which didn’t exactly go our way in the end.
However, a point at the Hawthorns keeps Villa three points above the drop and their destiny in their own hands with just two games to play.
The away side had the best chances in the first half, with Gabriel Agbonlahor twice being denied by on-loan Birmingham goalkeeper Ben Foster.
Villa were also denied what looked a stone wall penalty when the ball hit Chris Brunt sticking out arm.
Both sides went in level at half time, and following our collapse in the second half at Villa Park against Bolton in mid-week, I began to work my way through my nails.
The second half saw West Brom push and it wasn’t long before they also had their own penalty shout – for again what looked a stone wall penalty when Alan Hutton looked to have punched the ball to deny a Baggies goal.
The final ten minutes were probably the most entertaining in a Midlands derby that both sides looked more like they didn’t want to lose, than they actually wanted to win.
Gabby Agbonlahor and Emile Heskey combined before laying the ball off to Ciaran Clark who looked certain to score only to be denied by Swedish defender Jonas Olsson.
West Brom then had their own chance to win the game but Peter Odermwingies shot was stopped on the line by Shay Given.
In the end 0-0 was probably a fair chance in a game that both teams wasted goalscoring opportunities and were denied what looked clear cut penalties.
It is one point closer to safety for Aston Villa, as Albion reach the most points they have ever achieved in the Premiership.
Next up is Tottenham Hotspur next Sunday at Villa Park and we must work towards that game now.
Thought a point was a good result today, could have been more but next weekend against spurs will be massive, the holtend needs to be full and in full voice, let’s get the win then plan for next season, lambert for me!! Up the villa
I’ve questioned some players’ commitment of late but saw yesterday that they are up for it and do want it but we just couldn’t finish. Glad to have Dunne back because he was a real leader and although perhaps outpaced at times, he seemed to get his head on everything in the first half especially. A valuable point gained but still a shame we didn’t get all three.
There is NO possible way Lerner / Faulkner can even attempt to justify keeping McLeish on for another season. I think we’ll stay up simply on how poor the teams below us have been this year, if we did this again we’d be down with this points total. All the stats are there for all to see backed up with decisions like Heskey on the wing, why? pace ? crossing ability ? ability to beat a player ? combined with set up of the team generally with 6-7 defenders on the park at one time. Wins get you 3 points Alex, there’s a reason for this, you have to TRY at least to win !!!! Come on Villa, try & steal Lambert from Norwich before someone else does & get a class long term manager in who plays attractive, attacking football
I still think we will crawl over the line. The teams below us are doing their best to keep us up (especially qpr and bolton). My fear is we will be stuck with mcloser for next season, as the lunatic lerner has no idea of what the fans REALLY think of the pathetic situation we find ourselves in. ONLY WOLVES HAVE WON LESS GAMES THAN VILLA. ONLY STOKE HAVE SCORED LESS GOALS THAN VILLA. Get the message, lerner??