Brentford 2-1 Aston Villa

You may have noticed that we have been quiet over the last few days. Obviously, the Christmas period has an effect but my personal health hasn’t been great so I haven’t done too much. Last night, I looked forward to the upcoming fixture against Brentford, knowing it would be difficult but I had a tiny bit of hope that we could turn our recent poor form around.

Manager Steve Bruce made changes to the side by bringing in Scott Hogan, Alan Hutton and Tommy Elphick for Keinan Davis, Ahmed Elmohammady and Conor Hourihane. I was slightly worried that Hourihane was dropped and felt it should have been Glenn Whelan. Hourihane is the legs of the Villa midfield and Brentford‘s Ryan Wood’s was always going to cause us problems – as he always does.

Brentford took time to grown into the game as Villa started off brightly but they took the lead on 22 minutes when Woods jumped on a Whelan mistake to find Romaine Sawyers, who shot a low drive from 20 yards past Sam Johnstone.

As Villa fans feared the worst they equalised just 8 minutes later through Spurs on-loan midfielder Josh Onomah. Scott Hogan’s dinked cross found Onomah who headed a powerful header into the back of the net.

The Bee’s began to really dominate the game as Villa continued to give possession away.

Another game and another mistake. This time Brentford capitalised on a defensive mix-up seven minutes after halftime. Lasse Vibe – scored two against Norwich on Friday night and scored the winner to end yet another bad day for Bruce and his backline.

Villa did begin to gain control of the game as Brentford dropped deep and maybe could have stolen something late on but Davis was denied by Daniel Bentley in the Bee’s goal.

The pressure continues to grow on the manager as fans call for change. Most football supporters can take boring football as long as they are winning but the second the winning stops – the questions begin.

Dean Smith’s side was assembled by less than £30million and in the four games, we have played against them since we have been relegated they have outplayed us. Bruce’s tactics are outdated and he has been found out by just about anyone.

Middlesbrough is up next and new manager Tony Pulis would love to put the final nail in the coffin for a team he was so obsessed by while manager of his former employers, West Bromwich Albion.

THE MANAGERS

Steve Bruce: “We’re not going to try and flannel it or do anything, we simply weren’t good enough on the night. All around, we didn’t do enough with or without the ball so where do you want to start?”

Dean Smith:”I thought we were good value for the win, to be honest. I thought we started the game really well, passed the ball quite well and pressed them very well. I don’t think we created loads of chances, but when they did come around, we took them well, so it’s a great victory for us.”