From Awesome To Dire

Match ratings following Aston Villa's 1-0 victory over Charlton. Amazing how we all watch the same game but see things totally differently eh?!

Message board member: AstonVilla said:

Sorensen 6 - Nothing much to do, but sort your kicking out!!
Bouma 6 - Decent game, strong defending and decent on the ball. I won't mention those free kicks though.
Hughes 6 - Coped with everything thrown at him.
Mellberg 7.5 - Getting back to his best. Hardly put a foot wrong.
Ridgewell 7.5 - Two excellent games on the trot for Liam. Strong in the air and the ground. Keep it up!!
Barry 7.5 - The usual assured performance from our most consistent player. Mr reliable.
McCann 7 - Got man of the match at the ground. Decent game but he wasn't that good.
Davis 7.5 - Would of got a 6 if he hadn't of scored. He was in and out of the game before he scored but it was a sweetly struck goal.
Milner 6.5 - Saw a lot of the ball but it was one of his quieter games today.
Phillips 6-5 - In and out of the game. Average.
Baros 7 - Faded late on but he should of got on the score sheet today. Our most dangerous player on the pitch, but PLEASE STOP DIVING!!

To sum up I thought we played some decent stuff today and we should of put Charlton out of sight but we constantly failed with the final ball. Defence looked solid (for a change) but we've got to learn to shoot when we've got the chance. We always seem to take an unnecessary extra touch when in a shooting position.
Still it was a welcome 3 points. Lets hope we can get something from the next two tough away games.

Message board member: DeanoVilla said:

Thought we played pretty well today, I wouldn't criticise any of the players apart from maybe Milner who had a mare, and Phillips who was a bit quiet. We need to learn we can't walk the ball into the net though, as too often we are passing it round the penalty box and nobody is taking the responsibility to have a shot!

Charlton were truly awful. How on earth this team started the season so well I will never know.

My player ratings are -

Sorensen - 6 - Nothing of note to do really but always looked comfortable.
Hughes - 6 - Too hesitant going forward, but defended ok.
Ridgewell - 7 - One of his best performances for a while, but as usual he always looks like giving penalties away. He shoved one Charlton player in the back in the penalty area and my heart went in my mouth for a bit. He's gotta cut that out!
Mellberg - 7 - Coped well, but like I said Charlton were awful.
Milner - 5 - Seems to be a player that is either brilliant or rubbish. Last week he was brilliant, this week he was rubbish. Nothing worked for him.
McCann - 7 - Best I've seen him all season.
Davis - 8 - Our new Mr Ronseal? You just know you're going to get 7 or 8 out of 10 from this kid every game! What a goal, and then 2 minutes later he was in the right back position cutting out a dangerous counter attack! Tie him down now!!!
Phillips - 6 - Didn't do anything wrong, but was just very quiet. All the forward play went through Baros and Phillips was slightly like a spare part.
Baros - 8 (MOTM) - He adds a whole new dimension to our play, we definitely miss him when he's not there. Full of running, full of skill, always makes himself available, always wants to score, I wasn't that keen when we bought him but he's won me over. Brilliant.
Bouma- 6 Good defensively but poor distribution.
Barry - 6 did ok, but his final ball was poor on occasions.

And Message board member Beefy added:

Davis was awesome yet again. One hell of a player.

Barry proved again just how important he is to us and quite irreplaceable.

Baros was like I've said before, will prove to be the best player that alot of people have ever seen in a Villa shirt. He reminds me so much of Deano, but a classier version of.