Aston Villa News 24/7Writer: Mike Field 
Date:Sunday February 10 2008
Time: 3:26PM
UK time is: 23:58:38
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Home Form Villa Key To Europe
Gareth Barry has said 'Fortress Villa Park' will be the key to us reaching Europe this season and he is calling on the players to not drop a single point at home between now and the end of the season.
Speaking on the official site the captain said:
'We are desperate to secure a European place this season and we're certainly well placed as we approach the run-in.
'Home games are so important and it is imperative that we make Villa Park a fortress from now until the end of the season.
'If we can win our home games and pick up some points on the road, we shouldn't be too far away.'
Barry also passed a few comments on January signing Wayne Routledge after having a few training sessions with him:
'Hopefully Wayne should prove to be a good addition to our squad, with his obvious pace and skill on the wing.
'Let's hope he terrorises a few Premiership defences from now until the end of the season!'
After the end of the world that was the Fulham debacle it's good to see the confidence is still there, and Newcastle was a hell of a way to bounce back.
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Your Comments
Didn't expect city to win today =( our run in is unfavourable.. hope we applied for intertoto cup..
EvertonMike
Yeah, if you look at villa's fixtures, particularly at home, ours looks pretty good. Think the Villa Everton game could be quite a game though.
Carlosio
I don't think anybody would have expected City to win today, but we all forget that it is a derby match and, as such, can easily go against the odds. The mathematical difference between the top few and the nearly-coulds is consistency. The top clubs are simply more consistent over the season and therefore gain more points (stating the bl**din' obvious ...). The rest of us, including Man City, Everton, Villa, etc., have all had some really surprising crap results this season - and there are likely to be more of them before the end ...
BobTheBuilder
Villa Everton is a huge game for us.
evoflash
It's all about that Everton game now. I thought the Newcastle fans on MOTD last night looked pretty impressed with the noise levels coming from The Holte. They showed the Geordies as a chorus of "Villa, Villa, Villa, Villa, Villa, Villa, Villa," broke out. Not long after we'd taken the league. It was pretty defeaning. Gutted no more home games for a month.
Adam Deuce
*lead not league.
Adam Deuce
Freudian slip!
Adam Deuce
Every game is a huge game...let's hope Chelsea do Spurs in the cup and we can maintain our league position.We have it now, so it will be gutting to let it slip. Adam Deuce, it was bloody loud, after we belted it out in the Holte, me and brother both looked at each and said...."that was bloody loud".....we are rockin at the mo...let's not **** it up.
OneloveVilla
IN my honest opinion after the football we have been playing recently, we just don't have enough firepower for 4th without the yak. Any one of City, us or your lot could finish 5/6/7 now, it's going to be a real battle but i fear we'll miss out
EvertonMike
January was the key really city strengthened a lot, we sold 4 loaned in 2 and bought a kid who nobody would take on loan... blew it again, kenwright has to go. Some clubs has chairmen with BILLIONS, our has a f'ing mortgage
EvertonMike
Its going to be close I think and we will all have some slip ups and results we didn't expect. There is not much to choose between 4/5 teams who are competing for the same positions. Whatever happens this season has shown us a glimpse of what we can achieve. As this side grows older and develops they can achieve a lot. The next two away matches are important we should have done better at Reading last year and it should be a good match for us. Arsenal will be difficult but we came so close to winning there last time and we are better now so who knows.
daveldvilla
I wouldn't write yourselves off just on the basis of not having the yak EvertonMike... there's good quality in that side regardless. I see yourselves, us, Liverpool, Citeh and possibly Pompey & Blackburn fighting it out from now til the end, and I honestly can't predict who's going to finish where. Good innit ?
ExpatVillaShirt
Still got the feeling that although they keep on stumbling, Liverpool will finish 4th. 5th, 6th could be anyone of about 6 teams.
DeanoVilla
Our frontline without yakubu makes Derby's looks boss. We have masses to choose from... The always injured James Vuaghan who Moyes is cared to play for more than 10 minutes, Victor Anichebe a big powerful striker that gives up if he loses the ball once, or sir headless chicken andy johnson who is scared of the box.
EvertonMike
I wish it were fortress Villa Park, I'd be much more confident, but sadly it aint. It'll be close up there come seasons end, we can ill afford to drop home points with Arsenal, Man Utd, Pompey, and Everton all to come on the road.
glensider
The fortress Villa park thing isn't as unrealistic as it sounds. This season we've lost 4 home games. We were desperately unlucky against Liverpool at the start of the season after that last minute "free kick", we were well and truly beaten by Man U, although this came in a 15 minute horror show, we were beaten by Arsenal but gave a good second half showing, and then there was the Portsmouth drubbing. Could be much worse really and other than that it's 2 draws (Blackburn and City) and a lot of wins.
Carlosio
Plus defeats to United in the F.A. Cup and Leicester City in the League Cup Carlosio. Thats sixteen games played to date at VP, eight wins, two draws, six defeats. That doesn't equate to 'fortress Villa Park in my estimation. O.K. if you want to finish amongst the also rans, but not good enough if you want to be up there challenging.
glensider
Woah woah, now it's not often I disagree with you glen, but I'm going to on this. Once again, a defeat from Manchester United cannot really be pitched as damaging to any "Fortress" type statement, though anything other than said result is preferable. That game was poor anyway, and it was only in the last few minutes (Rooney-fied) that we really suffered. Cup games are always said to be one-off's and as we saw with Everton, who also lost a home game...to Oldham. My point was we've played all of the "big 4" as well as most of our major European challengers, and lost 4 games (2 of which could've easily been draws over 90 minutes). I don't think that's as bad a record as the statistics suggest. The reason we're not level on points with Everton is our away form (although they have played one less home game)
Carlosio
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