The Week In Villa (13)

Wednesday, 24th October

Despite Jordan Graham and Michael Drennan putting us 2-0 up, we draw 2-2 with Celtic in our NextGen game.

Thursday, 25th October

Today, attentions turn to Norwich on Saturday. People say positive things and try to shrug off the whole Lambert/Norwich connection.

Friday 26th October

More of the same today, including Darren Bent saying he won't be trying to force any move out of the club.

Saturday, 27th October

A draw with Norwich where we played so badly that it felt like we lost. To be fair once we scored through to going down to 10 men, I thought we were the better team, or at least comfortable. But that was a short period in the game, and generally, we were poor in all areas. I would also seriously question a couple of Lambert's substitutions, but it is what it is.

The simple fact is, as I said last week, the midfield isn't good enough and I don't think there is an answer within the club. Yes there are times when I question the set-up but the fact is, it doesn't matter what the formation is, if players aren't good enough then they just aren't good enough. No matter how we are set up at the moment, if we still had the likes of James Milner and Ashley Young, then we would be playing better. We need new midfielders, badly.

Tonight, Alan Hansen said we were embarrassing. I could not agree more.

Sunday, 28th October

Maddy Cusack celebrated her 17th birthday by scoring the only goal in a 1-0 win for the ladies against Man City. How's that for a happy birthday?

Monday, 29th October

Michael Drennan scored twice and Andreas Steiber got the other as the U-21's beat Stoke 3-2.

Tuesday, 30th October

We overcome a difficult tie and all is good with the world for tonight. Gabby and Benteke followed their Man City show with more goals, and Stephen Ireland had a hand in the first two. There was still a lot to do for Gabby on the second but hey, if Ireland is in your fantasy football team, it all counts! Now if he could just do a bit of that against some Premier League teams...

Not seeing the game (I tried to get a ticket but left it too late!) I can't go in depth but I will say that after they pulled it back, it showed good character to turn it back round.

Paolo Di Canio suggests at the end that we're going down. He may be right I suppose, but he still made himself look like a classless, unsporting tart. Oh well, whatever, we have bigger things to worry about than that racist (sorry, fascist) idiot.

On a side note, I was moaning that due to the obvious potential for an upset, it was stupid to have Reading v Arsenal on instead. Whoops...!

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