Man U 3 - Aston Villa 2

Well......I shalln't be complaining!

Played great untill we got our second, then we backed off and invited them onto us. As we thought some of the refs calls were a bit strange i.e going with so many of the lines mans offsides against gabby that we not and the 5 min injury time. If we just keep on top of our opponents and not back off we can beat anyone. A great performance by us and I even thought Shorey was very good.

How many times in recent years have they come back to beat us. Best we have played in a long time in my opinion.Gutted.

Thanks for nothing! :) How you're team can play so fantastically well for 80-odd minutes and then bottle it in the last two is beyond me. You've ruined my weekend. I hope you're happy. :)

I have nothing to be bitter about but how you can say you were the better team or deserved THREE points is beyond me! I have a lot of respect for MON and Villa but you were playing on the counter and were just happy to not lose. You had a great first half but there was nothing more to it. Going by goal attempts, possession, corners, shots on goal, how could you have been the better team? You played on the counter because thats something you're very good at and I'm not knocking you for that. But you certainly weren't the better team!

Ha! Forever United! All your goal attempts came right at the end of the game. We deserved to at least draw and even that would have felt like an injustice. The refereeing today was atrocious, both Gabby and Young being flagged offside when they were on. And can someone please tell me where 5 injury time minutes came from? Still we played extremely well, and that's what the boys should take away from today.

Am I alone in being absolutely disgusted with not only the result, but also the performance today? Yes, we were the better side for the first 3/4's of the game, but let's open our eyes. That Man Utd side we played today would struggle to avoid relegation. It was barely a third rate Man Utd we played today. We had the opportunity to really begin setting the record straight against a team who we have laid down against so often. Yet lie down is exactly what we did again today. I have commented on the remarkable guts and spirit that our team posesses on many occasions this season, and I still believe that's right. We have had a shocking run of results lately, and yet we were able to come to OT and - albeit against a very weak side - control the game. But in the last 20 minutes or so it was as if we abdicated our control. It looked to me like the team couldn't quite believe they were leading the game, and realised that their manager would actually be delighted with a point. 2-1 up went from being a great platform to go on and win convincingly, to a great platform to 'achieve' a 2-2 draw. 'Belief is the key' is the tagline of MoN's last piece on the official site. I'm sorry, but when the manager doesn't believe, how can the players? This quote from MoN seems to sum up the ambition and 'belief' that he has: “With a bit of luck we are going to qualify for European football again for the second consecutive year. That is what I would call getting ahead of yourself.” Had we won to day - which we absolutely should have done, and would have, had we believed - then I would have been quietly confident of us overhauling Arsenal, despite their newly regained confidence. That we lost, and given the manner of the defeat, I am now wondering if we might indeed be needing that luck MoN spoke of to finish above West Ham. In all of what I've said, I've really been trying to articulate my utter disgust. But I'm mot sure I've succeeded.

"We have got the players in the dressing room. With the games we've got left, we have got a more than good enough squad to take us up the league. My aim is for us to finish in the top four and play Champions League football at Villa Park. It's a big ask but it's more than achievable. If it doesn't happen, at the end of the season I'll speak with the manager about my future." These are the words of Gareth Barry, a man with belief and ambition, and a man who's love for Villa can't reasonably be questioned. In my opinion, he's been selfishly misled by MoN. He was persuaded to stay another season, because we were going to give finishing in the top 4 'a real good go'. There's no doubt that the players we posess have given it a real good go this season, but I think they've been undermined by their manager. A failiure to stregthen the squad sufficiently for a long campaign, coupled with a lack of ambition and belief, a settling for 5th or 6th best, has left these players high and dry. Who could possibly hold anything against Barry if he demanded a transfer come the season's end? To be honest, the way I'm feeling, I wouldn't have blamed him if he'd strode over to MoN when Macheda scored the winner and demanded the transfer there and then. Had he done so, as disgraceful an act as it would have been in almost any conceivable circumstance, I would have applauded.

Sorry to clutter things up with my three-pronged tirade!

we are now officially the unluckiest team in the country at the moment... deserved at least a draw away to man utd - we are still a cracking side. lets hope next season we have more strength in depth and we will make the top 4 under MON - best manager in the country.

First of all may I say what a galant effort from the boys and with more luck we should have come away with something, whether that was 1 or 3 points is open to opinion. Secondly, I am and always will be a Villa fan win, lose or draw and hope upon high hope that we start to turn around our great season so we dont finish on a damp note. Finally, it is never over until the season ends and with that we have the proverbable six pointer coming up against a strong toffee team. C'mon lets get behind the team and MON and show our faith and continue whatever the result in following the team we love to support! No, it is not blind faith but optimism and the will of not giving up as some may have suggested. I would be gutted to lose Barry to anyone, so with that thought and the slight chance we have (Arse are to play the top 3 yet!) we should keep the faith and shout forever our support. C'mon Villa.

holteender1969, I salute you. You are absolutely right; we should continue to support the team, whatever the circumstances. If we take 21 points from 21, and Arsenal get two draws and a loss from their matches against the top 3 (and at least that second one seems plausible) then we finish 4th, and we can then claim to have the luckiest manager alive (and at least according to Napoleon that would be no bad thing). Whilst there's life there's hope, etc. UTV

i would ignore foreverunited his a fecking muppet gives it all the mouth but us liverpool fans are still waiting for him to come to VL as he said he even if manure lost to us....... STILL WAITING FU...... oh yeah thats right your only shouting your mouth off when manure play well lol...... typical manure fan unlike villa,chelsea,arsenal,liverpool and even spurs fans we take it on the chin when we get beat...... fecking loser

Oh and by the way, a caller to WM was right. The game is rotten and corrupt. I strongly believe, and this isn't sour grapes, that refs protect the big clubs by giving them more injury time at home, questionable fouls and penalties. Other clubs, like Villa, never get given the 50-50s, even 60-40s in our favour. Why is the game corrupt? Because the top 4 are the money makers, selling shirts and TV rights around the world. If they fall out of the top 4, fans in other countries might loose interest, might start watching Serie A or the Bundesliga, hence less money going into the FA's pockets. This game stinks. I've realised it and now you should to.

Thought that Nicky Shorey's performance fully justified his inclusion in the starting line-up. He gave us some balance at long last. He's a quality left full back, he just needs the games, and the opportunity to play himself into the regular starting line-up. Why he has been so long denied that opportunity is beyond me.