Bolton 1 - Aston Villa 1

never an easy game v Bolton, I did fear we might be bullied into a loss today, so a draw isn't the end of the world.

O'Neill's comments say it all. Despite being ahead of Everton, and still having a chance (albeit an extremely faint chance) of 4th place, a draw constitutes a point gained on Everton, rather than two points dropped in chasing Arsenal - which, whether we catch them or not, should be the mindset. But that isn't the mindset at all. O'Neill will be happy with a 6th place finish and delighted with a 5th place finish. Perhaps this is because he realises that such an 'achievement' represents the pinnacle of what he personally is capable of. Well, I'm sorry, but 5th or 6th should not be the glass ceiling for a club like Villa. O'Neill is a small time manager with a small time mentality, and as long as he is in charge, we'll continue to be a small time club. I want to stress that I'm not disgusted with the result today, but rather O'Neill's attitude to it.

MON is a master of disguises when managing to talk up a not good/ bad result. So if that is all he could come up with, it must have been a performance and result with almost no positives to draw! Imagine if Everton (which we all expected) had won today? They would have been a point ahead of us and we would have been in 6th? What and earth could he have said then?

Albamista, you seem to have a real downer on MON! Every post of yours is basically an attack on his "Poor Management" Just do some constructive critism for a couple of posts or perhaps praise the team and manager if warranted please for once. Personally, i thought they lads did ok today, not an easy team to play against, starting with 10 men behind the ball as they did, we could have possibly been two up before they scored. It was poor defending that helped them through. You could see it as 2 points lost but Hardly MONs fault that Laursen and Young were injured leaving us with a makeshift Right back and a central defence that hasn't covered itself in glory this season! Ashlry had a good game but Heskey and JC were to quiet for my liking. Once again Gareth and Stilian were great in midfield and Shorey had a solid game at left back!

Charizma, I'm actually of the view that the players deserve a huge amount of credit this season. The first-teamers have played all season, in a long season, without much, if any, respite. It infuriates me that O'Neill has failed to give these players the support they needed. If an army is winning a war, but needs reinforcements for the final push, and then the general decides that one obselete tank with a faulty gun-turret will do the trick, these soldiers have every right to turn round and tell their generalexactly where to go. Of course it isn't MON's fault that Laursen and Young are injured. But it's his fault that we don't have a second right back, and it's his fault that the three centre backs he brought to the club, for more than £20m, aren't performing. I have said good things about O'Neill, and given him credit where it was due. I also had faith in him, even when he signed Heskey - and only Heskey - in January. But subsequent events (and we all know about those) have shown that the succes we've had this season is more down to luck than judgement.