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Many of those there today thought this was a better performance – abject as opposed to pathetic. We attacked more and both Johnson and Sessegnon showed an improvement, being disappointing as opposed to very disappointing. We know that the club looks at and reacts to this website as there was a total absence of pre match and half time sprinklers popping up so we are grateful that the manager should take time out of his busy day to send us a personal message.
What follows is his positive spin on what was another frustrating day for those in the stands.
Dear Colin,
We didn’t deserve to get beaten.
We probably should have won the game but the ball just didn’t drop for us today.
We’re not scoring goals, we’ve had people in and around the penalty area, but it just doesn’t seem to be happening for us.
I could not fault the players’ effort whatsoever. I think it was epitomised by a fantastic performance from Lee Cattermole.
It is as good a performance as I have seen from a player and he didn’t deserve to be on the losing side.
We drove at Villa and tried everything but we were unable to wear them down.
We need to be resilient. It’s been tough going and we’ve found ourselves in the situation where we’re not getting goals.
You wouldn’t think we would have that problem with all of the attacking players we have in the team. We have to stick in at it and we’ll come back from this.
We have to remain strong and stay resilient – we’re all in this together.
All the best,
I agree Dave. It was a lot better today and the comments that people are making are a reflection of the result I think rather than the performance which was a lot better.
The problem is that MON insists on throwing Campbell on when we need a goal. Campbell is nothing more than a pub team player, and his particular pub has run out of draft and is surviving on a few bottles of pale ale.
It was never a penalty and our goal was offside. Villa won fair and square. No complaints.
I thought it was a better performance – but one shot on target all game says a lot. Villa always looked dangerous on the break, like we did when MON first came but rarely do now.
I think you are being harsh on Campbell who looked lively when he came on. His header which went just wide was a decent effort as he had to arch backwards to get the ball. Had the cross been a foot further forward it would have been a much easier ball to head. I also seem to remember that you thought much the same about Danny Welbeck when he first came to the club but he came good.
I’m not sure why so many people seem to think Ji and Whickham will be any better than Fletcher, Saha and Sessegnon. Neither has shown much in the games they have played, though I leave myself open to the Danny Welbeck riposte I made above.
I did think we were better today, at least until they scored and worryingly, it appeared MON panicked. Sess was looking much better and taking him took away creativity. Replacing Gardner made sense. He is one who seems to get better in people’s eyes when he doesn’t play in midfield. I think Vaughan is much better at getting the ball quickly to our front players but how on earth could MON think that moving Larsson into centre mid was a good idea. He has never been a centre-mid and is having a poor spell. It just appears that he must be on the field at all times and it is not as if his delivery of set pieces is justifying that either at the moment.
I think Villa are comfortably the worst team we have played, with 1 tactic (getting Benteke to head it) but still comfortably beat us.
We need a win soon or we are in serious trouble and I doubt that Everton away will give us that win
Villa fan here. Hopefully giving you an
Vince, you shouldn’t get a penalty for ball to hand. The MOTD pundits were also clear that it wasn’t a penalty.
I think MON’s lack of tactics is being exposed again. There was no fluidity between Johnson, Sessegnon and Larsson – they are all capable of moving around but were pretty rigid. I also don’t think you can play Gardner and Sessegnon in the same team as Gardner needs to be at the front of a midfield three, unless Sessegnon takes one of the wide positions.
I did think Cattermole looked good, just lacked the support of another proper CM’er.
I hope you guys can turn it around (but obviously still finish below the Villa!).
I’ve always been of the opinion that if a ball to hand stops a goal chance it should be given,otherwise no…sometimes they get given sometimes not.Though not going to whinge on about it we lost fair and square, more our own doing than the refs
Had to watch on the Portuguese channel meant for Mozambique & Angola, it was a better display but we lack penetration, if we don’t sort it out soon we will be in a relegation dogfight, and we know from experience it makes confidence low and nothing whatsoever goes for you. Unity is Strength stay together and keep bickering to a low
We should have had a penalty,we can do without that as well.Slightly better than Tuesday but they could scarcely be worse,Cattermole did try hard bless him but those around him are not lifted.This will be a long old season,and I predict a 17th finish.
Just watched MOTD and they didn’t show the disallowed goal. Why not? Please tell me I didn’t blink and miss it!
“We’re all in this together…” but some of us are being paid more than others.
I think he has the same speech writer as David Cameron Bill!