Aston Villa Vs Blackburn

[Blackpool_Rover]

Im comfortable with zurab there....fingers crossed.

I cant believe pedersens pass at the end...im absolutely desperate for him to turn the corner and return to the fans favourite status he once had..come on gamst!

[krislu]

With Nelsen gone the defense seems way more solid, and Gamst really needs to leave.

[RevidgeBlue]

Caught the game on foreign TV and I thought it was a really poor encounter with precious little quality on show from either side.

On the plus side I thought Dunn had a really good game and did brilliantly for our goal.

And the defence minus Nelsen also looked a lot more solid than in recent weeks.

Why wait until three minutes from time to bring Roberts on? Either give him 20-25 mins or don't bother!

[Shevchenko]

What a cracking good game that was.

Lot's of hard physical challenges from both sides and Rovers very well worth the draw.

Good game? Not really. Thought it was a scrappy affair mostly and not terribly exciting. Physical yes, but we know we can hold our own and battle if out if needed. Getting a point at Villa Park is alright, can't complain really. Can't quite understand why Derbs took the penalty. It's not like he's the best penalty taker out there today so a bit strange that. Bentley's falling technique is giving us plenty of half dodgy free kicks, which is funny. He could scale it down a bit though, no need to make a meal of everything.

Anyway, good point less than good game.

[thenodrog]

No, Samba got booked on the 90th min...

crap... reckon Khiza can stand up to Everton & Arsenal?

Dunno bout that. Samba had Andy Johnson in his pocket at Goodison.

[den]

Some great performances today. Defence was rock solid, Dunn and Reid got the better of Villa's midfield for most of the afternoon and Bentley was a threat also.

Man of the match for me, is between Warnock, Bentley, Ooijer and Dunn. Got to give it to Warnock I think.

[Exiled_Rover]

That was the best performance of the last two months for mine. We set out to make it difficult for Villa, dropping Derbyshire to the right wing and playing with five in midfield, and it worked. In terms of effort today the team was faultless, which is all you can ask from the players. Pedersen's bereft of confidence, and it showed whenever the ball was at his feet, however he put in a shift today. Bentley, Dunn and Reid all had terrific games in the centre of midfield, showing more steel than I credit them with.

At the back, the presence of Ooijer was noticeable. The back four were much more cohesive and rarely looked in trouble. Warnock will have done his England chances no harm, assuming the team is selected on merit, and Emerton once again kept a pacy winger under wraps. Samba was his usual immense self, though he nearly cost us the game at the death, needlessly giving Villa, or rather Young (who's incredibly good from set pieces), another sight of goal.

The two upfront (as Derbyshire pushed up when we had the ball) put themselves about, with Santa Cruz notching himself another goal....however ungracefully.

All in all, I'm delighted with a point, and we could have taken all three if Derbyshire had put away the penalty. I'd have taken that result at 3pm.

[AndyC]

Caught the game on foreign TV and I thought it was a really poor encounter with precious little quality on show from either side.

On the plus side I thought Dunn had a really good game and did brilliantly for our goal.

And the defence minus Nelsen also looked a lot more solid than in recent weeks.

Why wait until three minutes from time to bring Roberts on? Either give him 20-25 mins or don't bother!

at that stage - hughes wanted the draw and it takes the time down on the clock!

[Rovermatt]

A point at Villa is respectable enough. I have to admit I thought we were going to get turned over. Missing a penalty is unforgivable however.

[Guest fernhurstblue]

just back from villa and thought that rovers played some decent stuff in the first half - penalty miss was one of those things that happens, both sets of teams probably thought it was there for the taking. crap view (row 2), but cant complain for a tenner

villa upped their game in the second half ..... thought dunn played well, as for pedersen - dont get me started!!!!!

didnt think that their goal was a freekick but i suppose it balanced itself out with them hitting the bar ..... at the end of the day a point was probably a fair result, and something to build on for next week.

[1864roverite]

Just watching the highlights on SKY.

Brad its just a step to the right. Done like a kipper for the free kick.

Derbyshire ? Now he and Jason know why they are not and wont be first choice strikers until we see 90 mins effort like RSC.

Looks like Dunny had a good game, as did Reid. MGP continues to flatter to deceive.

A midfielder is now a priority, esp a ball winning/scoring midfielder.

Rover must win the Everton game and just write off the game at the emirates.

[RoyRover]

Truthfully I would have taken a draw before this game. We never seem to do well against Villa and with them being on a good run of form, I thought that they would win this one. However now I'm disappointed that we only got a point from this one, after missing a penalty. It sounds like we played a lot better today, being much stronger in defence - the fact that Nelsen wasn't playing has much to do with this. With Everton up next, we are playing another team competing for European football and need another good performance.

[USABlue]

Heard Samba out for Everton & Arsenal games due to suspension now... that true?

Yes.

Oh crapski.

Did he get the yellow for the block near the end, the one that almost cost us the game too.

[USABlue]

Caught the game on foreign TV and I thought it was a really poor encounter with precious little quality on show from either side.

Shakes head in amazement, Wha???? Perhaps not Man U or Arse quality but I thought the third of the game I saw was good entertainment.

[frosty]

Happy with a point despite the missed penalty, and sounds like we played much better.

Bring on Everton!

[Ben-2000]

Not long been back from the game... great day out and overall pleased with the draw...

[Eddie]

Oh crapski.

Did he get the yellow for the block near the end, the one that almost cost us the game too.

Yeah, bit silly. Especially as I'm pretty sure today was the last day he could be suspended too wasn't it? Doesn't everyone go back to zero once we hit February?

[Paul]

What a cracking good game that was.

?? I must have gone to the wrong ground!

We had terrible seats (good company though) as we sat in the front row just two seats along from the entrance to the stand. We had to endure 15 minutes of Rovers fans arriving late - why bother going?, - a stream of stewards and police moving back and forth in front of us together with a constant flow of fans going to buy pies!

I thought first half was poor with neither side being a good advert for the PL. Saying that Rovers were clearly there to stop Villa playing first and worry about our game second. On that basis Rovers were the better team as it was very effective. Why oh why is Derbyshire taking penalties? When have we seen him really hit a shot? He's a poacher. Dunn, Reid, Bentley, Warnock can all really hit a ball and surely that has to be a big part of taking a penalty. It was a poor penalty, right height and position for a keeper of Carson's quality. At this level you just can't afford to miss penalties.

Second half Rovers were the better team, or so it appeared at knee level, and we probably would have looked very good from 15 rows up. We created more chances - in fact Villa only had three all game - and we should have won this game. Three points for the taking today, though at 2.59pm I'd have taken the draw. Derbyshire and Friedel have to take a lot of responsibility for the result. Brad was badly positioned for Villa's goal even before the kick was taken, was sold a complete dummy by their players and that slight move to his left made all the difference.

Funniest moment of the day? After 20-25 minutes a police woman radios in for a drunk to be ejected. He was duly pulled out, very wobbly and taken down the tunnel. A man late 30s / early 40s with his son following asking the police not to chuck him out! Later the same police woman radios her colleague that the guy is now in the Villa end behind the goal. He gets chucked out again! Just hope he didn't pay to get in the second time.

Haven't been to Villa Park in a while. Today underlined the growing gulf between some PL clubs. Villa Park is claret and blue everywhere. There's no ground advertising, other than the pitch-side thing, no fish & chip shops doing player sponsorship. It looks a big club going places. Certainly made me wonder where we are going? Strange really. Manchester City have a spanking new stadium that looks like nothing, gives no sense of intimidation or atmosphere. Villa Park has been rebuilt but has retained the feel of a football ground.

[Ben-2000]

Haven't been to Villa Park in a while. Today underlined the growing gulf between some PL clubs. Villa Park is claret and blue everywhere. There's no ground advertising, other than the pitch-side thing, no fish & chip shops doing player sponsorship. It looks a big club going places. Certainly made me wonder where we are going? Strange really. Manchester City have a spanking new stadium that looks like nothing, gives no sense of intimidation or atmosphere. Villa Park has been rebuilt but has retained the feel of a football ground.

Agreed...it's a fantastic venue.

[bluebruce]

On that basis Rovers were the better team as it was very effective. Why oh why is Derbyshire taking penalties? When have we seen him really hit a shot?

Couldn't find a clip of his belter against Boro. Well I could but it was a shakey camera from the stands or something.

I agree he shouldn't be our penalty taker under any circumstances though. Well, apart from penalty shootouts. Or mass cripplings.

[Martyn]

I thought the midfield looked much better organised today. Everyone seemed to have a specific role with Reid sitting in front of the back 4 which freed up Dunny further up the pitch.

[mattyboy6000]

the villa free kick they scored from, was, unfortunately, a free kick, reidy tripped the other guy (agbonlahor?)

[RevidgeBlue]

Shakes head in amazement, Wha???? Perhaps not Man U or Arse quality but I thought the third of the game I saw was good entertainment.

I think Shevchenko's assesment of the game was bang on.

If you're one of those people that don't think the Premiership is actually that good (I'm not usually in that category to be fair) then today was a prime example. Two of the supposedly better teams in the Prem challenging for Europe playing kick and rush football.

Yes, we competed a lot better, yes we looked a lot more solid, and yes it was a very good point we would all have taken before kick off.

Purely as an entertainment spectacle, definitely not imo.

The question now is, can we build on it and put in a decent performance at home at long last?

[John]

"It's a system we worked on during the week," explained Blackburn manager Mark Hughes of his side's safety-first approach. "Villa look to hit longer balls into their front guys and we just wanted the insurance of having Steven Reid in that position [in front of the back four] picking up the bits and releasing David Dunn and David Bentley into more advanced areas to support Roque [santa Cruz].

[Mr. E]

wow, this is a very surprising result. and a good point I suppose.

We really shouldn't miss the few penalties we get though, and Benni not playing is worrying.