[Archived] Villa Semi Final 2Nd Leg

[Steve Moss]

Recently we have been averaging 0.8 goals a game.

Villa average 1.6 goals a game.

That's based on our 'negative' tactics to date. I truly hope that Sam has been planning to lull an opponent into a false expectation, and that he comes out guns blazing at Villa. The same old same old won't work now. Time to mix it up.

I won love us to win on penalties - it would just be fantastic.

I'm not made of such stern stuff. I'd be content with an outright and overwhelming Rovers win.

I will be appalled if Benni does not start after being easily our best attacking player against Fulham. Equally Olsson deserves to start on left wing.

Team for me:-

---------------Kalinic----Benni

Olsson----NZonzi----Emerton----Hoilett

Givet------Nelsen-----Samba---Chimbonda

-----------------Robinson

I could live witht this and then some. I would prefer Di Santo for Benni, and leave the old schoolers (Benni and Dunn) for attacking subs during the last third if the new guys, Kalinic, Di Santo, Olson, Hoilett, aren't able to rack up the points.

I suggest this as Sam is going to have to take MON by surprise. Sam is not known as being a gambler. We have the ability to put pace and constant pressure on Villa's defense as opposed to allowing Villa to put constant pressure on our defense. Serve them up a dose of their own medicine, while delegating to N'Zonzi and Emerton the duties of breaking up Villa's attack and distributing the ball to the wings.

[Iceman]

Robbo

Emerton Samba Nelsen Chimbonda

Hoilett Nzonzi Dunn Olsson

Benni Kalinic

[broadsword]

I'd be content with an outright and overwhelming Rovers win.

Think I'd be more than content if we managed that.

[mellison24]

I'd be content with an outright and overwhelming Rovers win.

Content? I'll be running down the street starkers with only my rovers flag to cover my modesty!!

[nellybc]

it aint the match thats the problem, its the travelling involved!!

It says it may snow/rain from the middle of the day but that wont be enough to stop the match

[BPF]

Really hope that it is not called off. I'm very excited although I'm not too sure why..

Come on you Blues!

[mellison24]

Really hope that it is not called off. I'm very excited although I'm not too sure why.

It's a sign my friend!

[McAds]

Not sure if this has been posted elsewhere but Rovers have returned 500 tickets and Villa will allow fans to pay on the night.

You’ve returned 2800, which is the normal maximum league away allocation, as these have just gone on sale for our supporters.

Just a reality check. Yesterday Villa played against a Wet Spam team that played with a back 4 and at times 6 in themiddle yet still made a number of chances that should have been put away.

t'Rovers have to score and will not be able to stifle the same way.

This is a valid point, you cannot come and park the bus, which means you will most likely be going with four across the middle and you’ll also have to open up and give it a go. This will suit us fine and should make for a better spectacle.

[Anti-Dingle-Brigade]

Nowt to lose, lob it at them and lets give it a go. Wembley!

[Mr. E]

I'm not sure about dropping Reid. He's still a bit rusty, but it's been a long time since Rovers have had a midfielder that can put in a few hard challenges in and stop the opposition. We're gonna need that against Villa.

[Daremz]

Lot of optimism here. With our recent tactics, we're chanceless. Absolutely chanceless. Sam will take a guess on a sneaky counter-goal, resulting us in leaning back and conceding a very early goal. Game killed, cup killed. Season to save.

[Hughesy]

Stick Reid in the middle - let him mix it up abit with them and maybe injure another 2 players - Agbonlawhore & Diving Young would be good.

We need to keep our quicker players in this game - i.e. Olsson, Chimbonda, Hoilett & we must play 2 upfront.

[67splitscreen]

Watched their game at the weekend, no chance of them being as shoite again I suppose.

Come out of the blocks all guns blazing, 3 up at half time, super sub comes on and we go down 4-3, Oh well we gave it a go.

[Guest andrewpickup]

Watched their game at the weekend, no chance of them being as shoite again I suppose.

Come out of the blocks all guns blazing, 3 up at half time, super sub comes on and we go down 4-3, Oh well we gave it a go.

dannydyer FC just proved how one dimensional villa are , less of a team than Fulham so we should do it. same team as sun, involve hoilett at some point

[47er]

dannydyer FC just proved how one dimensional villa are , less of a team than Fulham so we should do it. same team as sun, involve hoilett at some point

Same team as finished on Sunday or started? Or bit of both? I was thinking maybe Dunn might be on the bench, isn't playing like he was before his latest injury. I hope Olssen isn't at left-back though, he would be demoralised.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

Lot of optimism here. With our recent tactics, we're chanceless. Absolutely chanceless. Sam will take a guess on a sneaky counter-goal, resulting us in leaning back and conceding a very early goal. Game killed, cup killed. Season to save.

Nice to see some optimism on here - but like you I fear it may be mis-placed. Having said that, in my heart we can still turn this one around - just need to keep ignoring my head

[Hughesy]

I hope Olssen isn't at left-back though, he would be demoralised.

I dont agree - He is the only one with the pace to handle Young - he could quieten Young down, and they wouldnt always look to exploit his pace as Olssen can match him

[Ben-2000]

Youve returned 2800, which is the normal maximum league away allocation, as these have just gone on sale for our supporters.

The 500 he refers to are in the North stand and are on sale to Rovers fans on the night.

According to Villa's online ticket office, there are seats available in both stands down the side so strange how they have opened up a new section when the other seats haven't sold out whilst on general sale with only a day to go until the game.

[MarkBRFC71]

Kalinic and McCarthy in attack, please (even though it wasn't a 4-4-2, like too many believe).

So what was it then? McCarthy spent most of the Fulham game up alongside Kalinic, apart from drifting to the wings a bit here and there (as Shearer did when it was the old SAS partnership). Sunday was definitely 4-4-2, and nothing like the 4-5-1 dross Allardyce has been stubbornly sticking to in the past.

[Presty On Tour]

Just been checking the Villa Park seating plan for the North Stand and I'm in T3 which is right in the middle behind the goal.

Does anyone know how many rows there are?

[Boz]

Anyone ever noticed how Villa fans seem to have a fixation with how many tickets are sold and how many empty seats there are? Vis a vis various comments on here & BBC site from Villa supporters (within the UK's 2nd city), plus that silly song they sing that for the life of me I cannot fully comprehend what exactly they are singing in their brummie twang.

I always held a soft spot for villa from their late 70s early 80s team which won the European Cup, plus also having played and won a tournament on VP way back in the day.

But all this empty seats complex from their modern day supporters is all rather anal.

[mellison24]

Hard to call this one. Villa will most likely look to kill the game off early on so will probably attack us from the off. If we can hold out until half time without conceding then we should attack them from the off in the second half.

I'll go for 1-1 - a valiant attempt but not enough to see us through.

Are you Sam?

[the original david brent]

Just got my tickets from town centre store, was told we have now sold over 2,000, with about 26 coaches going. At least our allocation has now been reduced to the north stand upper, so on tv it wont look that bad. Could end up with 2.5, maybe 3000 if people decide to go on day.

Everybody knows we are likely to get beat, but stranger things have happened in football, and I just want to make sure Im there if we somehow pull this off.

Further to villa fans fixation with their 'massive' support, it wasnt so long ago they were getting very average crowds of circa 30k for premier league games, sometimes a lot less, before randy lerner came in. They are the biggest club in the second city of Britain - they should have a big support!

[McAds]

The 500 he refers to are in the North stand and are on sale to Rovers fans on the night.

According to Villa's online ticket office, there are seats available in both stands down the side so strange how they have opened up a new section when the other seats haven't sold out whilst on general sale with only a day to go until the game.

Oh I see misinterpreted what he’d said. Strange that you’d only send back 500, why not wait till noon on Wednesday and send down every ticket that’s left?

The reason why we’ve had extra go on sale, is because you returned the lower tier at the end of last week and the upper tier yesterday- these areas being the normal away allocation in the Witton Lane stand.

We averaged 37,000 in the last year of O’Leary’s reign, which was good going considering the God awful, Billy McNeil style, relegation standard football that was being dished up.

[McAds]

dannydyer FC just proved how one dimensional villa are , less of a team than Fulham so we should do it. same team as sun, involve hoilett at some point

I don’t think that was the case at all. We created a number of chances and Agbonlahor should have put at least one of his three golden opportunities away. We could do with putting Dwight Yorke in a time machine and getting him back circa 1996, as that's what we really miss, a real goal scorer up front.