[Archived] Villa Semi Final 2Nd Leg

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

Mods - may I suggest a red card for this deluded idiot?

1st pen - he began diving BEFORE any contact.

2nd pen - ref blew for a foul BEFORE handball.

Result - MON bemoans and moans and moans some more.

Nelson WAS pushed, his heels might also have been clipped too.

Milner's shot WAS going wide, until it WAS deflected off Agbon's arms.

Result - SA moans.

Fine to have your one sided fans views, but go and do one onto a Villa forum, and leave us to lick our wounds.

Villa Park for the last match of the season anyone? Who knows we may end up with 11 players left on the pitch!

Im as much of a Rovers fan as anyone but im not going to pretend that all those statements are accurate.

1st pen - he began diving BEFORE any contact.

It looked like a foul to me. If that had been against Rovers i would have been screaming for it. Was it a dive? yes, but it also looked like a foul

2nd pen - ref blew for a foul BEFORE handball.

Not as much of a shout as the first one, but im not sure there was much of a foul on chimbonda

Result - MON bemoans and moans and moans some more.

Which he has a right to and Sam did exactly the same after last night

Nelson WAS pushed, his heels might also have been clipped too.

Nelsen should have stood his ground, it was hardly a push. Even in the slo mo replays it barely looked like Agbonlahor touched him

Milner's shot WAS going wide, until it WAS deflected off Agbon's arms.

Looked like it came off his midrift and even if it had come off his arms it can hardly be seen as intentional as he was clearly trying to avoid the shot

Result - SA moans.

I actually thought Sam's remarks were pathetic. Blaming the ref when Samba was far more to blame. The push on Nelsen can be seen both ways, i personally didnt think it was a foul, at best its debateable. Hardly a stone wall foul and therefore you cannot really blame the ref too much for not giving it. MoN's remarks werent any better i might add. It was just a great match.

Overall thats how i saw it. We werent robbed by the ref in the second leg any more then we were helped by him in the first. Im proud of the effort our team showed and every Villa fan knows that they were given a much tougher game then any of them expected.

[McAds]

I was worried after twenty odd minutes, who isn’t when their side has gone two nil down? The fact it was a semi-final only exacerbates it.

I sit in the Holte End upper tier, so the incident you mentioned was obviously not viewable from my position, but one bloke acting the fool out of thousands is pretty decent.

I also think it’s a bit clichéd, not to mention unfair, to suggest that our support is any more fickle or demanding than anybody else’s.

I can honestly say that I thought it was a penalty at the time and I took a phone call at half time from a friend watching it on Sky who said that they were two penalties. I got home and watched it myself and Samba gets nowhere near the ball and makes contact with Gabby. That for me is a penalty.

[Boz]

I've seen the replay’s for all of them and other than agreeing it was a foul on Nelson, I think you've got all of the points completely wrong.

As you said earlier, opinions are an important role in football.

And yours mean less and less to me the more I hear from you.

End of, goodbye and good luck in the final.

[grizfoot]

First of all I've got to say that last night's game was a throughly entertaining one, indeed the way the game panned out it led to a very open game which is a rare occurance in football these days.

Prior to the game I could just about vision us conceding six but never for one minute did I think we'd go away to Villa Park and score four. In there pobably lies the biggest annoyance of the events, the fact that we managed to score four goals and still not progress to the final. The starting line-up didn't really suprise me that much, the only real suprise was the inclusion of Pedersen in a mostly central midfield spot. The formation implemented had a flat five across the midfield as opposed to the four and one "in the hole" which is our usual formation. We started the game very brightly we were over-running Villa in the centre of the park, Pedersen and Olsson operating the central-left ares and Dunn and Emerton operating the centre-right areas with Nzonzi sitting in his usual holding role. There also seemed to be more energy in our play, players were closing down faster and making swifter forward runs. Combine this hard work in midfield with the class of Kalinic and we found two largely unexpected goals. Villa hardly had a kick up until the Warnock goal, in which Nelsen appeared to be pushe dout of the way. What I will say about it is that it wasn't the biggest push I've ever seen but Agbonlahor was never getting to the ball and his puhs on Nelsen was purely done with the intention of making him miss the header.

All that being said at that point we were still ahead in the tie on the away goals. But then came the changing point in the game, no not the failiure of the referee to spot the push on Nelsen like Big Sam sems to think, but the penalty and Samba's resulting sending off. Retrospectively Samba will probably say he should have stayed on his feet, Agbonlahor isn't the best and one-on-ones I recall he missed a similiar chance against West Ham on Sunday. From that point onwards it was always going to be to difficult but despite looking like Villa could go on to score ten we did come back into the game and show a little bit of fight, which is always encouraging to see. A wonderful goal from Olsson to cap another impressive performance.

So to summarise the first twenty minutes of the game probably so us play as well as we've done all season, just a brief blip in concerntration from Samba has probably cost us a place in the final. I firmly believe with eleven men we would have gone onto the tie because we had Villa well and truely rattled in tht first half. On a postitve note that was a good performance form our boys and we can be very proud. Just for the record I think Villa will get beat in the final whoever the come up against, they have a lot of good players but no outstanding players.

[McAds]

As you said earlier, opinions are an important role in football.

And yours mean less and less to me the more I hear from you.

End of, goodbye and good luck in the final.

Well the idea of a discussion board is to exchange opinions. I’ve given mine, explained why I believe them and then defended them. If you don’t like what you hear then you are free not to read them or leave the discussion, as is your right to do so.

[Gav]

I can honestly say that I thought it was a penalty at the time and I took a phone call at half time from a friend watching it on Sky who said that they were two penalties. I got home and watched it myself and Samba gets nowhere near the ball and makes contact with Gabby. That for me is a penalty.

Agreed.

Saw it a couple of times last night, stone wall penalty, Samba never got near the ball and he deserved to go.

[bellamy11]

Agreed.

Saw it a couple of times last night, stone wall penalty, Samba never got near the ball and he deserved to go.

Think he's talking about the first leg, Gav.

[jim mk2]

I'm ambivalent about most opposition supporters but I have to say I have taken a great dislike to Villa fans this season.

Walking back to the car after an away defeat most fans leave you alone but Villa supporters after both cup ties have taunted our group and made it a thoroughly unpleasant experience.

The fact that several of them feel the need to come on here to gloat and goad after their victory only reinforces my view of their pathetic mentality.

[Gav]

Sorry, thats what you get only reading a couple of posts

[Boz]

Im as much of a Rovers fan as anyone but im not going to pretend that all those statements are accurate. so which ones are inaccurate?

1st pen - he began diving BEFORE any contact.

It looked like a foul to me. If that had been against Rovers i would have been screaming for it. ME TOO. Was it a dive? yes, AGREED. but it also looked like a foul I DON'T DISAGREE BUT WHAT CAME FIRST? THE DIVE OR THE FOUL?

2nd pen - ref blew for a foul BEFORE handball.

Not as much of a shout as the first one, but im not sure there was much of a foul on chimbonda AGREED, 'NOT MUCH OF A FOUL', BUT A FOUL ALL THE SAME. THIS IS WHY IN THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON'S OPINION (THE REF) HE BLEW, BEFORE THE HANDBALL.

Result - MON bemoans and moans and moans some more.

Which he has a right to and Sam did exactly the same after last night AGREED

Nelson WAS pushed, his heels might also have been clipped too.

Nelsen should have stood his ground, it was hardly a push. Even in the slo mo replays it barely looked like Agbonlahor touched him 'IT WAS HARDLY A PUSH', 'BARELY TOUCHED HIM'? STILL A FOUL WHICH THE REF MISSED.

Milner's shot WAS going wide, until it WAS deflected off Agbon's arms.

Looked like it came off his midrift and even if it had come off his arms it can hardly be seen as intentional as he was clearly trying to avoid the shot INTENTIONAL? WHO KNOWS WHAT HIS INTENTIONS WERE, IT BEARS NO PART IN THE HANDBALL LAW AND RECENT DIRECTIVES HANDED DOWN ON THIS TOPIC.

Result - SA moans.

I actually thought Sam's remarks were pathetic. Blaming the ref when Samba was far more to blame. The push on Nelsen can be seen both ways, i personally didnt think it was a foul, at best its debateable. Hardly a stone wall foul and therefore you cannot really blame the ref too much for not giving it. MoN's remarks werent any better i might add. It was just a great match. AND WE AGREE ONE LAST TIME, IN THAT SA MOANED. BUT WILL HE MOAN AGAIN IN THE NEXT GAME AGAINST VILLA LIKE MON DID?

Overall thats how i saw it. We werent robbed by the ref in the second leg any more then we were helped by him in the first. Im proud of the effort our team showed and every Villa fan knows that they were given a much tougher game then any of them expected.

I too don't think we were 'robbed' by the ref per se, and I too was immensely proud of my team. I could just do without the likes of McAds coming on here (a BRFC supporters forum) with his one eyed views that he states are FACTS and assumes that we all must accept them, not unlike quite a few of his fellow supporters who have continued ad nauseum on here and elsewhere over this tie for two weeks it feels.

My last comment on this topic with McAds duly on ignore, just to maintain my sanity.

[Kelbo]

First of all I've got to say that last night's game was a throughly entertaining one, indeed the way the game panned out it led to a very open game which is a rare occurance in football these days.

Prior to the game I could just about vision us conceding six but never for one minute did I think we'd go away to Villa Park and score four. In there pobably lies the biggest annoyance of the events, the fact that we managed to score four goals and still not progress to the final. The starting line-up didn't really suprise me that much, the only real suprise was the inclusion of Pedersen in a mostly central midfield spot. The formation implemented had a flat five across the midfield as opposed to the four and one "in the hole" which is our usual formation. We started the game very brightly we were over-running Villa in the centre of the park, Pedersen and Olsson operating the central-left ares and Dunn and Emerton operating the centre-right areas with Nzonzi sitting in his usual holding role. There also seemed to be more energy in our play, players were closing down faster and making swifter forward runs. Combine this hard work in midfield with the class of Kalinic and we found two largely unexpected goals. Villa hardly had a kick up until the Warnock goal, in which Nelsen appeared to be pushe dout of the way. What I will say about it is that it wasn't the biggest push I've ever seen but Agbonlahor was never getting to the ball and his puhs on Nelsen was purely done with the intention of making him miss the header.

All that being said at that point we were still ahead in the tie on the away goals. But then came the changing point in the game, no not the failiure of the referee to spot the push on Nelsen like Big Sam sems to think, but the penalty and Samba's resulting sending off. Retrospectively Samba will probably say he should have stayed on his feet, Agbonlahor isn't the best and one-on-ones I recall he missed a similiar chance against West Ham on Sunday. From that point onwards it was always going to be to difficult but despite looking like Villa could go on to score ten we did come back into the game and show a little bit of fight, which is always encouraging to see. A wonderful goal from Olsson to cap another impressive performance.

So to summarise the first twenty minutes of the game probably so us play as well as we've done all season, just a brief blip in concerntration from Samba has probably cost us a place in the final. I firmly believe with eleven men we would have gone onto the tie because we had Villa well and truely rattled in tht first half. On a postitve note that was a good performance form our boys and we can be very proud. Just for the record I think Villa will get beat in the final whoever the come up against, they have a lot of good players but no outstanding players.

No, you have this wrong, watch the Nelsen incident again, watch how his balance shifts to head the ball, Abhoringine pushed him as his weight shifted and he was off balnce, thats a foul and a foul which allowed a team who were struggling to get into the game at the time to get a goall and lift both them and the crowd who at that time were shell shocked and very quiet!! That was the defining moment, if that foul (Hansen, Shearer and Southgate all agreed it was a foul) had been given, we would have continued to play the game as we had started, the penalty was caused by our Kamakaze effort to try and right a wrong by the ref and get another goal, this left us exposed!! yeas the penalty allowed Milner to play, he had been invisible to that point, then the referee, as I stated earlier blew no less than 7 times for fouls by Abhorigine (and the missed one on Nelsen) NO YELLOW CARDS?? why, the guy

was persistently infringing the laws of the game and thats a booking, do it again and you are off! This is written in the laws and I for one cannot understand how he got away with it!!

[rebelmswar]

It was nice to see Lucky the Leprechaun giving renditions of Lord of the Dance on the touchline. Fantastic entertainment.

We should allow Villa fans to voice their opinions, some are very good. They should however remember that they are on a Rovers board and should expect bias.

It was a great game with many talking points.

There should have been fouls called for both sides, referees need more help and much more oversight in my opinion.

Well good luck in the final Villa fans, you’ll need it, regardless of who you face. Would rather see you win than Utd.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Just a couple of points for the Villa fans.

My last word on the Nelsen- Agbonlahor incident. If Nelsen had have pushed the Villa player with the same amount of force and he'd missed the cross would you expect the ref to give a penalty. Honest answers would be nice.

We've played Villa 4 times and ended up with 10 men in 3 of those games. As far as I know they're our only sendings off.

[RibbleValleyRover]

The way i see it is we did sit off a bit and went a bit deeper after the two goal lead but there were moments when we looked dangerous still. The 1st goal changed the game, as soon as that incident occurred you could see the players had lost their head due to be being aggrieved by the decision. That goal gave Villa the confidence to press on and still smarting over that first decision we switched off and gave the penalty away.

After that 1st goal the players should have been regrouped, accepted they had had a poor decision go against them but they were still in this game and had the away goal advantage.

The sending off decision was correct, as soon as Samba went to ground he had to get the ball otherwise a pen had to be given. Samba going off probably lost us the game, but the 1st goal decision played a huge part imo in that incident happening.

[randy.stand]

What a semi final. I'm a Villa fan, not coming to gloat, just reporting what i saw last night.

I must admit, some of our supporters had been very arrogant before hand, booking hotels etc, i didn't like that, felt like it was jinxing it. I had a horrible feeling about last night and after 25 minutes, i was right to. We started awful. No ideas going forward, Carlos Cuellar who was out of position was having a mare, Guzan had a rare poor 90 minutes, Kalinic caused us all sorts of problems and at 2-0 i thought game over. On Warnocks goal, i think it could have gone either way. Definetly a push/pull by Agbonlahor but its the sort of thing that some ref's give and others don't. Can't be any complaints on the penalty/red card. Dived in, last man, red card. Thems the rules. The Milner/Gabby deflection goal there also can't be any complaints, looking at a tv replay the ball clearly struck Agbonlahor in the chest/waist. Not a handball whatsoever. Allardyce's comments irritated me a little. No mention of the decisions that went Blackburns way at Ewood Park only a week ago. If it went the rightful way that night, we could have been coming back with a 3 nil lead going into the second leg at Villa Park.

Shame you guys only brought 2,000, thought you would have brought more for it to be honest. Nethertheless, i have to applaud your side. Got some real fighters out there. To come to a rocking Villa Park, take a two goal lead, then even when 5-2 down managed to claw it back to 5-4 with 10 men takes some doing and i salute Blackburn Rovers for that. You gave us an almighty scare, a scare i'm glad didn't come to fruition in the end.

Good semi final guys, best in a long long time.

All the best for the season ahead.

[stuwilky]

Can I ask a serious question of the sensible Villa fans.

The atmosphere at Villa Park is a very strange beast - at the times you were loud it was some of the loudest Ive ever heard - but most of the time - even at 5-3 up it was silent. How does that work?

[Denis_B]

Basically a real pity that a fantastic entertaining competitive game is ignored by all the point scoring petty minded comments made afterwards - by both managers, and some on here.

I admit to being a Villa fan and I admit that if those decisions were made against us I would be upset - just as I was after those in the first leg.

Given that performance I am amazed at the season BRFC have endured so far as I haven't seen a team fight and work like that for a very long time. Not once did any of your players heads drop, unlike some Villa heads when the second goal went in.

Both sets of fans have their opinions and opinions are not facts they are opinions therefore cannot by definition be wrong

Both sets of fans last night indulged in a bit of baiting and banter and infact it was very humourous for those of us there. Heskeys ###### my lord, Heskeys ######, from you and Heskey scored my lord from our lot. You singing 'are you Burnley in disguise' and then repeated when we were winning.

If you can't take it don't dish it surely?

Good luck to Blackburn, I wish you all well and as a long time lurker on here I will enjoy reading the site for the rest of the season when I fully expect you will be in a much better league position than you are now.

[CAPT KAYOS]

I'm ambivalent about most opposition supporters but I have to say I have taken a great dislike to Villa fans this season.

Not been to VP before Jim?

Its not uncommon

Cracking ground and noisy when they can be arsed but chips on Shoulders akin to Citeh and Spuds

As for the Nelson v Agbon - without doubt it was a foul in this grand old scheme of no contact game nowadays, but if it had been the other way around I would have been aggrieved and agree Nelsen should have ben far stronger and determined in the challenge. However the annoying aspect of it all is what I said earlier - similar challenges from our players had been pulled up prior - the ref didn't even blink at this one.

As for the penalty - yet to be convinced it was stonewall but possibly difficult for the ref to see - Agbon had played an air shot before starting to tumble - which was before Samba made any contact which was minimal at most - the penalty to me was more difficult to call than the foul on Nelsen yet the ref called it straight away.

[Denis_B]

Can I ask a serious question of the sensible Villa fans.

The atmosphere at Villa Park is a very strange beast - at the times you were loud it was some of the loudest Ive ever heard - but most of the time - even at 5-3 up it was silent. How does that work?

Don't know if I am sensible but I can say that the ground went quite due to the way you were playing and due to the fact many like me were still not convinced we were through even at 5-3. It was loudest when we were 3 goals clear but quiet when we weren't. Give your players some credit for that.

[Gav]

Shame you guys only brought 2,000, thought you would have brought more for it to be honest.

Style of football and recent performances, people are sick of watching cr@p.

That said, the ones that decided not to go, me included, missed a cracker.

[Hughesy]

McAds how you can say that you honestly think last weeks dive was a penalty astounds me.

Must have the cheat mentality instilled over there

We've played Villa 4 times and ended up with 10 men in 3 of those games. As far as I know they're our only sendings off.

Not suggesting the likes of Agbonlawhore & Young go down easy are we boys?!

[Mattyblue]

Shame you guys only brought 2,000, thought you would have brought more for it to be honest.

There was closer to 3k, that top tier holds 4k, it was certainly more than half full.

Shame we didnt fill it though, the occasion merited it.

[Fife Rover]

Hughesy I will stand corrected if wrong but I'm pretty sure as I keep saying that it hit Agbonlahore on the waist - it didn't hit his arms.

The replay clearly shows that it did hit him on the elbow. He didn't move his arm to influence the ball's direction of travel; it simply hit him and was deflected. Make of that what you will.

[rebelmswar]

Make of that what you will.

Bad bloody luck IMO.

[cruz]

There was closer to 3k, that top tier holds 4k, it was certainly more than half full.

Shame we didnt fill it though, the occasion merited it.

Still a higher percentage of the local population than that which made it to ewood