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THE AWAY END - VILLA PARK 14-3-08
John Powls
The Build Up To The Game
“We are going to get slaughtered and rightly so. We have to take it on the chin. The fans are rightly disappointed and angry.”
Well, you don’t say, Gate? So on the websites and in the local media this week, a slaughtering ensued. There’s no value in rehearsing that again here.
But, like the Villa Park semi and Eindhoven, it will take some getting over by the fans. And by common consent, the performance against Cardiff was worse than either of those.
The blame lies with the team, the squad, the coaching staff and the manager but Gate was the only one with the bottle to turn up to the post match press interviews whilst the players skulked away.
Luke Young spoke up later, though. Interestingly, he was not the captain last Sunday.
What was now important was what impact that whimpering capitulation, following closely after the same level of performance and outcome against Reading, would have on the rest of our already faltering Premiership season.
“Our response to this defeat is very important. We have to get our pride and the respect of our supporters back,” said Gate. With Arsenal away after this game, that response had to start tonight. If we limped through those two matches, who could see us even beating Derby?
Had there been time in the couple of days since the quarter final for Gate, in Churchill not Iain Duncan-Smith mode, to ring the major changes that were needed? Would the crisis meeting of the squad, manager and coaches have focused minds?
Were the words of Gibbo the fan as well as Gibbo the chaiman taken to hearts, minds and maybe wallets? They had clearly been loudly and bluntly expressed after the game.
My mate Ian and his son Alex were my ‘stringers’ for this Away End. At some cost to his marriage, not to say his sanity, Ian had got tickets for the game.
He threatened that if the first half was anything like the Cardiff game, both he and Alex (who had already considered asking MFC if his ticket could be refunded), would be home in Derby for the ten o'clock news.
They had also been planning to go up to the Boro for the Derby match but that was already kicked into the long grass.
They only just got to Villa Park in time after Ian left the tickets at home and they had to go back to collect them. There was no time for the ritual poison burger with onions so a Balti pie at half time had to substitute.
There were probably a 1000 in The Away End at best, even if Ian was generous in his estimate.
Gate had stuck with the same defence but had boldly dropped The Tippy-Tappy Twins in favour of The Boat and Shawky, although Rocky was on the bench. Alves was ill so Mido and Tuncay played up front.
The Game
Ian’s assessment of the game was typically pithy:
“A case of ‘so nearly’" as Boro created several chances and half chances.
Downing had a good game especially in the first half. I thought he might have been arrested for mental cruelty on the full back. He also took an excellent goal.
The Boro started the second half with a couple of real chances and paid the penalty, literally.
Wheater did well, aided and abetted by Huth.
Mido disappointed. The Villa fans on the train next to us on the way home thought he let them off the hook. He lumbered about, missed a sitter and gave away free kicks, however he did clear one off the Boro line.
The Boat and Shawky stiffened up the midfield but their passing in the second half gave too many balls away. O’Neil suffered from the same disease.
Tuncay ran his socks off and tortured Laursen, which is something not many have achieved this season.
Schwarzer kept wasting time.
The Boat got booked after some embarrassing ‘handbags’.
It was hard to judge the penalty from where we were.
Boro should have been away and clear but in the end, a point was okay.
We looked much better with two holding players who kept it simple. It certainly works away from home where the opposition come on to you. I am not too sure whether it would work at home though.
Two things were clear:
1. Moving the ball around quickly allowed Boro to break swiftly.
2. You go backwards just as quickly if you keep misplacing the passes as Boro did in the second half.
For sixty minutes, the Boro tortured Villa with their pace and movement. If Mido had taken the sitter created by Downing, they would have been home and hosed.
If Aliadiere had been available then the Boro would have terrorised Villa - they couldn’t cope with Downing and Tuncay as it was.
When Mido left the stage we wished Boro had brought on Jinky and moved O'Neil inside.
It was all a bit desperate towards the end without Villa really creating chances.
Overall, it was the story of Boro’s season - when we play well we don’t take our chances and when we don’t play well...
Later…
It was clear from the highlights on Sky that the penalty was dubious to say the least.
Mido and Schwarz were booked for protesting at the time and Luke Young dared to politely ask Mr. Bennett after the final whistle whether he would take a look at the incident on video later and see what he thought. He was booked for his pains.
In their interviews, both Gate and Luke Young said that they had to be careful with what they said about the referee so as not to get themselves in further trouble. They both then more or less called him a biased ‘homer’ and just stopped short of questioning his parentage.
Gate commented that we had somehow managed to amass the Premiership’s largest total of yellow cards when one of the things he had been critical of with the players was not getting enough tackles in!
As the Sky presenter said: “If that was being careful in what they said…”, let’s hope this hasn’t drawn the attention of our ‘friends’ at the FA and we aren’t called on to explain ourselves. Otherwise, it would likely end up being a five game ban for Luke Young!
Gate’s view that the performance and the result were a small step in the right direction after the Cardiff debacle, and that the attitude and character shown was what we needed to see for the rest of the season if we wanted to avoid relegation, seemed measured and fair to me.
His assessment that we deserved more than a point and that the way Villa equalised was particularly difficult to swallow was echoed by the TV pundits and the press reports the following morning.
Ian, Phil and I debated what we could take from this for the rest of the season.
Arsenal are our next opponents. At their best, they don’t play many fancy passes or wonder balls. They play lots of short balls into space knowing someone will run on to it. The key thing is having players with movement and pace, who can think, anticipate and keep on the move.
The problem with The Tippy-Tappy Twins is that they can slow play down, especially against more physical teams. The team can get away with one of them because they can also buy you time allowing people to make runs. Yet playing both of them together tends to give you the runs!
Boro could play 4-1-4-1 with O'Neil, Tuncay, Aliadiere and Stewie behind Alves or Mido. Shawky or The Boat could also operate behind the strikeforce.
Whatever, we don’t have long to wait before we find out whether the character, attitude and performance shown at Villa is more than a one game ‘wonder’. And there’s no more difficult benchmark than at The Emirates!
‘Yerjokin’aren’ya’ Quote of the Week
“My daughter has a troublesome Veruka. If I send her up to the Toon, will it disappear entirely?” Ian Gill provides some light relief in a dark week.
The Away End will be back after the Arsenal game on 15 March.
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John Powls is a published poet with five books of his work in print. He is a regular performer of his work at major literary festivals and exhibitions in the UK and America, often working with musicians, painters with photographer Carol Ballenger.
Check out Red Shoes 250 for more of John Powls, right here.
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