Aston Villa vs Brighton & Hove Albion *** Official Match Thread ***

[Toongull]

As gutting as it is to miss out on the title it wasn't today that cost us. I think most people, me included would have taken a point at Villa earlier in the season. The Newcastle game at the Amex was the one that cost us for me.

 

[swindonseagull]

The wankers are out in force today.

Two words AUTOMATIC PROMOTION

 

[Blues Rock DJ]

The wankers are out in force today.

Two words AUTOMATIC PROMOTION

off subject, but seeing where you live, shame Luke Williams was held up as the sacrificial lamb for 'Brighton's not good enough' Sherwood !

 

[swindonseagull]

off subject, but seeing where you live, shame Luke Williams was held up as the sacrificial lamb for 'Brighton's not good enough' Sherwood !

According to the local rag they only have 4 registered players for next season
In his time here Rohan Ince won 7 man of the match awards

Not much hope for next season already

 

[scousefan]

Just got home and have to confess to being absolutely gutted.

 

[mreprice]

Stockdale wouldn't have had to make a save if 10 players worked their arses off to shut down 9 players having any space to play in or get a shot off.

This is so true. The fact that a team with ten men was allowed so much time and space in the final third was disgraceful. I pointed this out to my brother ten minutes before we conceded. It was excruciating to watch.

 

[SK1NT]

No one really remembers who finishes 1st or 2nd - as someone said to me yesterday

Would have been a nice bit of silverware to add to the fairly recent league one and two titles ....

The players for some odd reason just haven't seem interested for the last 3 games... Piss poor and a real anti climax to an amazing season

 

[Nixonator]

Would be lying if I didn't admit to being crestfallen at the circumstances of us missing out.

It's not easy in the immediate aftermath (some will take more time than others) to have the perspective of promotion being our achieved goal, and enough.

I would question fans who not only shrug off silverware, but deride their fellow fans for venting frustrations, irrational though some/most may be, it at least shows that today hurt them deeply which it should us all.

 

[Gully Forever]

The wankers are out in force today.

Two words AUTOMATIC PROMOTION

That party was celebrated over and over, The idea was to prove that we deserved to be champions!.

 

[The Fish]

Gutting way to lose the title for your boys, but Brighton were excellent all season and you should be proud of your lads. Some cracking performances from your team and we were neck and neck all season.

Didn't manage to get tickets in the end and had to watch it in Nine Bar under the stadium. Noise was incredible throughout but there were a couple of cheeky scamps in the 1st half calling out as if Villa had gone ahead. So when the equaliser came, nobody really believed it until they got service, when we collectively went mental. When your final whistle went, we could hear the St James' park roar from within the bar.

Good to see so many seeing that promotion is the only thing that matters, the title is just a cherry on the top.

If you want pub advice for away days next season, let me know.

Congrats lads

 

[Finchley Seagull]

Would have been a nice bit of silverware to add to the fairly recent league one and two titles ....

The players for some odd reason just haven't seem interested for the last 3 games... Piss poor and a real anti climax to an amazing season

Are you serious? Did you see the players at the end of the Villa match? Of course, they were interested. However, when a team achieve their aim, it is not that impossible that subconsciously it does not quite have the same mental drive after that. The team can hardly be blamed for that. We've had an amazing season. Sunday was disappointing but the main aim was getting promoted, and that was what happened.

 

[Finchley Seagull]

Gutting way to lose the title for your boys, but Brighton were excellent all season and you should be proud of your lads. Some cracking performances from your team and we were neck and neck all season.

Didn't manage to get tickets in the end and had to watch it in Nine Bar under the stadium. Noise was incredible throughout but there were a couple of cheeky scamps in the 1st half calling out as if Villa had gone ahead. So when the equaliser came, nobody really believed it until they got service, when we collectively went mental. When your final whistle went, we could hear the St James' park roar from within the bar.

Good to see so many seeing that promotion is the only thing that matters, the title is just a cherry on the top.

If you want pub advice for away days next season, let me know.

Congrats lads

Thanks. Can't argue with any of that. It was a great battle for the title between comfortably the two best teams in the league. The fact that an 89th minute goal in the last game of the season changed the course of the match shows how close it was.

Good luck for next season.

 

[Wardy's twin]

Would be lying if I didn't admit to being crestfallen at the circumstances of us missing out.

It's not easy in the immediate aftermath (some will take more time than others) to have the perspective of promotion being our achieved goal, and enough.

I would question fans who not only shrug off silverware, but deride their fellow fans for venting frustrations, irrational though some/most may be, it at least shows that today hurt them deeply which it should us all.

this is spot on. I am not over it ,still hurts. Had we been 1 0 down and scored I would probably have felt better. It was the manner of it that has hit me.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Classic Albion right there

You have to or else you'd

 

[The Fish]

Thanks. Can't argue with any of that. It was a great battle for the title between comfortably the two best teams in the league. The fact that an 89th minute goal in the last game of the season changed the course of the match shows how close it was.

Good luck for next season.

Cheers,

there's all kinds of predictions about us at the minute;

Rafa will go
Rafa will stay until the end of the window then leave
Rafa will stay for ten years
We're going to spend nowt
We're going to spend £150m
We're going to come straight back down
We're going to get top half

It's mental, but hopefully in the next week or so, Ashley and Benitez will meet and hash things out. After that meeting we'll know whether to be optimistic or not.

Personally, I think he'll stay, we'll spend c£80-90m (£30m from previous windows + a £30m commitment from Ashley + whatever we get from player sales). We'll start well, struggle around Christmas, and end up about 14th.

What about you lot?

 

[SK1NT]

Are you serious? Did you see the players at the end of the Villa match? Of course, they were interested. However, when a team achieve their aim, it is not that impossible that subconsciously it does not quite have the same mental drive after that. The team can hardly be blamed for that. We've had an amazing season. Sunday was disappointing but the main aim was getting promoted, and that was what happened.

Let's face it i did say over the last 3 games. Not just the villa game. yes i did see the faces of the the players after the villa game, but i think the shock was more to do with the manor of the last minute goal.

promotion was the main objective however i feel not winning one of the 3 games did not show a drive for the title. Lets face it the players have been partying since, and that's fair enough but don't make out they have been working their socks off since securing promotion

 

[Nixonator]

lost us two today and i cant exactly remember but i know he has also lost us points before, he is a very good keeper and has obv done awesome for us next season but next season he will lose us points more than gain us

Not picking you out specifically as there are many others with the same views.

I can't believe Stockdale has taken the blame from seemingly a good proportion of our support. I was at villa and even at the time of the goal I had absolutely no frustration or blame for him, it looked like he was unsighted with limbs outstretched during the ball's flight. He also saved us a couple of times prior to that because of, my major frustration, the fact we invited pressure and invited shots constantly and seemed utterly incapable of making a challenge until they had quite literally idly walked the ball into our box. Sidwell seemed the only one willing to make a challenge which resulted in endless free kicks. In short, the players seemed nervous as ****... against 10 men. The goal was coming, everyone seemed to know it and they had better chances before the inevitable sucker punch. I don't know whether the idea came from the manager or whether it happened organically, but sitting so deep and inviting pressure was stupid as **** and I would have maintained that opinion had we won.

In fact, my anger and frustration at the time of the goal reverted back to the gilt-edged chance bordering on an open goal blundered some 20mins before, which I said to my dad at the time would cost us. I've never been so mortified to be right. A goal to the good and against 10men, Baldock really should have had the composure to put that away. 2-0 game over, thank you very much over to you Bruno.

Not to be.

 

[SUA Seagull]

Would be lying if I didn't admit to being crestfallen at the circumstances of us missing out.

It's not easy in the immediate aftermath (some will take more time than others) to have the perspective of promotion being our achieved goal, and enough.

I would question fans who not only shrug off silverware, but deride their fellow fans for venting frustrations, irrational though some/most may be, it at least shows that today hurt them deeply which it should us all.

This is pretty much how I feel. No one can possibly question the huge effort the team put in during the course of this season (and last) nor the incredible achievement of promotion to the Premier League. That’s fantastic, and every fan is eternally grateful for that. Given our resources, which are a fraction of Newcastle's, our achievement has resulted in a spectacular 1.98 PPG over two seasons. That is remarkable.

What really hurts is that the title was there for the taking and, well, we just didn’t seem hungry enough for it. Norwich and Villa away were always going to be very tough fixtures, although I am devastated that we couldn’t hold out against 10 men on Sunday, which simply heightens the pain. (PS: I do not blame Stockers at all – he kept us in the game with some great saves. We should have been able to outplay 10 men for 25 minutes and we didn’t.).

I personally feel we fluffed our lines against Bristol City, with the pre-match build-up and party atmosphere, which added to everyone’s expectations and probably heaped pressure on the team. IMHO we should’ve just stuck to our normal pre-match routine and – if appropriate – celebrated at the final whistle. That’s what I believe did for us, not Villa – where the pressure on the squad must have been unbearable. A draw there is a great result.

There is nothing wrong with fans wanting the title even though we’d achieved the dream of promotion but for some to suggest that the title doesn’t matter I think misses the point. It does to many fans (I don't think we're going to get another chance like that in quite a while) and, 48 hours on, I must confess that I still feel bloody gutted.

My lad summed it up nicely for me at Villa Park on Sunday. At the final whistle, watching our players collapse to the turf, I said “Bugger, we had one hand on the trophy.” “No dad,” he replied, visibly devastated, “7 points clear and with 3 games to go we had two hands on it!”

Sure, we’ll all get over it and soon we’ll be embarking on an amazing season in the Premier League but, today, and still reflecting on just how close we were to winning the title, I am still hurting and reflecting on what might have been.