Villa Away.

[Peter Thompson]

Villa 2-0 Wanderers

I agree 2-0 or 3-1 Villa, and it will turn out to be their easiest win of the season, teams like Villa have to much pace for us because we are the slowest most lethargic, disorganised side in the prem - and Coyle won't have the tactical nous to counter it, N'Zogbia will tear us to pieces.

I really hope I'm wrong as we need the 3 points - but I just can't see it unless they finally grow a pair, we don't have enough quality
or bottle in this current side.

[boltonboris]

It's nailed on that Heskey will bully the living hell out of Ream and score a header

[Hoboh]

Villa 2-0 Wanderers

I agree 2-0 or 3-1 Villa, and it will turn out to be their easiest win of the season, teams like Villa have to much pace for us because we are the slowest most lethargic, disorganised side in the prem - and Coyle won't have the tactical nous to counter it, N'Zogbia will tear us to pieces.

I really hope I'm wrong as we need the 3 points - but I just can't see it unless they finally grow a pair, we don't have enough quality
or bottle in this current side.

Believe it or not I still in the hope camp, I hope we beat Villa, I hope we stay up, I hope we sack Coyle and Gartside!

[Peter Thompson]

Believe it or not I still in the hope camp, I hope we beat Villa, I hope we stay up, I hope we sack Coyle and Gartside!

I think everyone will still have hope, and I think everyone would love to see the club stay up - the problem is I just don't think the manager or the players are good enough individually or as a team to stay up, and compared to the recent form of Wigan & QPR our lot just don't seem to be as fired up & show the same spirit that the players at those 2 sides do.

But I'd love to be proved wrong - but they need to be at it (energy - high tempo - passion etc) for the full 90 mins, but its not often that this side play well for long periods, they normally only have a decent 10 mins in each half at best. We need players who would run through a brick wall for the club in these last few games, and sadly I think we only have 3 or 4 players like that in this side.

[Gravedigger]

The fat lady is warming up. Win this we are in with a chance, lose or even draw and we can get out the A to Zs for the Championship team locations. This is the team from hell, no good saying we lost Holden or Lee, though they may have made a difference. I trust that, if the almost inevitable happens, Gartside and Coyle will have the balls to ship them all out and get some passion back into the team. Not one of the outfielders has earned their wages this season and had Jussi and Bogdan not performed so well we could have lost every single game bar the odd one or two and shipped dozens more goals. Almost shameful to be a Trotter these days.

[Sponge]

The fat lady is warming up. Win this we are in with a chance, lose or even draw and we can get out the A to Zs for the Championship team locations. This is the team from hell, no good saying we lost Holden or Lee, though they may have made a difference. I trust that, if the almost inevitable happens, Gartside and Coyle will have the balls to ship them all out and get some passion back into the team. Not one of the outfielders has earned their wages this season and had Jussi and Bogdan not performed so well we could have lost every single game bar the odd one or two and shipped dozens more goals. Almost shameful to be a Trotter these days.

Nonsense comment. Amazing how you can turn a positive—our keepers' (supposed) good performances—into an overall negative. You could just as well argue the reverse: "Had Davies and Ngog performed better we could have won every single game bar the odd one or two and scored dozens more goals."

[Lennon'sEleven]

BBC is reporting, as fact, that our injury list is:

Mark Davies (leg)
Darren Pratley (virus)
Chung-Yong Lee (leg)
Tyrone Mears (knee)
Stuart Holden (knee)
Ricardo Gardner (hip)
Fabrice Muamba (heart)

Leaves us so short in midfield it's comical.

If that's true, and I suspect one of Mavies/Pratley will make it, but if not, I'd go:

Bogdan
Steinsson Mears Wheater Ricketts
Miyaichi NRC Vela Petov
Eagles
Ngog

And I do not like the look of that one bit.

[Lennon'sEleven]

The fat lady is warming up. Win this we are in with a chance, lose or even draw and we can get out the A to Zs for the Championship team locations. This is the team from hell, no good saying we lost Holden or Lee, though they may have made a difference. I trust that, if the almost inevitable happens, Gartside and Coyle will have the balls to ship them all out and get some passion back into the team. Not one of the outfielders has earned their wages this season and had Jussi and Bogdan not performed so well we could have lost every single game bar the odd one or two and shipped dozens more goals. Almost shameful to be a Trotter these days.

That's a ridiculous statement.

Get on Google Maps. Far quicker.

[Sponge]

BBC is reporting, as fact, that our injury list is:

Mark Davies (leg)
Darren Pratley (virus)
Chung-Yong Lee (leg)
Tyrone Mears (knee)
Stuart Holden (knee)
Ricardo Gardner (hip)
Fabrice Muamba (heart)

Leaves us so short in midfield it's comical.

If that's true, and I suspect one of Mavies/Pratley will make it, but if not, I'd go:

Bogdan
Steinsson Mears Wheater Ricketts
Miyaichi NRC Vela Petov
Eagles
Ngog

And I do not like the look of that one bit.

[m_taylor]

Have people heard that Villla are planning a minutes applause for Muamba in the 6th minute as a show of respect. Villa will also be doing a minutes applause for S.Petrov in the 19th minute?

I think thats really cool of them.

[wanderers_on_tour]

BBC is reporting, as fact, that our injury list is:

Mark Davies (leg)
Darren Pratley (virus)
Chung-Yong Lee (leg)
Tyrone Mears (knee)
Stuart Holden (knee)
Ricardo Gardner (hip)
Fabrice Muamba (heart)

Leaves us so short in midfield it's comical.

If that's true, and I suspect one of Mavies/Pratley will make it, but if not, I'd go:

Bogdan
Steinsson Mears Wheater Ricketts
Miyaichi NRC Vela Petov
Eagles
Ngog

And I do not like the look of that one bit.

Mears as centre back

I've only seen him a handful of times but can't see how Vela can be any worse than Davies was on Saturday. Absolute liability.

[officer_dibble]

feck off midfield
play davies, with ngog and sordell running off him
nice person it long, win the headers but with some support. Score one more than you approach.

so
same back 5
reo cokes, eagles, vela (on the basis they are the only 3 fit who can tackle - eagles!!)
sordell davies and ngog

[Gravedigger]

The fat lady is warming up. Win this we are in with a chance, lose or even draw and we can get out the A to Zs for the Championship team locations. This is the team from hell, no good saying we lost Holden or Lee, though they may have made a difference. I trust that, if the almost inevitable happens, Gartside and Coyle will have the balls to ship them all out and get some passion back into the team. Not one of the outfielders has earned their wages this season and had Jussi and Bogdan not performed so well we could have lost every single game bar the odd one or two and shipped dozens more goals. Almost shameful to be a Trotter these days.

Nonsense comment. Amazing how you can turn a positive—our keepers' (supposed) good performances—into an overall negative. You could just as well argue the reverse: "Had Davies and Ngog performed better we could have won every single game bar the odd one or two and scored dozens more goals."

It's an opinion, lad. and Jussi and Bogdan were excluded from overall negativity. But I agree with your rejoinder, had Davies and Ngog (and the rest) performed better etc, etc, etc. And I agree with it because it is your opinion to which you are entitled. Now where's that nurse with me meds?

[m_taylor]

TBH i think this game is crying out for Klasnic. Two teams short on confidence and will both use either long ball or attack through the wingers. One chance is all he needs and it looks likely we will be playing 4-42 with the injuries in midfeild and if we get one chance he is better than anyone on that pitch tonight to finish it. Get N'gog along side him to do all the running and Keep Calm and Pass to Klasnic. Going to say 2-1 to Bolton. COYW.

[Gravedigger]

The fat lady is warming up. Win this we are in with a chance, lose or even draw and we can get out the A to Zs for the Championship team locations. This is the team from hell, no good saying we lost Holden or Lee, though they may have made a difference. I trust that, if the almost inevitable happens, Gartside and Coyle will have the balls to ship them all out and get some passion back into the team. Not one of the outfielders has earned their wages this season and had Jussi and Bogdan not performed so well we could have lost every single game bar the odd one or two and shipped dozens more goals. Almost shameful to be a Trotter these days.

That's a ridiculous statement.

Get on Google Maps. Far quicker.

[HMX]

2-1 to the whites. We can do this.

[Armchair Wanderer]

does it feck

holden, chung , muamba .

is the prial of injuries in the football/cardgame metaphore

3 best players fcvked , two before it even kicked off. the other nearly died at work. all midfielders.

bastard

I was more meaning that we had an upsurge in form after the Muamba thing. Not sure if Villa had an upsurge, but it seems the people of Villa are certainly trying to big up the Petrov/Muamba thing for this game.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

BBC is reporting, as fact, that our injury list is:

Mark Davies (leg)
Darren Pratley (virus)
Chung-Yong Lee (leg)
Tyrone Mears (knee)
Stuart Holden (knee)
Ricardo Gardner (hip)
Fabrice Muamba (heart)

Leaves us so short in midfield it's comical.

Typical: they've omitted Sean Davis (permacrockery). And Gregg Wylde (bureacrataf*ckaboutery).

I think if we still had Cahill, we'd have more points personally.

I think the defence has been better since he's left but I think that's more down to dropping Knight than Cahill. I just don't think the sale has affected us that much. We'd probably have a few more goals though.

We've gained a lot more points since we stopped playing 4-4-2. As I recall, this started to happen at Blackburn (when Klas played deeper); Cahill was sold not long after. Causation or correlation? I think our improvement (sporadic, but evident) is more realistically tied to increased tactical nous than selling an international centre-back.

Boggers
Steinnson Ream Wheater Riley
Ricketts NRC
Eagles (Or wylde if cleared) Mavies Petrov
SKD

Must admit that's not the worst

An inexperienced right-back at left-back and arguably our best defender in midfield... I know sometimes needs must, but... how about...

Wheater, Ream and Ricketts at centre half, with Steinsson and Alonso as wing-backs. Can't beat Wigan, might as well join them.

3-4-3 is becoming a tempting option, and might even work if we counter-attack we with pace. Except we'd still need two midfielders who can tackle. Oh and a coaching staff flexible and intelligent enough to spot and apply the fix. So, no.

FWIW, my completely uneducated 'reckon' is that Mark Davies will be fit and it'll be the same team.

I suspect so also - him or Pratley. But if we have to play throw in young Josh Vela, please God let us play 4-2-3-1 so there's at least notional extra cover in midfield, rather than two strikers watching from afar as we get pummelled.

You should be in Birmingham (like I am). The Villa fans are almost suicidal at present. They obviously haven't seen us play. And if you thought Megson was hated, their views of McLeish are unprintable.

Indeed. The utter crapness of the teams we have to face gives me hope. But I maintain that it's still hope rather than expectation or confidence, because we're fairly awful too. That said, that said... keep them quiet for half an hour, playing as diligently as we did at Newcastle, and their fans will quickly cease to be supportive. We've won there once this season and despite my crisis of faith post-Swansea I still wouldn't be surprised if we won tonight.

Come on you Whites.

[Lennon'sEleven]

BBC is reporting, as fact, that our injury list is:

Mark Davies (leg)
Darren Pratley (virus)
Chung-Yong Lee (leg)
Tyrone Mears (knee)
Stuart Holden (knee)
Ricardo Gardner (hip)
Fabrice Muamba (heart)

Leaves us so short in midfield it's comical.

If that's true, and I suspect one of Mavies/Pratley will make it, but if not, I'd go:

Bogdan
Steinsson Mears Wheater Ricketts
Miyaichi NRC Vela Petov
Eagles
Ngog

And I do not like the look of that one bit.

Mears as centre back

I've only seen him a handful of times but can't see how Vela can be any worse than Davies was on Saturday. Absolute liability.

Woops - obvious typo!

meant 'Ream' at centre back.

As you were.

[Wandering Willy]

Please do not start Kevin Davies - it doesn't work.