It's almost as if every match is bigger and more important that the last one, that was at the time, the biggest match of the season. Well, they don't get much bigger than this on Sunday.  And as an Aston Villa fan closing in on 50 I've seen some big days for Aston Villa. I don't really remember the early 80s but I remember 1994 and 1996 and even 2001. I suspect a lot of you will have to do a search for 2001, but on that night at Villa Park, it was silverware.  But for me, right now and in this moment with all things considered, this match on Sunday feels bigger than them all. D ..read more

It's a big day and so many things can happen that it's almost impossible to predict, so I wont. I'll just share the necessary information, copy and paste from the BBC and let everything unfold as it is meant to unfold.  I can't just leave it at that. It's such an important game because winning it keeps us in the race to finish above Spurs and Brighton and finishing above one of those two will mean we are playing European football next season.  But it's very important to write also that while it would be nice to be playing in Europe next season, all of us would have been happy to fin ..read more

Two games to go. Same points as Spurs. Both playing for the last European place. What an end to the season and what a time to be an Aston Villa supporter.  And if we don't finish seventh, I don't think I'm going to be that bothered. Sure, I'd love it and it would make next season a little more interesting, but it's not going to define this season for me. This season will be defined by the sacking of one manager and the new one coming in. I also don't want to get my hopes up. I mean, we've got Liverpool, then Brighton and Spurs have Brentford followed by Leeds. I think the smart money wil ..read more

I'm going to say it and I don't even think this is a debate, but Spurs on Saturday is the biggest game of the season for us. There, done. No going back now. Win and we go above Brighton and on equal points with Spurs. Win it by a few and we go above Spurs with the same amount of games to play and it puts us in a very good position. It will be tough and part of me thinks we've run out of steam and we're cruising to the beach, but another part of me thinks that we need the pressure and all of me believes that the manager wants to win every game and will be sending the players out to win and usi ..read more

I'm a fan of statistics or more to the point, numbers. But I think when there is so much data, you can make those numbers read as you want them to read and it's very easy to create a narrative. I like the big numbers where it's tough to argue, even if sometimes you can. The big numbers for me, when looking at a football match are the numbers I think we've become used to. Possession, shots (on target and not) and passes (completed and not). But this is just me and I know I can be convinced about other numbers. I was listening to someone on the radio yesterday who used the term 'man management ..read more

Obviously all Aston Villa fans are interested in what is happening for us at the moment and the trip to Manchester United on Sunday is an exciting one. But there is a little part of me that is also interested in what is happening at the bottom. It's also a way to distract me from thinking about Sunday, so I'm just going to dive in. Three sides are going down and for me, it's three of Southampton, Everton, Leicester, Forest and Leeds. I don't think it's safe to say any side is down, but if you were a Southampton fan it must be hard to see anything else. I bumped into an Everton fan in my local ..read more

There was always going to come a time when we didn't win but the performance when didn't was going to tell us a lot. That I wrote that sentence is still quite a Twilight Zone moment. The draw at Brentford was impressive, not because we got a draw at Brentford but because we had an off day against a side that have only lost twice at home this season and we fought back to get a point. And did you know that no other manager has seen his team score in so many games since taking over as our new manager. Again, welcome to the Twilight Zone. That written, it's Fulham tomorrow night and if we win, we ..read more

It's a little different. First, it's not a forum and right above where I'm writing this, it has the word article. This was one of the reasons why I was actually quite happy with what happened in January and my data center issues. But, the forum service I moved to has been purchased and it just seems like I'm destined to do these posts. More coming later, but for now, what a time to be an Aston Villa fan. ? “Aston Villa are unlucky, they could do with the season being six weeks longer.” ? “It says an awful lot about Gerrard…”@ChelseaRory reacts to #AVFC’s recent run of brilliant form under Un ..read more

Spurs win today and they go into the top four. That should be enough to write to know that this isn't going to be an easy game and that it's going to need better than Liverpool to get something out of this. If we play with the same purpose and mindset, we will be in a good place, but we need to be better in the final third and more specifically, with the chances we create. And I think we will create chances. Fingers crossed, we will see Emi back in goal and I think we are better with him starting. Nothing against Robin Olsen, I'm a fan, but Emi has a stature about him that I think makes us jus ..read more

It's not a surprise that we lost to Liverpool but it's easy to write that we were unfortunate. A cynical person might even blame a player or two but I think we should look at how we are approaching games and performing as a really positive indicator. And if our performances keep getting better we can all be very happy. As the players get used to it, they'll get better too. And as they get better, as long as the players around them are also getting better, as a team the results will come. When we see a player not keeping up, that is when we need to replace and I'd not be surprised if the manage ..read more