I really don’t like Bournemouth. I used too, but they’re such a tricky side to play. They were absolute rubbish early in the season, but they’ve now proven to be a very resiliant, physical side, which is exactly the sort that doesn’t suit us. Quite like Lille, if you like. That said, they’re not quite doing as well as I thought and currently sit in 13th place. Then again, their form over the last six games is excellent. They’ve won 3, drawn two and lost only 1 game. That’s a record that’s only bettered by City and Arsenal. Now add in that we’ve only faced them seven times in the Premier league ..read more

I was contemplating what to say and even if I should say anything at all, because the result today pretty much said it all for me. But then it dawned on me that we were actually very unlucky in that we didn’t win this by four clear goals after Ollie did what he usually does, in missing some and scoring some. Not that we can complain about him. He’s second top scorer to probably the best striker at the best team in the league after all, as much as I’ve seen some Villa fans ripping him to pieces at times. The first half was a bit scary, because Arsenal were very dominant and creating chances, bu ..read more

What’s the saying? Expect the worst and anything else is a bonus. That about sums it up for me, as I can’t muster any confidence whatsoever for this game. I’m very tempted to predict a four or even five goal defeat, but just as I’ve invariably been wrong over the last few months so I think I’d be wrong in expecting that sort of loss. I’m not predicting, but just as Tottenham took a tonking which I don’t think many expected yesterday, so it proves that anything can happen. That said, Arsenal have a tremendous defensive record, so it’s difficult to see how we’re going to put many past them, but ..read more

So we face a Lille side who are actually in a very similar position to us in the French Ligue 1, where they’re challenging for a Champion’s league place, although without wishing to be disrespectful, I’m not convinced that’s the equivalent of how well we’ve done, given the standard of their league. But then, current league position is not that important at this stage, as we all know any team can beat any other in knockout games. Plus, given that they’re unbeaten in all their previous Conference games this season, you could actually say they’ve done better than us. So while I know nothing at al ..read more

Work. The curse of the drinking class. That’s the saying, but it also applies to the footy fan class as well. I didn’t finish work until 3.20, so missed most of the first half. What I did see of it looked pretty good and really it was all quite comfortable, with us doing our usual trick of playing some very slick, first time stuff that’s a joy to watch. The goal came and that was it. Watkins was given it, but Bailey had it covered anyway and it was 1-0. All good at half time. Then came the restart, with Morgan Rogers quickly scoring a really nice goal to make it two and I was thinking it was g ..read more

After what was a torrid fifteen or twenty minutes, where Wolves were sharper and frankly better than us, we managed to fight our way into it and went on to dominate for the rest of the game. We had a bit of a scare and it was all quite strange, as Ait-Nouri found himself in front of goal in acres of space. It was almost like he and everybody else thought he was offside, hence everybody practically stopped, leaving him a free shot. Fortunately Emi was up to the task and managed a good stop. That apart, I don’t really remember Wolves troubling us much and it was all in all a pretty convincing wi ..read more

So the utter waste of time that is the International friendlies is over and we’re back to the proper stuff. My disdain for these friendlies was only increased when I heard that Matty Cash got injured when he was out with Poland and is out for probably a couple of weeks. It’s not as though I rate him particularly highly of late, but his absence at least limits our options and any opposition manager knows pretty much for certain that Konsa is going to play Right back. I didn’t watch much of our games, but what I did see was pretty uninspiring football, which is no surprise because we have an uni ..read more

I feel the footballing gods looked down on us at least a little today. I’d got the headline in my head for most of the first half and it was “A defeat of our own making” given how poor we were in our general lack of pace and constantly poor passing and giving the ball away dirt cheaply. It was that poor that I felt we were lucky to get away with going in only a goal down, to be honest, although I do also feel we should have had a nailed on penalty when Bailey’s cross hit their defender on his arm which was apparently pointing. Of course, pointing at something would be called a natural position ..read more

I’ve left it late for a couple of reasons. One, I’m either a terrible manager of my time or I just have too many things to do and two, because I just can’t see how this game is going to go. The problem is we’re just so inconsistent lately as demonstrated by last weeks shoeing, but then, so are West Ham who could only draw at home to Burnley last weekend. There is one thing that makes me feel not very confident though, as I’ll come on to. Squad news and Ollie Watkins will be assessed after sustaining a cut on the knee in the Thursday game. You would think it’s just a case of putting a dab of su ..read more

So I’ve made the move to Liverpool for six months and it’s been a nightmare. It’s said that moving house is one of the most stressful things in your life and although I haven’t moved house, I can see why, if my experience this week is anything to go by. I’ve done nothing but make phone calls and send Emails every evening this week. I won’t go into the ins and outs, but a good example, which is probably the weirdest is that the previous tenant and my missus have both taken supposed gas readings from the water meter. To be fair, it appears it was only because the letting agent told us the meter ..read more