brummie

Glad to have helped. We were much the better side today, even when down to ten men. We were the better team at their place too, for that matter. Anyway, congratulations and see you in a year or so I hope (in the top league obvs).

He's fucking useless. I'd genuinely carry the cunt to Burnley if it was the last thing I did.

Lescott was grotesquely not good enough last season, believe me. His legs have utterly gone, he was embarrassing to watch - one of, if not the worst in a team that amassed 17 points all season.

Absolutely gutted. Came into our club when it was a fucking shambles, stood up to Ellis, turned it around, and so very nearly won the league. Just saw this, elsewhere. Says it all.

Weird player, Rudy. Scores lots of headers but manages also to almost never win anything in the air. If you can work that out. Strange, though, had no wingers, signed a player who is only ever going to be useful from balls into the box. Then sign a wide player, stop playing him. All a bit odd. Nice bloke, though. Has been spotted helping serve homeless people at food bank places in the city centre on a few occasions. A good egg.

We haven't lost a single game at home this season. I'm genuinely utterly fucking perplexed as to how that is the case. It was like when I recently found out Doris Day is still alive.

Yeah yeah yeah whatever. Happy Christmas. And Up The Villa.

Immense improvement from us since Bruce came. Spirit, organisation, actual tactics.

I agree re God. I'm more worried about not looking like getting relegated than I am promotion, to be honest. Much more.

Fucking incredible. 438 days since our last away win. Our 5th win in the last 53 league games. Please, God, let this nightmare begin to end.

What utter bullshit. We've won 4 league matches from our last 51. Try finding other fans who have put up with worse than that. We don't want "instant" results, we just want the faint hope of a result every now and then. The thing about this side is it isn't actually that bad. We have turned 5 or 6 wins into draws in the last five minutes of matches. Fix that and there's a huge improvement straight away. Bruce would be a good shout.

Eh? Massively surprising, a team which has won 4 of its last 51 league matches (a period taking in three seasons) celebrating a goal to salvage a point. What do you really expect? It's nothing to do with you, it's about being happy to get one point more than expected. It's about throwing away leads with goals past 85 minutes in 5 of the last 6 games and then finally managing to salvage something instead. As for the manager, RDM has totally lost it. Yesterday was hideous, playing five forwards and one in midfield in the second half. Totally lost it. I'd take Bruce right now. He can at least organise us. The squad is way, way better than the current position, a modicum of organisation would at least benefit from that. The way things are at the moment, it's like he's wildly changing things every ten minutes in the desperate hope things will get better somehow.

85 min v Sheff Wed 86 min v Huddersfield 87 min v Forest 88 min v Brentford 89 min v Barnsley :-( If we hadn't conceded all those late goals, we'd be third.

Di Matteo hovering over a trap door at the moment.

I thought he was brilliant today. Really impressed.

You should have been out of sight. That first hour was the worst we've played in years. Against forest the other week we had 29 shots and still managed not to win. It was our turn to buck the statistics this time Have to say, Benitez is a proper manager who will get you up no bother whereas Di Matteo seems to be making it up on the hoof

No but you can't get annoyed when shite clubs beat you. Which they will, more than you like. i suspect we're all used to that

According to the BBC we've spent 59m and you've spent 57m this window. Next down the list is Norwich with 11 or so. What I don't get is the sort of sniffy reaction this spending has got. Are we supposed to just accept our new status and stay where we are, or aren't we allowed to do whatever it takes to get back?

Ive been watching for 5 minutes, its utter gash. They make me ashamed to be a football supporter.

That's awesome business.

Adama - comes on in last 20 minutes, makes one or two runs at opposition, culminates in dead end as completely unaware of other players on the pitch. Gets injured. Spends four months getting fit again. Repeat.

Agent a tricky fucker by all accounts.

How do you work that out? I agree with you re us not going up necessarily, but I don't see how you can say that about our signings. Scoring goals was a grotesque failing for us last season. I'd say Kodija and McCormack are players signed in precisely the right positions. Whether or not they will turn out to be the answer, I don't know, but they are being brought in to address a very clear weakness. Our biggest failing last year was the total inability to defend. Amavi - Chester - Elphick - De Laet is much better than last year (when Amavi gets totally fit) and three of those are new players (and the other missed almost the whole season through injury). Jedinak is a signing which also should plug a massive weakness, but we could do with one more midfield addition. Like I said, the actual players may or may not work out, but we're definitely addressing the areas of the pitch where we had big problems (errrm, all of them).

You're telling me.

Our midfield showing exactly why we've signed Jedinak. Weak as fuck.