Brucey Bonus Time
When Reading’s last-gasp shot flew across the face of the Villa goal seconds after Villa had taken the lead with a last-minute penalty, it potentially (hopefully) signalled a change of fortune in Villa’s season. Cast your mind back to late Gollini clearances that have cruelly rebounded and led to opposition equalisers and you’ll know what I mean.
While it was a step up from the recent Wolves game, it wasn’t a convincing Villa performance by any means and there is a lot of work in terms of team bonding to do (which Di Matteo failed to start), but a new manager bounce and a confidence-boosting win should hopefully now propel Villa onwards and upwards.
The next step for Steve Bruce is to turn home draws into regular home wins, with the recent Wolves game showcasing what has been going wrong at Villa Park.
If they can follow-up victory at Reading with a home win against the only unbeaten away team in the Championship, Fulham, then the wheels of improvement will truly be in motion.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/288852412″ params=”color=00aabb&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
Here’s five reasons to be cheerful as Villa fans…
4. Elusive Away Win
438 bloody days we’ve waited. MOMS had one Villa fan tweet in saying that they are 32-years-old now and were 30 when Villa last won a game!
Most of Villa’s good records have gone a long time ago, like being ever present in the Premier League, and have been replaced by some of the most shocking stats in the club’s history. Most home loses in a season in the club’s history (10), lowest amount of points in a season (17), longest periods without away wins, goals etc, etc, etc.
Hopefully last night’s win puts an end to another one and we can turn the corner and start building positive records again (see last point).
Great away win against a good side. Still need midfield players that can take a game by the scruff of the neck and move forward. The squad’s short of an aggressive ball winner or two. January should put that right. Bruce is the right man at this time.