Last Back-to-back Wins
I remember going to Villa Park at the end of the 2014/2015 games watching the back-to-back home wins against West Ham and Everton, and thinking normal service is beginning to be resumed at the club. After a run of seasons that chalked up the record amount of home losses in a season in the club’s history, Villa were once again actually beating teams at Villa Park they were expected to.
It seemed a turning point for the season ahead, but how wrong can a man be?
The club’s standards have dropped so low that the away win against Reading this season was greeted like winning the FA Cup. Still, in isolation, it may not be such a big deal, but start adding more wins on top of it and it could become an important trigger and turning point in this season.
With Villa only six-points off the Championship play-offs despite a poor start, now against Fulham would be the perfect time to record our first back-to-back wins, since Tim Sherwood’s end of season ones.
Interestingly Villa are unbeaten at Villa Park this season and once draws become wins, this run will become increasingly important as it focuses the players minds to maintaining the record. Suddenly they won’t be switching off in the final minutes because they have a record to defend.
With Newcastle having already visited Villa Park, the main threat to dent an unbeaten home record has gone, so there is real potential for the team to go the whole season undefeated at Villa Park. After the cursed spell of poor results at Villa Park in recent seasons, this would be a huge boost in restoring home pride and the building blocks to establishing B6 as a difficult place for teams to come in future seasons.
This season is pivotal with more than just promotion at stake, if Steve Bruce and the Villa board can get it right despite a shaky start. It terms of pride and confidence, it will be laying down some much needed foundations to build-on going forward.
Lets hope it starts with the completion of back-to-back wins this week, which will also be the perfect tonic going into the second city derby.
UTV
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