Young guns fire Villa to 5th round of the FA cup
First to say a great thanks to Villa and Brighton to agreeing to a such a low ticket price of £10 and £5, great crowd of nearly 40,000 and so many kids in Villa colours. Fantastic support from the Brighton fans and showed the cup romance is still alive if the price is right.
You would have read elsewhere about the game and it showed that the reserve strength in depth is so much better than than it was 12 months ago. The first half was lacklustre and Brighton deserved their draw at half time. However for the second half we stormed it and could have been 6 or 7 with Delph very close to a hat trick and Delfouneso nearly scored a fantastic 2nd goal. However it seems Warnock may have picked up a hamstring injury and you have to feel for Albrighton who set up the first goal with a great cross to only then pick up an injury, the whole ground felt for him, he was shaping up to have a very good game.
However we saw the future of Villa today. I firmly believe our future is tied up with the likes of Delph, Delfouneso and Albrighton. In fact if everything goes well I can see all three playing for England because I rate them that highly. Add to them the likes of Clark who could also play for England, Milner and Ash Young and in two years time I almost can see that team actually challenging at the very top.
It always dangerous to predict the future of young players but what we saw today showed that if nurtured right, with the right attitude they can become top class Premier and maybe international players, all that is required is patience from the fans.
Bright(on) chance for young ‘uns
Another match day, another home game and hopefully it will not be ‘after the Lord Mayor’s show’ for Villa after a fantastic Wednesday night. However it is clear that the team Saturday will not reflect much of the team we saw against Blackburn.
Especially as Carew and NRC who you would have expected to play are both out and niggles for Heskey and Carew we will see a chance for some of the youngsters (at last). With MON saying
“We have one or two younger players around who did wonderfully well for us in pre-season against real top-quality opposition in the Peace Cup. They are desperate for a chance.
“There are other players who have been unlucky not to be in the team and I am quite sure are looking forward to the game.
So what can expect tomorrow for the team, my guess is this team.
Guzan
Young(L) Collins Clark Lowry
Albrighton Sidwell Delph Young (A)
Delfeunso Gabby
It has to be that finally Albrighton gets a well deserved chance, he should have played more anyway and it will be a good test for him. Clark and Lowry should start for experience and Warnock needs a rest but the real unfortunate bit is that Gabby will have to play when he really needs a rest.
Will be an interesting test with 6000 Brighton fans and 33,000 tickets already sold. However we should get into the 5th round draw and another cup run is going to be most welcome.
IT IS OUR YEAR
A nice start to pre-season, Posh 0 Villa 3
Future wing star and MOTM
Well, we started out at half 7, had a nice Bacon sandwich and pint to start the day off well.
A quick trip down the M1 and A14 to Peterborough, and a decent Thai meal and a few Bishops at the Brewery tap left the Villa fans in fine spirits and looking forward to 90 minutes in a proper football ground and a terrace.
Along with 1,500 other Villa fans and it has to be said few home fans we saw a game dominated by the home side and they hit the cross bar and Friedel had to make a fantastic double save to keep the score level but once we scored from Andreas Weimann from a very good move including Bannan and a fantastic cross from Albrighton. We never looked back and sealed a comfortable 3-0 win with further goals from Davies (a beauty as he interchanged passes from the back and slotted home) and a cool finish from Sidwell from an Osbourne pass.
Needles to say with a large portion of our normal players out we played three youngsters from the start, Albrighton, Bannan and Weimann and they all looked good but the man of the match was clearly arc Albrighton. He showed today clearly that he has the pace, composure and crossing ability to make it at the top, I would say so much so any thoughts of David Bentley on that performance are not needed, Marc has the required quality.
SO the last half an hour faded as we played the youth team but more than enough encouragement to show that we should trust our youngsters far more than we did last season.
On final note, the guy who fell from the roof is OK and o his way back from Birmingham, bruised, busted ankle but fine.
Champions !!
CHAMPIONS
Helped to set up two goals
Yes , the young Lions have won the reserve after failing to beat Liverpool last season. We beat Sunderland 3-1 with goals from Delfouneso, Collins and Lowry and two goals set up by Albrighton who is our great hope for the future on the right wing.
The real encouraging thing is that all the team were under 20 and a few have very good chances of being quality Premier League players, the team that won the league tonight was
Elliot Parish, Eric Lichaj, Shane Lowry, Jonathan Hogg, Ciaran Clark, Matthew Roome, Marc Albrighton, Barry Bannan, Andreas Wiemann, Nathan Delfouneso, Dominik Hofbauer. Substitutes: James Collins (for Andreas Weimann), David Bevan, Chris Herd (for Dominik Hofbauer), Tobias Mikaelsson, Gary Gardner (for Barry Bannan).
Congratulations to all but especially Tony McAndrew and Kevin MacDonald who are continuing the production line we have had the past few years
A bright future indeed
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