I always try to be fair in my reports. I look at things from both sides and try to be fair, but as much as I’ve come to despise Stoke City and their manager this will be difficult; although this report should be easy.
In my book, Villa needed a point from this match. I know Villa fans disagree with me, but I believe if we can draw our away games except Man U and win our home games except, Chelsea, we should be safe.
Stoke started well, as expected pumping high balls into the box and Villa looked well prepared for this. Villa lack Stoke’s height and Lambert decided to bring in Bowery to add to Villa’s size. Bannan was going to be useless, watching the ball played over his head. Stoke decided to drop Crouch and give a rare start to Jones. Pulis decided against trying football with Adam and instead go for throw-ins with Shotton.
Villa finally got away from Guzan’s box and with the first attack took the lead. Weimann played a one two with Lowton who left Matthew Etherington in his wake, the way the ex-West Ham player did before Stoke drained any talent he once had, the right back seemed to hold the ball a little long, but found AGBONLAHOR whose shot rebounded back to him and he scored with his second shot.
The fickle people of Stoke went from noisily getting behind the team to on their back. Nobody received it worse than Shotton who didn’t help himself with an array of over hit passes, one 30 yards past the intended receiver. Duly, the people of Stoke showed themselves for what they are by booing Villa’s 19th minute applause for Stillyan Petrov. Villa fans responded with a rousing chorus of “No respect my Lord”.
Villa should have killed the game off by half time. Gabby, put a shot just wide; then should have clipped a shot over Begovic instead of trying to go around him, he fell after slight contact from the keeper and was unfairly booked for simulation. Weimann hit the post when one on one with the keeper, who may have got a hand on the shot. Bowery had a shot just wide. He also should have scored early in the second when one on one with the keeper.
One of my peeves about Stoke started with their awful time wasting in 0-0 draws at Villa Park in recent seasons; however, I found Stoke was wasting as much time while losing. It was taking 30 seconds to take a free kick from several offside decisions in the middle of their half.
Villa seemed in control in the second half and when Stoke were forced into the first change, they had to put on Cameron Jerome on for Marc Wilson, meaning later, Pulis wouldn’t easily be able to replace Jones with Crouch if needed, and it was. Villa was finally forced into a substitution as Stoke was finally getting into the game. Gabby had to come off with a knock and Lambert made a mistake by bringing in Sylla to replace him. Pulis saw his chance. With no speedy threat down the left, he moved Whitehead to right back and replaced Shotton with Adam to the delight of the fans. Within three minutes Stoke pulled level.
Villa’s defence began crumbling and a goal looked inevitable, players were not communicating and the defence wasn’t being cleared. Finally,Sylla helped Villa get the ball away and went down the right channel, but his pass for Weimann was too soft and Stoke countered with Adam running 30 yards to find Walters. Lowton dived in and was easily side stepped. The cross found its way to Etherington’s replacement, Michael KIGHTLY. Our old nemesis from the Wolves days scored with a first time sweep shot from around the penalty spot. Villa now equaled Everton’s unwanted record of 16 games straight without a clean sheet.
Stoke thought they had a penalty when the ball struck Vlaar’s moving arm, but surprisingly our old ‘friend’ Clattenburg waved it away. He usually, loves giving penalty’s and red cards against us.
Lambert corrected his earlier mistake, by putting on N’Zogbia for the ineffective Bowery, but it all seemed too little too late. Surprisingly, the manager rolled the dice one more time with Darren Bent replacing Weimann. It seemed odd to see the lad in a Villa shirt again. Villa, regained momentum once more and N’Zogbia had a dangerous move that resulted in a corner in the 87th minute. The corner wasn’t great and was easily headed to the box edge. Adam volleyed the ball away, but not far enough and Delph and Westwood backed up to control it when it landed, but in rolled LOWTON waving them off. He chested the ball and then volleyed it with great power and perfect height giving Begovic no chance as he sprawled back. Lowton went crazy. Running to the Villa fans, who were in a frenzy.
Stoke poured everyone forward and this time Villa was resolute with Vlaar heading for a corner. Villa finally cleared. The ball fell to BENTEKE. He pushed the ball around the defender and was gone. It was him and Begovic, but he had Bent and Sylla on his left with no defenders in sight. He looked to his left, forcing Begovic to cheat over and then slotted the ball past the keeper’s left hand, his 10th in 12 games.
Villa played keep ball for the 4 minutes of injury time, or tried to, but Stoke just continually fouled in frustration. I wish I know how many free kicks they conceded after the 3rd goal, but they were lucky to only get one card. Finally in one last vent of frustration Nzonzi kicked the ball into the crowd as the final whistle blew and Villa moved 3 points closer to safety and Stoke got dragged into the mire. If the league table started from January 1st, Stoke would be dead last with 5 points.