So. The season is officially well and truly underway. As predicted a tight game at craven cottage got proceedings under way.
From the 6am alarm clock to the morning read of twitter it was always going to be a great day in west London
Arriving in London about eleven and having the normal confusion on the tube change over at earls court was never going to put a dampener on the day.
I arrived at putney for midday and headed to the eight bells for the predrink. Upon entering the pub there was a fantastic buzz for the game from meeting new villa fans from twitter to watching the pint tower being built in the corner of the pub with the usual banter and songs being sung at the top of our voices all coming together to build a great atmosphere for the game ahead
3pm arrived and with a new belief everyone made there way to their seat. Due to leaving it late gettin my ticket i was down in P2 which was almost as far from the official villa fans as unfortunately i could of been and as the fulham fan said next to me.
Our support was fantastic.
Now for the game itself. I was always expecting a tight tight game but Villa came out the better team, which did surprise me a bit as just due to fitness levels i thought that Fulham may have come out a little bit stronger. I feel we were the better in the first half. We created a few chances, Darren Bent had his traditional offside goal and Heskey had a couple of chances. The closest Fulham got to a goalscoring opportunity was a John Arne Riise chance on the edge of the area. Nzogbia showed signs of promise and the defense looked solid in the first half.
After the break right from the start it was a complete different game, Fulham looked a lot more promising in attack. And from the start Zamora had a chance that Given had to make a great save for, to stop it and then Johnson had a chance and Given did well to get to that too.
Unfortunately at the other end we were not creating much at all and our players were starting to fatigue however we still looked solid at the back. After an hour Nzogbia came off and it was clear that he was not completely match fit and the young Marc Albrighton was his replacement. From the start he showed little moments of promise and if he had of got his shot on target could of had a goal to his name.
In the second half there were moments where we got the ball down and tried to pass it around however every time it got to the middle of the park and a certain Mr Petrov the attacking play vanished and surprise surprise the ball gets played back to the defence and we have to start again. So frustrating.
And with that the second half petered out both teams seemed to be happy with the point.
So after the game what do we take from the result, well;
1.Craven Cottage is not an easy away game for anyone
2.We kept a clean sheet away from home, something we didnt do all last season
3.We never looked under any serious threat
4.Nzogbia showed promise that he could really be a fantastic signing
5.Given Proved he is an incredible signing
6.The fans were as fantastic as ever
7.The fans really showed Mcleish some great support
All I would say is yes away from home a clean sheet is fantastic, However at home we need to show a lot more promise in attacking areas. Will the home fans be so patient???
We will find out next weekend at the home match against Blackburn Rovers.
VTID
From the 6am alarm clock to the morning read of twitter it was always going to be a great day in west London
Arriving in London about eleven and having the normal confusion on the tube change over at earls court was never going to put a dampener on the day.
3pm arrived and with a new belief everyone made there way to their seat. Due to leaving it late gettin my ticket i was down in P2 which was almost as far from the official villa fans as unfortunately i could of been and as the fulham fan said next to me.
Our support was fantastic.
Now for the game itself. I was always expecting a tight tight game but Villa came out the better team, which did surprise me a bit as just due to fitness levels i thought that Fulham may have come out a little bit stronger. I feel we were the better in the first half. We created a few chances, Darren Bent had his traditional offside goal and Heskey had a couple of chances. The closest Fulham got to a goalscoring opportunity was a John Arne Riise chance on the edge of the area. Nzogbia showed signs of promise and the defense looked solid in the first half.
After the break right from the start it was a complete different game, Fulham looked a lot more promising in attack. And from the start Zamora had a chance that Given had to make a great save for, to stop it and then Johnson had a chance and Given did well to get to that too.
Unfortunately at the other end we were not creating much at all and our players were starting to fatigue however we still looked solid at the back. After an hour Nzogbia came off and it was clear that he was not completely match fit and the young Marc Albrighton was his replacement. From the start he showed little moments of promise and if he had of got his shot on target could of had a goal to his name.
In the second half there were moments where we got the ball down and tried to pass it around however every time it got to the middle of the park and a certain Mr Petrov the attacking play vanished and surprise surprise the ball gets played back to the defence and we have to start again. So frustrating.
And with that the second half petered out both teams seemed to be happy with the point.
So after the game what do we take from the result, well;
1.Craven Cottage is not an easy away game for anyone
2.We kept a clean sheet away from home, something we didnt do all last season
3.We never looked under any serious threat
4.Nzogbia showed promise that he could really be a fantastic signing
5.Given Proved he is an incredible signing
6.The fans were as fantastic as ever
7.The fans really showed Mcleish some great support
All I would say is yes away from home a clean sheet is fantastic, However at home we need to show a lot more promise in attacking areas. Will the home fans be so patient???
We will find out next weekend at the home match against Blackburn Rovers.
VTID
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