Probably the biggest positive from last night is

That is the first game/win for a long time where I haven't felt like the opposition could open us up at any moment and where I have felt like we had a vague degree of control over the game.

Its frustrating that we are having to "go back to basics" in the way that a new manager often has to when inheriting a team in a bit of a mess but I guess if they are not going to replace him (and each win we pick up makes that less likely with the transfer window approaching) then that is what we have to do if we are going to get the confidence up again and turn this frustrating season around. Hopefully once that happens we can get more creativity into the side as in some games it will be required.

Hard to tell how much of the control we exerted was down to Villa being surprisingly sh*t but at least it was there. I suspect Hudds will prove more of a challenge as from what I've seen of them this season they have a lot of pace going forward and they will probably play in the style I expected Villa to play last night with fast players running at us on the counter. In truth, Bruce selecting Agbonlahor was a bit of a gift for us last night but perhaps we are also starting (in between the odd horror show such as at Barnsley) to see a degree of understanding developing in the defence with a more settled CB partnership.

Final thought is that if we are going to play that team then Brady becomes an absolutely crucial player in terms of our attacking threat. First half he was awful, second half he improved a lot (that miss aside), was more direct and we looked a lot more dangerous. If only he could string together a run of decent games for us like he has done for Ireland then it might make a big difference.

Posted By: Jim, Dec 14, 08:39:22