The thing is, I agreed with Marky Mark that the most likely result was a score draw today and sure enough, it was, but I really didn't see any other result and the match played itself out, pretty much as I expected.

The good news is that Everton, as I write this are two down at home against Manchester City, so despite another poor result, we should remain in fifth place and as long as we can finish the season in fifth place, it is an improvement on last season, which we should ultimately be happy with.

There will be the post-mortem tomorrow and you can vote for your man of the match in the quick question. I'm not sure who I'm going to vote for yet, because nobody really stood out for us today, I suppose I might give my vote to Ashley Young, only because he had a bit of the luck I wrote that we needed to get something out of this game.

I don't know what else to tell you. It wasn't a great game and we got what we deserved really. I should say that I've decided Ashley Young isn't going to get my vote because of the two free kicks he had on the edge of the box, not one hit the target and well, I don't think that is good enough.

So, I have to think of a new player to give it to and I'm not sure who, I really can't say anyone was better than anyone else or anyone stood out, so maybe I'll leave it up to you guys.

But we are still fifth, so there is something to be happy about.

Comments (44)

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Le Shava said:

... I pretty much predicted all of todays results. All, but the West Ham v Chelsea match, which i had down as a draw.

Comment 1, made on April 25, 2009 at 4.57 pm

Steve Badger said:

... Damo, You might want to delete post 100 in the preious thread mate

Comment 2, made on April 25, 2009 at 5.00 pm

SlapAVFC said:

... I hope we ca nat least win 1 game during the run in just to lift up our moods

Comment 3, made on April 25, 2009 at 5.05 pm

Damian said:

... Cheers Badger

Comment 4, made on April 25, 2009 at 5.07 pm

Steve Badger said:

... No worries mate, I'm with you. There's no place for that on here. Didn't get to see the game today, but sounds highly disappointing again. Oh well, at least everton lost

Comment 5, made on April 25, 2009 at 5.10 pm

arsene wenger said:

...

Comment 6, made on April 25, 2009 at 5.20 pm

Anthony Laud said:

... i think now we can say there has been no progress on last year whether we finish 5th or 6th. we have qualified for a competiiton we dont care about and wont do anything to help us attract players because its been well published our attitude towards it. we have the same pointsnow as this time last season. we have scored 12 less goals than last year at this stage and conceded more goals. our football has been worse this season than last year. last year we won games in style this year when we were on our run it was scrappy victories. Laursens career looks to be over so we are losing our most important defender. and our manager has proved tactically shambolic at times this season in terms of team selection, playing players out position and signing Heskey! we still have the smallest squad in the prem which for 3 years hasnt been addressed. this led to our failure in the cup comps. and once again we have won nothing and not got near a final of anything!

Comment 7, made on April 25, 2009 at 5.33 pm

Fitzy_7 said:

... what happend

Comment 8, made on April 25, 2009 at 5.34 pm

peter power said:

... martin jol please

Comment 9, made on April 25, 2009 at 5.41 pm

Paul Egan said:

... I've been encouraged by the previous 3 performances and I felt we could have stuffed them today. I think the loss of Luke Young had a distorting effect on our defence and right hand side.

Comment 10, made on April 25, 2009 at 5.44 pm

Jeremiah Wood said:

... We're just playing out the string at this point. I don't really think we'll lose again this year - or maybe one match, but we might not win either. We've already got a spot in Europe. Luckily for us, Everton does too, and they have the FA Cup final to think about, so we might finish fifth no matter how we do in the final five games (or is it four?). There was just no desire out there today. I don't even think a manager with the motivational skills of MON will turn things around the rest of this year. At any rate, 5th or 6th is probably just about right for us, given the season as a whole. Even though we have a few games left, I'm going to call Petrov our player of the season and say bring on the summer... I hope we can bring in a commanding defender and a midfielder who can pass the ball along the floor. Then maybe we can win the Carling Cup or UEFA Cup or something.

Comment 11, made on April 25, 2009 at 6.18 pm

Mark said:

... Tonebone it's too early to judge, do that at the end of the season. Isn't it the case however that just about every critic predicted Villa would fizzle out because that's what always happens to Intertoto entrants? The fact is that finishing fifth if it happens is better than sixth and compared to last season is a massive improvement because we could start the season a month later.

Comment 12, made on April 25, 2009 at 6.24 pm

andrew said:

... i was at the game and we were poor,Milner and Young were well below parr and there was very little from Barry/Petrov.Carew was constantly harrassed by McCann but Heskey seemed to put in alot of work and defended aswell.Missed our goal gettin a beer and missed theres taking a pic of the scoreboard showing us 1 up.

Comment 13, made on April 25, 2009 at 7.54 pm

Martin Clabon said:

... Probably a bit of an excuse but maybe the season has just been too long as we atarted so early and it is difficult to keep up a high intesnsity game over such a long period? That may be why we started well also, well warmed up by late August Looking forward to next year, not much left for this year although sending Ncastle down on last day of season might be fun

Comment 14, made on April 25, 2009 at 7.56 pm

peter power said:

... we have not won for 2 months now and im fed up with mon droaning on about not killing a game off, we were crap today and dont know when we will win a game.please randy dont let this man waste any more of your money this summer.we want results o neill not excuses you have churned out the past few months!!WELL DONE TO PRESTON THOUGH

Comment 15, made on April 25, 2009 at 8.34 pm

Chris Algie said:

... Martin Jol had the same success that MON has had in 3 seasons and made, yes, some good but also some bad signings bringing him in would be a huge error.

Comment 16, made on April 25, 2009 at 9.17 pm

Pirate Bay said:

... Moyes has taken 9 years(?!) to achieve at Everton with far less money that O'Neill has achieved in 3, in respect to league position. I think we need to give O'Neill another 3 seasons irrespective of anything before we can even start to judge him. The damage deadly doug has done to the club won't be easily undone.

Comment 17, made on April 25, 2009 at 10.02 pm

Anthony Laud said:

... pirate bay he spent the most net money of any manager last summer! and 40m on defense and look how shambolic that is! he keeps making excuses when he is entirely to blame for our problems. he knew we were in the intertoto and knew we would ahve a long season so f$cking prepare for it! our squad is dismal - we have about 14 players that he will ever play. there is no point even having more than that in the squad each week as he would never play them. i am sick of his excuses - this season has been a failure. we have def not improved on last year and i cant see us progressing at all next year!

Comment 18, made on April 25, 2009 at 10.36 pm

Chris Algie said:

... In fear of repeating myself I'm with Pirate bay. Fergie took Man U from 6th to 11th in 3 seasons, moyes, jol, sven and all other managers which keep getting mentioned haven't and wouldn't have done what MON has managed in that time at Villa.

Comment 19, made on April 25, 2009 at 11.05 pm

Le Shava said:

... It's all a bit depressing on here ain't it? Cheer up, you drew, you didn't lose, and your still in 5th crying out loud.

Comment 20, made on April 25, 2009 at 11.28 pm

taglor said:

... Yeah La Shava, 5th and no cups brilliant, we should be ecstatic, all that money spent again on supporting a bunch of millionaires for no end product for the 20th year, its fantastic

Comment 21, made on April 26, 2009 at 12.21 am

peter power said:

... i think i may put my life saving on us drawing with hull and mon to say after "we could not finish them off im bitterly disapointed with the result but we controlled the game and SHOULD of won"

Comment 22, made on April 26, 2009 at 1.33 am

Woodinho said:

... Bluey I think you might have just summed our season up, our team and our manager have just become too damn predictable. It's almost like Mon plays a recording of himself during interviews that he recorded three years ago, his team selections have been pretty dull too, I hate saying this because I've tried hard for weeks to not get on the teams backs but when you feel like you are being spun the same line every week you start to lose confidence and trust in the ones you pin your hopes on, and when that happens it ain't good! I mean look at what we did in January for a start, we desperately needed defensive cover, our midfield was starting to lack creativity and we bought emile heskey?!?!?! What sort of signing was that? But it's not just the heskey signing that is starting to really piss me off it's more about my original point, our predictability, teams know we are one dimensional and know how to counteract us, my Sunday league team could of had two blokes stood on each wing marking young and milner and probably got a draw out of us! It seems that's all we've got! When was the last time we put a nice pass through the middle for gabby to run on to? I can't even remember! It just goes out wide, young gets tackled, he falls over like a drama queen and our attacking play gets broken down again! Or if he does beat his man his cross ends up in row double z! (yes I know he got a Jammy one in today!) I too would like to put my life savings on a Mon quote this summer, mine is going to be "we will try and get some bodies in if at all posible" that quote is why I don't read about transfers anymore! Mon is starting to really bore with his tactics, team selections, verbally through the media, but most of all his transfers! And I know fifth is progress but when you look at what we could of acheived this year it's nothing, we had it in our hands and threw it away, just like the last few games! So depressed someone please think of something worth while to say to cheer me up, I'm losing all faith!

Comment 23, made on April 26, 2009 at 2.14 am

Anthony Laud said:

... it would help if we had a squad so we could change the team when on a bad run. we have hardly changed the team in 3 months only when mon was forced to through injury really. what other teams go 3 months without winning and doesnt change anything! its a joke! I wish he would sort out our dismal squad!

Comment 24, made on April 26, 2009 at 3.25 am

Anthony Laud said:

... woodhinho - we will never create anythign through the middle until oneil realises Petrov and barry cant play in the same team. just play one who passes it around and sign a creative goalscoring midfilder to partner them. then we wouldnt be so one dimensional.

Comment 25, made on April 26, 2009 at 3.29 am

Nick said:

... I thought everyone besides Friedel and maybe Shorey was below par today. Our worst players by a mile were Heskey and Carew. Shocking from both of them.

Comment 26, made on April 26, 2009 at 5.16 am

Alistair said:

... Yea i thought Shorey had a decent game, but that probably says more about the rest of the team if he was the best! Bit harsh, don't mind him.

Comment 27, made on April 26, 2009 at 5.47 am

Andr3 said:

... I didn't watch the game, but dissapointing not to reach the top 4 but Im happy with a 5th place finish, better than 16th 2 seasons ago........ Oh n I found ur new blog Damian

Comment 28, made on April 26, 2009 at 6.14 am

Michael said:

... tonebone- villa have moved on, this time last year we had less points, we were lower in the league, we could have finished as low as 9th. now we have our best points tally after 34 games in 15 years. no one expected 4th this season, MON has give us the excitement that we may finish 4th but never, id have prefered that excitement of nearly finishing 4th than fighting for 5th-10th all season like last. if anything, MONs been his own worse enemy by over achieving this season in the league, if we started the season as we ended it and vice-versa we would all be very happy people, a season should be judged over 38 games, not just on the games you lose. as for the uefa cup, we will take it more seriously next year, this season started 2 months earlier because of the intertoto, next season we will play our first uefa game end of september and will be able to play full strength teams as we wont suffer premature burn out early. we havnt won a trophy, but before MON it was 10 years before we won anything previously. talk of MON leaving is disgraceful, if he goes i dread to think who will take over, souness, curbishley, johnny foreigner? after MON theres no-one id want to be managing villa. maybe DOL was rite and some of our fans ar fickle. and where has all this jol is god coming from, yea spurs would be probbly top4 now if they never sacked him, his record at spurs is almost identical to MONS, except he inherited a better squad than MON, jol finishing 9th, 5th, 5th and mon finishing 11th, 6th, 5th? why would we want jol to come in, change everything and take another 4 years to push for 4th? even mouriniho couldnt have done what MON has done, he had a quite poor record at chelsea considering the money he spent and the team he inherited. if next season we finish below 8th, thn you can moan - but that isnt going to happen so lets all give him another 3 seasons.

Comment 29, made on April 26, 2009 at 7.14 am

Damian said:

... If we finish 6th this season we will not have moved on, even if we get more points than last season. This isn't just me writing this, Barry and O'Neill have both as good as said this. Lerner needs to spend money. If he doesn't spend money we will not move on from this place.

Comment 30, made on April 26, 2009 at 8.53 am

Spencer said:

... Completely agree with micky86. It will take us a while to establish Villa amongst the top 4. It may well take another 2-3 seasons to continue building the squad and improving it's quality to get a foothold in the top 4 and stay there. In that time there will be more Euopa Cup football (until this season something we hadn't had for years), the two domestic cups and our league position to improve on. To change managers would put us way back. We've got to be patient, have faith and trust MON. As long as we are progressing then we are getting there and we 11th, 6th and 5th in 3 seasons is definitely progress.

Comment 31, made on April 26, 2009 at 9.02 am

Michael said:

... imo if villa finish the season in 6th and have more points than last season then that is an improvement, its obvioulsy an improvement, it means we have either won more games or lost less games, which in my book is improvement. and why is it the same people who moan about being in the uefa cup and not the champions league, are the ones complaining that we havnt won the carling cup, which is the english domestic version of the uefa cup, fa cup being the champions league.

Comment 32, made on April 26, 2009 at 9.18 am

peter power said:

... why is everyone assuming we will finish 5th? i cant see our next win.hull draw,fulham lose,boro draw and can we beat the mighty newcastle at HOME!! if they need to win to stay up.we have not won a game in march or april and may lasts for only 3 weeks. mon is even making me think twice about watching villa v celtic in spain in july to see our NEW signings in action

Comment 33, made on April 26, 2009 at 9.26 am

Damian said:

... mickey86 it is an improvement to some extent, but surely where you actually finish in the table is the real improvement. put it this way, if untied win the league on 80 points last year and finish on 81 points the year after but chelsea have 82 and win the league - will that be seen as an improvement? real progress is moving up the table, not getting a better points tally than the season before bluey i fancy we'll finish 6th, only because you fancy everton to bounce back from the result yesterday and you've got to fancy we will continue in this rut we find ourselves in

Comment 34, made on April 26, 2009 at 9.32 am

r0bb0 said:

... Before the start of the season I expected us to come 6th or 7th and would have been very happy with that. Ok, you can call me unambitious, but unlike others on here I didn't expect things to happen overnight. I genuinely believed that being top 7 two years running would show that we had consolidated our position as one of the best sides in the country and give us a platform to build on. What percentage of people honestly believed we'd be top 4 this year? ..... honestly?

Comment 35, made on April 26, 2009 at 9.59 am

r0bb0 said:

... Does anyone know if MON teams have always faded in the second half of the season? He clearly likes to play what he sees as his best players week in week out rather than a squad rotation. This gives the team cohesion and along with our early start to the season may be what delivered our early/mid season success. It does however mean that our players tire towards the end of the season and may be why our form has dipped? Rafa has been criticised for over rotation and this season he seems to have reduced it... MON seems to be at the other end of that spectrum. This isn't a crticism of him by the way, just an observation.

Comment 36, made on April 26, 2009 at 10.10 am

somevillafansareajoke said:

... Get a grip please ! Look where we are now compared to 3 or 4 years ago ! MON had to spend the money he did to make sure we remained in the top 6. Our squad was a mess, Mccann, Samuel etc. Its a joke people knock the manager such short minds its pathetic and quite frankly embarrassing

Comment 37, made on April 26, 2009 at 10.10 am

Michael said:

... i still disagree, its probably possible to finish a season on 45points and still get top 4, would that be an improvement? improvement is definitely measured by how many points you get. if wolves finish next season bottom of the league after losing 38 league games, they will still be 1 place above where they finished this season, is that improvement?

Comment 38, made on April 26, 2009 at 10.27 am

villafandan said:

... if we only match last season's league performance, but do so:- * in an arguably more competitive league, * on top of going further in the domestic cups, * and play a dozen european games too, then that would suggest to me that we are stronger than last year and still moving forward. obviously the next step will be to be seriously challenging in these competitions. that's why i'm looking forward to what we'll achieve next season!! UTV!!

Comment 39, made on April 26, 2009 at 4.17 pm | url

peter power said:

... mickey08 so if wolves ONLY get 60 points and champions league next season that would be a shit season??

Comment 40, made on April 26, 2009 at 7.10 pm

Michael said:

... no bluey it wouldnt, because wolves finishing in top 4 on 60 points is better than wolves finishing top of the championship or bottom of the premiership???????

Comment 41, made on April 27, 2009 at 5.50 pm

peter power said:

... mickey are you pissed you said points were better than league position you nob!!

Comment 42, made on April 27, 2009 at 7.55 pm

Michael said:

... im not saying points are better than league position, obviously id prefer us to finish 5th on 55 points than to finish 6th on 65, but you cant say your team has progressed if they have less points than the previous season, league position is depending on how other teams perform, if they perform good or crap its irelevant to how villa have performed. at the endo of this season, if we finish on more points, with more wins and less defeats then we have improved. and bluey - dont call me a nob you little fat cunt.

Comment 43, made on April 28, 2009 at 12.57 pm

peter power said:

... im after you mickey 86

Comment 44, made on April 28, 2009 at 8.50 pm

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