Middlesbrough v Aston Villa: Live text, banter, links, Twitter and team news

Sincere apologies for this coming late, but I had a late night and then I was rudely woken by the wife, informing me that I had agreed to a trip to town today.

I honestly thought this a bit strange as I cherish staying at home on a Saturday but then she reminded me that while I was opening my 12th beer, I phoned the local sports bar and double checked that I could borrow the internet and a power point to do this from the pub.

So, it all adds up and also explains why this is coming late but doesn´t explain this splitting headache I´ve got.

I´ll be updating tis page and well, let the banter begin.

Team News

Nothing yet, but don´t expect that many changes. Taken from the BBC:

Aston Villa (from): Friedel, Luke Young, Knight, Davies, Shorey, Milner, Petrov, Barry, Ashley Young, Carew, Agbonlahor, Heskey, Reo-Coker, Guzan, Sidwell, Delfouneso, Gardner, Clark, Cuellar.

Martin O´Neill
We will try to win the last two games. It's as simple as that. If we drop points it ends up doing someone a favour.
Unless we have a real crop of injuries I am still looking to include quality, experienced players such as Nigel Reo-Coker and Steve Sidwell, who is dying for a game at this minute.

For the record, I´d love to see Sidwell play, replacing Barry wouldn´t be a bad call either.

Actual Team News

Friedel; Milner, Davies, Cuellar, Shorey; A Young, Barry, Petrov, Heskey; Agbonlahor, Carew. Subs: Sidwell, Guzan, Gardner, Clark, Reo-Coker, Knight, Delfouneso.

This looks like 4-3-3 which I quite like only because it is better than 4-4-2 but still, it isn´t as good as 4-5-1 or 4-2-3-1. Martin O´Neill has to figure this out.

It also looks like Milner is at right back. This is madness and just goes to show, for some, that O´Neill doesn´t actually know what he is doing.

He needs more time, but this team selection is going to get us beaten today. I hope not, but, it really doesn´t look good.