aston villa 1 -0 west ham utd

[andy villa]

game of two halves... we were much better first half, they were slightly better second half...

we deserved the win as we were the better side overall, and while we werent really ever out of first gear... delighted and relieved with the win despite the fact that we were playing against west ham and the ref, who was absolutlely attrocious, but the 3 points went to the correct side...

west hams fans were quiet again for the second year running and apart from a few claps, couldnt really notice that they were here...

carson - 6 - made one decent save, but apart from that, didnt have anything else to do really....
mellberg - 6 - hoof.. lots of hoofing, no attacking intent but defended solidly...
laursen - 8 - solid at the back although and didnt let anything past him...
knight - 6 - solid but hoofed a lot...
bouma - 7 - defended solidly and linked up with young well....
gardner - 7 - scored the winner and got stuck in...
reo-coker - 6 - worked hard and was solid in the middle.. was bypassed in the second half by the hoofing from the back...
barry - 6 - composed in the middle but offered little attacking intent....
young - 8 - ran at players and caused them problems all game...
agbonlahor - 6 - pace caused them problems, but had little service...
moore - 6 - his movement and touches are sublime, but he didnt anticipate anything and looked a little lethargic....


subs
maloney - 7 - excellent touches and trickery...
petrov - 4 - gash, yet again.... although the booing was disgusting...

ref - 0 - dont know who he was, but he was rubbish.. good tackles from us resulted in a free kick for them... fouls on us resulted in a free kick for them... penalty shouts for us, resulted in a free kick for them... when we did get a free kick, advantages were not given when they were the other way, and the petty moving of free kicks 3 centimetres across was just stupidity... oh, and i thought that players who went off for medical treatment had to get permission to rejoin the play.. luke moore had to, yet the west ham player who went off in the final minutes, didnt.. and if a player is down and we carry on playing and win a throw in, that doesnt constitute giving a drop ball to west ham... it certainly didnt happen the other way round when west ham did the same thing.... he didnt manage to cost us the game, no matter how much he tried with his incompetence/bias, but his performance was attrocious...

[Olzy]

Young is on fire at the moment. O'Neil was full of praise for him.

It's nice to hear.

[andy villa]

young is pure quality....

getting better with every game...

really chuffed with him and the price we will eventually pay, looks a bargain...