I feel subdued but this bbs is a public service provider and others need to know of the match.

The 3 to 5 slot on Saturday was excellent. Goals, clean sheet, own goals, mad management, sending offs, sunshine, boisterous crowd. Great stuff.

Two early goals settled us down well. But they were deserved as we were knocking the ball around nicely. Again I feel having Glass (or maybe it's anyone ) wide left just made so much difference to our options. His presence stretched Villa left and gave Solano more room on the right. Two nice centres and two nice bits of finishing for the first two goals. Although what calamity James was doing for the second one is beyond me.

Ginola got his customary booing. This is fine by me as the crowd's role is to influence refs, players as much as possible. He clearly didn't like it, nor the rought treatment he got from Barton, Speed and Bassedas. About 5 minutes before half time he lost the plot with the ref and was booked for being a drama queen Frenchman. Gregory then also lost the plot and subbed him. (He clearly wasn't injured although the guy behing suggested it may have been a severe case of split ends). Ginola huffed on the way off, stared out Gregory before running off for a shower, and blow dry. Crowd loved it.

Second half was a bit more subdued. Gallacher was subbed again to get another standing ovation, Shola on. Glass followed a wee bit later, for Quinn to come on. Strange decision. Shola skipped away down the wing hit low hard centre in and Villa defender slid it in nicely.

Through the last 20 minutes the crowd were in a nice mood, I think Ginola had helped. There were nice full renditions of Blaydon Races, Wonderland etc.

Villa players seemed to lose the plot and half a dozen of them got booked for being useless. Speed and Taylor then had a wee tussle and amazingly both got sent off.I felt if it had been a televised big game between Man U and Arsenal and it had been Keane and Vieira then they wouldn't even have been booked.

Villa were hopeless. gregory won't be manager in September. To have bust a gut to buy Angel is a disgrace. Shay cleared a ball, he was on the left hand side of the centre line and tried to volley it back. It went for a throw in on the other side of the pitch outside of the penalty area. I feel this is the widest shot I'v ever seen ?? Other times he looked like he'd been training with Andy Cole. Merson lost the plot with Delaney (?) at one point, utter disbelief at the poor pass, flung the ball away in disgust. Southgate was no more than average. James a joke.

Team did a 'circuit of the ground to show their appreciation'. Bobby looked pleased, Shearer limped around. 'Next year' boys. Which is just after 'next summer'.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

Answers

When we got to the Central there was a delayed train just arriving. KX express to Edinburgh, no stops. Brilliant.

Two minutes after we set off two Villa fans come and enquire whether this is the train to Kings Cross. Oops.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

Questions for MacB (and other who saw the game):

Should we keep Glass? Is he good enough to be a squad player in a PL- team?

How was Bassedas performace? He has been starting some games lately, is he improving?

The defence? Do we need to strengthen any parts there? Sounded, on the webcast, like Hughes played very well.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

I've always liked Glass so him scoring and playing okay didn't change my view that he deserves to get more chances.

In my eyes Bassedas suffered from the new shirt syndrome in that you can't see players numbers at all. Having Speed, Glass, Bassedas and Gallacher all with similar build and colouring meant I don't really know who played well and whoe badly, unless like Glass you hugged the touch line. I heard others bemoaning Bassedas afterwards, but what's new ?

As for the defence it was difficult to tell. Angel was so bad I'd have fancied marking him. O'Brien was Man of the Match and deservedly so. Dabizas did miss one defensive header badly, it was just like a few years ago :0)

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

Cant you see the numbers on the new jerseys? Thats crap!

I havent seen Glass play in ages but I still think we should keep him. Cant think his wage is so high and even if we sign another left midfielder we need a backup.

I heard Bobby talked about three or four new quality players during the summer. Depends on what he means by quility. Hildaglo is not quility in my eyes.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

I thought the defence played well yesterday, but as Mac pointed out all they had to mark was Angel and vassell(?) who both less than useless. Andy O'Brien continues to impress me and Hughes makes a better full back than CB, IMHO we are still short of a commanding CB. But after yesterdays performance It shouldn't all be doom and gloom and I await with anticipation who Bobby goes for in the summer...a fully fit Michael Bridges would do for a start and all the talk yesterday was of Robbie Elliot coming back on a free.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

There was a terrific little spell from Bassedas when he kept the ball while twisting through 3 tackles and actually kept his composure enough to put a great pass through to Cort. What he did really well yesterday was finding the wide players quickly. Can't remember when we last got caught offside so few times in a season. Only really Cordone who's done it regularly - perhaps one of the reasons he hasn't played regularly.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

Thanks Mac. Somebody had to do it and you stepped up.

As for the game, we won and we won well, but the oppo were cr@p. But so were Leicester and we did our best to throw points away in that game. For me, the difference in yesterday's performance over most other games I have seen this season can be summed up in one word. Width. I thought Glass gave us an option which we have been lacking for ages (except when Quinn has been played left midfield). But IMHO, SG is a better choice in that position - indeed, despite having been apparently bought as a FB, WQ seems to have lost his place to a CB/RB - and one who doesn't look too comfortable in that new position.

With both Glass and Solano in the same side we had options and were able to spread the game. With width (especially with Glassy more keen than Sloano to hug the line), you then have more room to play down the middle. It all seems so simple, yet we have been unable to do it on more than a handful of occasions this season. Indeed, the Leicester match was so different when Solano wasn't playing and all our options transfered from the right hand side to the left. As Glass left the pitch (and indeed, the third Gallagher brother), I hoped he was handed a new contract, along with the handshake. IMHO, there's a place in our squad next season for both Gallacher and Glassy.

Daveed got what was expected. He's a skillful player but we all know he has a problem standing up. And so must his manager. If he wanted to "protect" DG from a further yellow, then he could easily have waited until halftime. But no - he had to make yet another drama for the drama queen. I was saddened, not by the crowd's reaction - we expect that - but by the treatment of a truly gifted player by a toss-pot of a manager. I think we probably witnessed the final performance of David Ginola in the EPL.....................unless YBR were to make him an offer he can't refuse.

BTW - I agree with you about O'Brien. Best game I've sen him play since he joined. Taking a slightly distanced view of things, yesterday's team had a number of players under 23 (I'd guess off the top of my heed, O'Brien, Hughes, Glass (?), Cort, Ameobi and Lua x2, plus Harper and McClen as unused subs and Steve Caldwell who didn't even make the bench. No mistake, if we can use some of that youth along with some experience (not necessarily Gary Speed, who I believe will not be with us next season), YBR is starting to form a nucleus of youth which will do us proud in the seasons to come.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

O'Brien was great, yeah, possibly the best I've seen him play - he looks like a good signing.

The midfield were pretty good. Two wingers is defeinitely the best option, although if Glass isn't going to be used when he's in space (only Bassedas tried to pick him out) then maybe he should come inside more often. Speed is much better without Acuna, IMO the two are similar players and if one is playing the other one shouldn't. Bassedas played some good passes about and actually made some decent tackles. There were some delightful one-twos with Cort and Bassedas in the second half that we haven't seen in abundance since Keegan's team. It's a shame that in one of the best atmospheres at SJP of the season that some of the idiots around me still whinged on about foreign players rather than getting behind them and willing them on.

Up front, Cort won a lot of headers and did well, Gallacher was a little ineffective in what will probably be his last game for us. Nobby was great on the ball, linking up well with Barton, who incidentally had another good game.

In a way, it's a shame that the season has to end here, although with Dyer and Shearer in the team we would have scored twice as many.

Merson criticised the team after the game, wondering if they matched his ambition, but IMHO, Merson was probably one of Villa's worst on the day.

All in all, a good season ticket-renewing performance.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

I felt the Gallacher and Glass substitutions were to give the crowd tha chance to thank them for their time with us. I applauded them for their services.

Speed getting sent off produced the same crowd reaction. Not me, sorry. If I knew for sure it was his last game I might have applauded him for his endeavours but I wasn't to know for sure so no.

The youthfulness is hopeful. Cort scores despite how he looks, need to be convinced he's better than Shola.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

Mac - Shola is one for the future. He has suffered thru not scoring. I feel he will improve once he hits the back of the net. But we still need another top class striker to allow us rest Shearer more than we have (injuries not included!) in the past. Cort's first touch is poor, but when he has room to juggle, he's OK. Canny knack of scoring and not quite as bad as Andrew Cole at missing ;-)

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

A good performance that allowed the season to end on a high note. Villa were dreadful however. I expected a tough game as they had an outside chance of Europe but in the end was amazed at how poor they were.

Having said that we did play incredibly well and most of the first period was played in the Villa half of pitch. With both Glass and Solano playing we had far more attacking options than seen in previous games and this made all the difference to us.

The best performance im my view was that of O'Brien. Not the most physically dominant of defenders but he is very perceptive in his reading of the game and ability to quickly get himslef into position to snuff out danger. There was a great moment in the second half when he brought the ball out of our box and started the move which led to our third goal.

Bassedas started off like a player short on confidence. On a couple of occasions he did well to control the ball and make space for himself and then ruined things by playing an abysmal pass. He was given far more space by Villa in the second half and as a result was at the hub of a number of good moves and looked far more impressive.

Cort looks ungainly but seems to have a knack for making runs into goalscoring positions and his strike rate this season, albeit with limited starts, is excellent. His heading, especially flick ons with his back to goal does need to improve. I lost count of the number of times when, with his back to goal, he completely mistimed his jump for the ball. Being a young lad though he has plenty of time to improve on this and I for one won't complain if he keeps on scoring like he has been. All in all a great day from which we can reasonable grounds for optimism for the coming season. I'd echo the other postings regarding the compartive youth of our squad. We have Given, O'Brien, Hughes, Griffen, Dyer, Cort and Ameobi all in their teens or early twenties. If we can keep this lot together and add some quality over the next couple of seasons then the mid term prospects look bright.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

Good performance and a lot of positives to be drawn from the game. I reckon Cort is excellent and to finish as top scorer after playing so few games is pretty impressive. Bassedas looked much better than of late, he was showing some form that was more worthy of the fee. I hope he can get into his stride a bit earlier next season!

Gallagher was excellent - the man's work rate is phenomenal, turning up on both wings, chasing and harrying - it would have been great to see him score. He got a tremendous ovation and he was clearly moved by it all as he applauded the crowd as he went off for the last time. This is the kind of player we need in every position - you're always guaranteed absolutely 100% from KG.

As for Glass, I will be GUTTED, if we are not going to re-sign the lad immediately. He is a class act, goes past players, good crosser, and scores goals. I'm astonished he has not been used more and that astonishment will simply not be adequate (and I will have to resort to deep shock)if we allow him to go on a Bosman.

Shola looked very good and Lua Lua has impressed me the last 2 games I've seen him. Still a bit to learn but enormous amounts of raw talent and has the potential to become a Tino style favourite IMHO. O'Brien was very good.

As I say, lots of positives to draw from this, Dyer to come back, I hope Al returns as fit as ever, and hopefully at least 2 quality signings in the Summer. Then there's the likes of Chopra and Offiong (57 goals between them) getting nearer the action next year. I think next season could be wor year. :-)

I was sorry to see Ginola booed off in what might well have been his final appearance at SJP. He was fabulous for us and I stood and applauded him off. Angel at £9m was very amusing, prompting a number of comments from me during the match such as "The Angle (sic) of Death", "A shot from an impossible Angle" (when he almost hit the corner flag)and "He's no angle is he?" after a show of petulance with the ref.

At the end the players did their now customary "lap of honour(?)" (although to be fair, it was announced as the players showing their appreciation for their millions our support. I was moved to wonder - does this happen anywhere else? Does any other club in the land dare to walk round the pitch and applaud the fans after finishing 11th? I suspect that many grounds would just empty if it was attempted.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

For once we all seem to agre on who was hot and who was not. I think our formation of two wide men really has done the trick the last couple of games.

It would be a great shame to lose either Glass or Solano, but If we do as long as they ae replaced by better wingers then we'll be OK.

What we do need is a decent left back. Hughes seems better than Quinn but playing a right footed player against a team with a decent right winger would be a problem. I think Robbie Elliot returning would be a brilliant re-aquisition.

Then there's the problem of the centre of midfield. If Dyer plays in the middle then I would want to see a Roy Keane type of player in the middle, Neither Speed, Acuna or Bassedas could fill this role.

Upfront, Cort is looking better with each game, the prospect of seeing him alongside A FULLY FIT Shearer next seaon is mouth watering. The problem is though that we don't have any quiality cover in that position. We need a Robbie fowler, Matt Jansen , Emile Mpenza,or Michael Bridges to rotate with our two front men. There will come a time when both Cort and Shearer will be out of action next season. I wouldn't like to see us start with LuaLua and Shola upfront just yet.

-- Anonymous, May 21, 2001

I wouldn't like to see Dyer in the middle. If he starts on the right wing he can do enough damage in the midfield.

I can see Bobby playing Bassedas more next season and he would need a ball winner alongside him.

Most successful teams have a good solid ball winner in the middle and they don't usually have any more than that as they are not necessary, as long as the other three do their work.

We DO need a left winger though and if we start next term with a right winger and three central midfielders I will be pessimistic about our chances of improving on this season.

It's plain to see it's black and white!!!

-- Anonymous, May 21, 2001