Sheaf Saint

Well clearly one of us is, because my memory is of a bouncing ball that he had to hit on the half-volley, hence why it wasn't straightforward.

Can you say for definite you would have scored it? Even the best strikers in the world sometimes miss easy chances - do they get vilified for the rest of their careers about it? Of course not because it's forgotten about as soon as they smash the next one in. Bear in mind he was a midfielder, not a striker. I was at that game (almost froze my testicles off) and it wasn't actually as easy a chance as everyone who wants to have a pop at him makes out.

Indeed. The thought of going into the coming run of games with Fox and Hooiveld in our back line scares the bejeesus out of me!

Gotta be. No contest.

Oh and Bjork at Bestival in 2011. I really liked her first two albums - they had some energy about them and although she's not to everyone's taste, I like her quirky voice. She did the closing set on the main stage on sunday night and just churned out 2 hours of slow, plodding tunes with a choir as backing. The cheeky bint even had the nerve to say at one point "I know these aren't exactly festival tunes, but we don't care". Well maybe you didn't but the people who had paid money to come and watch you did.

Yeah this was the first gig that popped into my head when I saw the thread. Loved Moon Safari but they were just really self-indulgent and did some very weird, experimental almost, versions of their best known tracks. Got a very poor response from the crowd and we ended up sitting in the seats up at the back cos we were bored.

I gave you one in post #199. Clearly you've chosen to ignore it. My view of it is that because he was already at full stretch to get his right foot to the ball, his trailing leg is almost on tiptoe when he instinctively moves his right foot out of the way. From that point the laws of gravity take over and whatever he did next he was inevitably going to hit the floor. Just my view of it - I could be wrong of course, but that's how it looks to me.

Well it obviously will never be conclusively proven if he dived or was just trying to avoid the tackle. The simple fact is though: from a defensive point of view, if you are going to put in awful tackles like that in the box then you have to accept there is a very strong chance of giving away a penalty. Symptomatic of Villa's young and inexperienced back line perhaps, but top flight defenders should know better than to be that reckless in the tackle. The defender really only has himself to blame for giving the referee a decision to make.

I'm not advocating that it was a nailed on pen, I'm just pointing out that it didn't appear to me to be a clear-cut dive that some are making it out to be. Yes if I was a Villa fan tonight I probably would be aggrieved that it was given, but I would be just as livid with my defender for putting in such a terrible tackle in the box and inviting trouble in the first place.

The instant he decides to drag his foot back, he's only going one way and that's down. Whether he did that deliberately to con the ref or to avoid a potentially bad tackle, only he will know. He should have been aware that if he left his foot in there would definitely have been contact which would have warranted a penalty so there would be no need to dive for it, unless he just didn't fancy getting injured.

Again, depends how you see it. If you look where his trailing leg is when he plays the ball, he can't jump forward out of the tackle because he's already at full stretch. The only way to move his right foot out of the way of the tackle is backwards, and given the position of his other foot (almost on tiptoe) it's no surprise he went over like a sack of potatoes.

Not at all surprising to see Paul Lambert complaining about the bad decision. If I was him I would be far more concerned about his centre backs putting in such rash tackles. Watching it again, whether J-Rod dived or was just pulling his foot out of the way is kind of irrelevant... The tackle from the defender was nowhere near the ball and had J-Rod not reacted to it then it would have been an absolute stonewall penalty, as he would have been in a potential goalscoring position. It's entirely possible that's why the ref gave it in fact.

There was another really nasty-looking one on Cork right near the end, but because he didn't go down and just got on with it, the ref didn't even give the free kick despite being right in front of it when it happened.

Sounded great on the stream I was watching. As opposed to the Villa fans who booed their team off at half time, booed them off at full time (despite them putting in a spirited late attempt to claw something back), and were even ungracious enough to boo when Shaw was being stretchered off - bunch of classless idiots. I expect it's the same fans who got all shirty when our home fans committed the heinous crime of failing to join in with their 19-minute clappy thing earlier in the season, despite not having a clue what it was all about.

Did you actually see it?

If he deliberately dived to try and con the referee then why can he be seen afterwards saying to the ref "He didn't touch me" and looking quite embarrassed that it's been given? For me there is a clear distinction here from the kind of cynical playacting you expect from somebody like Suarez for example.

Christ, another dreadful clearance from Hooiveld that just put us straight back under pressure.

Well Gaston hasn't really been involved much in the 2nd half and Villa are getting in down our left quite a bit, so it kinda makes sense to bring Fox on there to give us better cover.

That's a strange sub!

What the hell has happened to the calm, composed Saints team that ended the first half?

Why can't Hooiveld ever find a team-mate with his clearances?

Never a foul. The villa player was backing into Puncheon if anything.

How the fook did Benteke miss that follow-up!?

I don't think he dived. It looked to me like he was just trying to withdraw his right foot from the tackle so he didn't get injured. Had he not done that, there definitely would have been contact and it would still have been a penalty. He also appeared to suggest to the ref that he wasn't fouled, so you can't say he deliberately tried to con the ref with a cynical dive.

In fairness, Williams and Telfer were not in our 2003 cup final squad. WGS was lucky in that he inherited an already decent squad of players that came good under his fitness coaching, and it was after we lost the best of those players (Bridge, Beattie etc...) that we began to decline. His record in the transfer market was actually really poor IMO.