Leeds United beat Aston Villa in their Elland Road clash.. but both giants showed why they can be Premier League clubs next season under Steve Bruce and Garry Monk
Villa fan Jonathan Fear, who has his own remarkable story and was asked by his club to feature in their pre-season kit campaign, shares his views on his pride and joy with SunSport
We lost a game - Bruce Out!
Aston Villa were looking to add to our seven-game unbeaten run. The last time we had eight games unbeaten? Ten years ago under the quitter Martin O’Neill.
Some fans seem to have reacted to the loss far more sharply than I have. I thought it was a 50/50 ish game. Leeds United were no great shakes and in all honesty, neither were we.
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However, the 2-0 is somewhat flattering. I think there would have been no complaints if it had been a draw or if we’d won either.
The difference? They took their chances, we didn’t.
Shots on target (3 – 3) says it all really. Forty-five per cent possession away from home and especially at a place like Elland Road is fine.
We had five corners to their four. we had ten goal attempts to their eight. As said, the difference was quite simple: when we got into a scoring position we didn’t take our chances.
Uncle Albert (Adomah) was one on one with the keeper, he knows he should have buried that. We’d have been one up and the game could have been different. That’s football.
There were talks this week of Doctor Tony Xia being to Villa like opal fruits are to sweets - plans that are made to make your mouth water.
In a the Villa owner admitted the club was in more of a mess when he took over than he realised but does speak of the massive potential and what he wants to do here.
It might just take us a second season in the Championship to stabilise and be ready for promotion.
I hope not but the last thing we need is to become a yo-yo club, I’d hope that we can at the very least get into the play-offs.
But whatever happens I want to see us back Bruce and stick with him. The manager merry-go-round has never worked for us.
We need stability and what Bruce has done in eight games (well, the seven, let's ignore the loss) has been fantastic when you look at the fact we’d not won away from home for.
Fourteen months before he came and I think it was something along the lines of 18 months since we’d had a back to back win.
So, seven games unbeaten, a few wins and now on our eighth attempt under Bruce we lost in a close match. Fine. 'We build again' (please note that is not a Paul Lambert esq ‘we go again’. I’ve already said in a previous blog we don’t ever want to hear that junk again!)
Put simply, we’ll be fine! We aren’t the busted flush that we’d become at the end of the Randy Lerner era at least, this was the suggested badge change back then...
Leeds have been through more bad times than us of late. I spoke with our editor this week in an interview and it looks like they are starting to feel more positive about their future as well.
We also went into the ‘what makes a big club’ (see my top five below!)
What are the ambitions with Leeds these days, you’ve had years in the wilderness due to woeful owner decisions, is there any sign of a resurrection?
It has been nice in the past few weeks to have games against Newcastle, Liverpool and now Aston Villa. We have been starved of big games for far too long now and anything that can lift the fans.
There is finally something of a feel-good factor around Elland Road and the fans are once again uniting around the team rather than petty squabbles about our owner.
It actually maddens me that we dragged our heels in the summer and waited until June to appoint Garry Monk.
We then arranged just a handful of pre-season friendlies and in the first month of the season, you could see we were under prepared.
Better preparation in the summer and we could now be challenging the top two. Moving on, I believe a couple of decent signings in January will have us seriously challenging for a minimum of a top-six place come the end of the season.
We’ve been arguing of late about what makes a big club.
Surely both Leeds United and Aston Villa, with the support we have for such little (silverware) return can claim to be up amongst the biggest even if we are sleeping giants?
I believe we both have a big tradition and like you say, we have both won very little for a number of years now. The big thing is, you go anywhere in the world and I will guarantee you will bump into fans of both clubs. You cannot say that about a lot of clubs who are currently in the Premier League.
The fact we still sell out nearly every away allocation and average around 25,000 a season at home is a huge testament to the Leeds fans. We have now had 12-years of very little to shout about.
We have gone from one awful owner to another and the football at times has been embarrassing. In recent years we have lost 6-4 to Preston, 6-1 to Watford, 5-0 to Blackpool, 5-1 to Bolton and 7-3 to Nottingham Forest, and they have all been at Elland Road!!
I travel from the south of England with a supporters club to follow Leeds and it is amazing how many fans travel with us under the age of 25.
It is amazing how anyone of that age can choose Leeds to be their club but they do. Not many clubs would still have that following after 12 years.
Being from Doncaster, I am often called a ‘glory hunter’ by friends and fellow Doncaster folk. I have followed Leeds for 40-years and of those 40-years, I think I can think of five good seasons!
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I HAVE to say I’m enjoying this season. It’s frustrating where we are in the league but us Villa fans have to remember that we gave the rest of the league a 12-game head-start whilst Roberto Di Matteo did, well err.. did nothing for the promotion campaign really.
That cost us dearly and Bruce is trying to pull this all around with the same players. It can come as no shock that we still have major problems in midfield and that we aren’t really setting up our strikers correctly at the moment.
If you don’t feed Rudy Gestede the ball, he won’t score and yes, he is slow. Speed isn’t his game, nutting the ball in the net is his game. Don’t supply and you may just as well not have him on the pitch really.
It will be fascinating how we do in our next game because it’s at home versus a rather poor Wigan Athletic. We also have Burton Albion on boxing day.
Those two games should bring six points. Not sure football ever pans out how you expect, which is why we love it so much, but I’d want to know why if we don’t win those. I’m quite sure Bruce would agree with that.
So, we might make the play-offs if we can build a few more runs like this. I’ve said a few times – and I’m not trying to imply I’m a genius for noticing by the way – that we’ve got too many draws this season.
Maybe now we’ll win and lose more and end up far richer in entertainment and points. If we have to stay in the Championship one more season, so be it, I’d be confident that after January and summer spending, plus Bruce having had time to fully work his magic, that we’d boss the league next season. That got me to thinking, what don’t I miss about the Premier League?
FIVE Things I Don’t Miss About The Premier League...
1) Sky endlessly droning on about the ‘the big four’ that became ‘the big five’ when money bags bought Manchester City. There was football before Sky you know?
2) Having to deal with the heartbreak of the Liverpool fans at some stage of each season when they once again realise it won't be their year.
3) Being last on match of the day each week.
4) Plastic tourist fans coming to Villa Park and thinking it ok to sit by me celebrating Manchester United or Arsenal or Chelsea goals. They soon find out it’s totally not ok!
5) The hype surrounding youngsters who score a goal and then end up in the England squad after three games.
Finally, it's great to see the club getting behind the Ladies' team too, as this video shows.
Until the next disaster fellow Villans… UTV