Aston Villa have not won away in 420 days and here are five ways they can end their away-day misery at Preston
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
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ASTON VILLA. You know the one, the club you love, but hate, but love... who haven't won on the road for 420 days.
The one that is in your blood and you can’t stop thinking about - but in recent years you’d love to have a blood transfusion and stop thinking about?
I’ve been ultra positive this season despite once again being cruelly overlooked for the managers job.
I mean, I sit right by the dugout so it wouldn’t really have put me out to move a few seats along (especially as our managers have heated seats) and maybe just stand up every now and then and point.
Can’t be that difficult can it? I mean, it’s not like you actually have to bring wins to the table and although the managers since John Gregory have had to endure mixed portions of abuse from segments of the crowd.
I could take that easily, I get abused online for free running a football network, I’d love £3m a year wage to take the flack, I’d not even look for any bungs on top!
I digress.
Villa...
Well, if only the game ended on the 85th minute, I’m reliably informed – I read it on that there internet so it has to be true – we’d be third.
Small margins and all that.
Next up for a draw, I mean for a match, is Preston North End. PNE for those with attention deficit disorders. Sorry, you might notice, I don’t do brief!
Now, not in any way arrogantly but I think many fans are already looking beyond that one and onto the local derbies v those strange folks from Wolverhampton and then our even stranger neighbours at St where-ever-it-is they play.
Yes, I know Reading and Fulham are in-between that match but you can’t tell me you haven’t started preparing for one of the most bile-ridden local derbies in the country yet?
So... ten games, ten points. Nowhere near good enough, I think everyone including the players will agree with that, especially if you throw in the non-event of the Luton Town cup game. Sorry, had you wiped that from your memory?
I’d rather have lost five and won five personally, you do the maths (and if you are reading in the USA, you do the math... or learn proper English!)
What do we now need to do then? FIVE THOUGHTS...
1) Get a sports psychologist in.
Sport is about the fractions, that tiny advantage. What is there to lose? Either that or I’d get a few prominent fans in to talk to them?
I did an article a year or so back ‘the man at the top of the mountain didn’t fall there’. It still stands today. Stop messing about, have some swagger.
Where is the confidence? We’d bought leaders in the summer hadn’t we?
2) That takes me onto confidence and leaders.
I wanted Roberto Di Matteo and I don’t like the manager merry-go-round – interesting this time though, he was apparently Tony Xia’s choice, how long will he stick with him if results don’t improve?
RDM left FC Schalke 04 (that isn’t the start of a score btw) after a run of two wins in ten games. He was sacked by West Bromwich Albion for one win in ten.
Sound familiar? But is he installing confidence? Is he showing leadership?
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Only the players and manager know really but you have to say after the great final 25 minutes vs Newcastle he could have shown true leadership and played the team who ended that game so well vs Barnsley.
Nope, he changed the formation back to the one that didn’t work and dropped some of the players who did well.
I have nothing against Jack Grealish and hope he becomes everything many believe he is already, a new 'Magic' Merson.
But what has he done to earn an immediate recall to the starting lineup after he was found to be playing with party balloons or whatever he did!?
3) MAN UP. Just simple. MAN UP!
That goes for the manager as well. Stop tinkering, the game is very simple.
Put a solid midfield in, put the wingers on, supply the strikers and tell them to shoot on sight.
We’ve spent a fortune on strikers who have 20 or more goals a season in the Championship, that includes Rudy Gestede, who we got from Blackburn Rovers the season before, and then we don’t supply them. Stop thinking you have to make things complicated.
Ian Holloway and Steve McClaren both said similar in the after match punditry comments the other night (yes, I’m sad enough to come home and watch it all again when it’s been on the TV) that managers seem to make things more complicated than they have to be.
Oh and sadly at the moment Holloway doesn’t look far wrong for guessing we’d be 16th. He took a lot of abuse for that, even our owner slated him. Hmmm?!
4) So, what are we doing? Yes, we are manning up, we are looking to shoot on site – not you Westwood, please not you, your shots are a public health danger to the fans in the stands.
We are going to prove we are leaders on the pitch and maybe do slightly less talking off the pitch until we get some results?
Or I guess we could sack the manager and use Tony Xia on twitter, there are enough experts amongst the twitterati to tell him what to do. Have it like the X-Factor where we all vote?
No, ok, we’ll revert to just manning up. The talk is cheap, it’s been the same the last 4-5 seasons, ‘we are close’... ‘we go again’ (that still makes me cry when I think about Paul Lambert and his nonsense) ‘the win is just around the corner’...
Oh and that gets me onto corners, why is Ross McCormack, a striker, when on the pitch taking them?
I spoke to a famous ex-Aston Villa player recently who will remain nameless and he said exactly the same. And of course, we are going to look to defend for a full 90.
5) If all else fails and we still aren’t winning, before hiring another ‘proper manager’, give me a go.
I’ll not be great I must admit, I have attention deficit for a start but imagine the headlines with a name like Fear? The press want it, you know it makes sense.
Lets hope the next time I write it will be with an away win under our belt. It’s been far far too long on the road and there isn’t a fan in this country that can argue against us being a loyal and vocal fan base when it comes to away games.
We sell them all out, we do our bit and then.... I do so hope we can move onward and upward now, the return of the boos is something I didn’t imagine would happen this season.
It’s not something I buy into but hey, we all spend our money and make our own choices.
We proved when they are putting the effort in like the end of the NUFC match, we more than respond.
UTV.
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