The Three Dads' Football Season Wonderland

In the haze of survival and the hangover that followed, I forgot to do the closing thread to the blog. What an incredible escape my Villa pulled off. Ultimately, despite a minor scare towards the end, we saw out the draw we needed with relatively little fuss. Somehow we have evolved  from being a team that routinely allowed 20+ shots on goal per game, to one that was pretty miserly. Our XG against fell from 2+ per game to sub 1. Our shape was improved, the team press from early season was back. In short, the coaching staff had achieved exactly what us sofa bound fans had been demanding since November. And all via zoom. Kudos to that! The final day played out almost exactly as I expected. Watford were spent and capitulated to a point of no return pretty quickly. No new manager bounce, and presumably the team and fans are all feeling fairly flat and with a very limited sense of togetherness, given the 'knives out' style of the owners. I expect them to have a tough time in the nex...

So this is it. An absolute saga of a season drawing to a close today and for Man Utd, Chelsea, Leicester, Bournemouth,  Watford, Villa there is very much a binary outcome. Will Frank Lampard be lauded as a resounding (if somewhat sweary) success in his first EPL season, or will his story be one of sentimental naivety? Same vibe for Ole. Brendan Rodgers knows better and has been manipulating the media narrative carefully such that a fifth place finish is still measured as a resounding success.  And at the other end. Will the Watford owners' cheesing of the new manager bounce rule prove to be a sound move? Will Eddie Howe be a miracle working shoe-in for future England manager, or just a scowling wreck languishing  in the EFL? For Dean Smith, I think his reputation is actually the least subject to this single result. He is a nice man, learning his trade, improving - but the variation between relegation or redemption couldn't be starker for us. Relegated, and Grealish will i...

Lots to cover off since my last post as the games have been flying thick and fast these past couple of weeks. It’s hard to imagine that back then Everton were plodding along in 11th. Fast forward to today, and errr, well. Actually, it’s 11th, and smooth Italian sound bites of “safety was the priority”. Ah well.  El Wonderlandico happened. With nothing on the game for us, I was certainly open to us slipping up against Villa to ease Birchy’s anguish. Certainly more open than the Villa forwards were apparently when 2-0 and open goals beckoned. A fitting tombstone to the game that the mostly anonymous Theo Walcott came on to replace the mostly anonymous Alex Iwobi to notch a towering header, that said as much about Everton’s recruitment policy as it did Villa’s ability to see out the game.  At least our local rivals aren’t ridiculous world beaters. Uggh. Kudos to a great season, TAA is some player. Thankfully, Sky evaporated all of my begrudging acceptance pretty quickly by wheeli...

Relegation watch is in full flow here. Full on grumpiness. Near constant reviewing of league tables . Analysis of what-if scenarios, including trying to manufacture realistic yet spectacular ways in which Villa can overcome their points and  goal difference deficit vs the teams around them.  The situation was made maddeningly necessary by Theo Walcott, who last scored a header when he was eleven*, equalising Villa's  lead, late in the game the other night. Alkaline batteries conked out, yet again, after an otherwise impressive performance. At full time I was convinced that the shit or bust scenario  had left Villa very much on the shit end of things, but a combination of results subsequently  seems to have left the survival door somewhat ajar. Bookies give Villa a meagre 8% chance of survival, and they are rarely wrong, which is a blow - but I am a fond adopter of groundless optimism and forlorn hope. All we need is as follows. -Watford to lose vs Man City and A...

So this is it. Shit or bust for Villa tonight, not mathematically but in all reality. And the irony that the fixture pits my team up against co-contributor Steve's beloved Everton. Probably not one for the neutrals this, with Everton seemingly already on the beach and Villa well, just being Villa. That said, it does actually promise to be quite exciting, not least because the threat of Villa's imminent relegation seems to have finally registered with the players, who showed a level of urgency against Palace at the weekend last seen on Monday 20th Jan when we beat Watford with a last gasp goal.  Today I expect them to play in a way that recognises their dire state; so expect either a pumped up fight until we die approach, or a full implosion accompanied by abandonment of all standards, discipline and hope. So that means either a glorious 3-1 win and a surge of Birchy hope, or an abject 4 or 5 nil drubbing, players arguing amongst themselves, fans booing-from-home on Zoom. For th...

So here we are..... Project Restart is in full flow, and.....and....sigh. I’ve got no more enthusiasm for this than Everton’s one-paced midfield did watching us leak a Sunday league-esque goal off Michael Keane’s belly. The end result? A directionless languishing in mid-table purgatory where no matter how many games you play, everything stays the same. A mirror to our new lockdown isolation we all find ourselves in. Although I trust Carlo Fantastico with the reopening of the Merseyside coffers a lot more than I do Bojo or Donald with the economy. I am thrilled and pained at the same time to see Birchy’s postings so far. As he has expertly noted, football without fans and passion is just not the real thing. But he at least has purpose....and there’s genuine emotion there, which is great to see. What is unfortunate, is the emotion is helpless abject despair....akin to my very real fear that RV rental rates in this COVID world are likely astronomical now, which puts Project 2026 - Stevie ...

I've been in a bit of a relegation mire for the last week, watching Villa play well but come out second best, over and over. That creeping doom of relegation is not a good feeling and it definitely impedes the enjoyment of other games. It is in that context that I sit down for tonight's games wanting: A) a Norwich win over Watford. Sure, that increases the risk of Villa ending rock bottom, but it also keeps us within reach of Watford,.which is now vital, given West Ham's recent crunch results thanks to 'winner' (/golem) Moyes. B) a resounding Chelsea win over Palace, ideally with suspensions, crushed confidence and enough niggles to hamper Palaces match day squad for their trip to villa in a few days. These are the scraps I now feed off. Watford v Norwich promises to be a thriller. So much so that in the time between thinking I'd write this and writing it, there's been 2 goals. It makes sense. Both teams are actually quite threatening going forward. Norwich ...

When you start relying on a Steve Bruce side to play expansive football, then you know you're in a desperate place. That place is the place I am at. Football without fans is exposing what an amazing leveller those fans can be, whipping up adrenaline and inspiring players to run that bit harder, pull off an impossible shot or save, or make that last ditch tackle when your body says it can't.  The end result, predictability. This predictability is bad news for Villa, as we go into most games as underdogs, but joyfully it is creating a similar effect for the other relagation threatened teams. Last night I decided Villa have a only a 30% chance of survival, not good odds, but now that  I'm settling down to a sequence of games that could see Villa cut adrift, I'm actually glimpsing a tiny slither of hope. Bournemouth and Norwich are both losing 2-0. West Ham play a vibrant Chelsea later. If things turn ugly for them then their goal difference will plummet to bear Villa level...