This week a much smaller crowd sat at St Andrews bemused and bewildered at how an opportunity to give some half-fit key players (Pandy, Izzett, Jarosik, Stan) a run-out went begging. No doubt when we lose our next game in ELEVEN DAYS(!) time, we’ll hear the old excuse about players ‘running on empty in the second half’ trotted out yet again. Grrrrrrrr.
Anyhow, Blues lined up with a mixture of youngsters and out-of-favour first team fringe players against the Vile. More intelligently, Vile used the opportunity to give Lee Hendrie and Patrick Berger a work-out and get some match practice under their belts.
The crowd was surprisingly sparse for such a nice evening – probably no more than 400. I tried to indulge in some Viler Spotting to liven things up a bit. Viler Spotting is quite an easy sport in that all you need to do is look out for overweight ginger haired people wearing garish shirts with ‘COWS’ written on the front. Tonight there weren’t many, the best specimen I spotted was a greasy-haired 23 stone schoolgirl wearing a shirt with ‘Baros 10’ on the back. I bet Baros is thrilled.
Quick Brucie Watch – he was in the directors box, wearing what I think was a dark suit with no tie. Me and Brucie aren’t speaking at the moment, so that’s all I can offer this week.
It was good to see Mat Sadler and Sam Oji back in action after their layoffs. Oji was playing in between Tebily and Tiny Taylor. It must feel strange for him, being smaller than his team mates for a change! I must confess, dear reader, to some confusion here. The team sheet said that Sadler was playing No3 and, indeed, it did look like Sadler (although I haven’t seen him play for nearly two years, so I may be mistaken). The team sheet also said Nick Wright was playing No11 and, indeed, it did look like him. In the second half they took No11 off and announced that they had subbed Mat Sadler, so, I’m all confused. Sadler may have been playing in the midfield, to get some running into his legs.
Vile took the lead with their first attack, after 3 minutes. A nice cross from Ward was headed in by the unmarked Luke Moore. To be fair to Taylor and Oji, this was to be the only time they left a gap, after the goal they tightened things up and began to develop a good understanding. We must cut them some slack.
After 12 minutes, Vile had a lucky escape when Kuqi beat goalkeeper Taylor, the ball was scrambled off the line and Taylor gathered at the third or fourth attempt. Viler retaliated with a fine burst through the middle ending in a rasping 25 yard shot from Berger which Vaesen pushed away. The ref gave offside against Moore, so it wouldn’t have counted anyway.
Kilkenny, as always, was pulling the strings in midfield and inevitably it was he who equalised after 17 minutes. He won the ball in the centre circle, shrugged off two tackles, laid the ball out to Birley on the wing and sprinted into the box, Birley crossed and Kilkenny headed firmly home from about ten yards out. Quality goal, quality player. Why oh why wasn’t he playing against Middlesbrough?
26 minutes and Kilkenny’s off again. This time an interchange of passes on the edge of the box leads to him hitting a fierce drive which forced a good save from Taylor.
Kuqi was having a difficult time up against Cahill, the Viler No4. Cahill has ‘lower league stopper’ written all over him – a big awkward lad who relies heavily on pushing and shoving his way through the game. He’ll do a fantastic job for someone like Hull but a Premiership referee would eat him for breakfast. Kuqi must have felt he had handles on the back of his shirt, judging by the amount of time Cahill spent holding onto it. Cahill was to take a nasty kick to the ear, ducking into a clearance from someone. He had to go off for several minutes but wasn’t missed.
After 40 minutes Blues nearly took the lead when a Kuqi header was cleared off the line. Taylor, the Vile keeper had started to come for the cross, got bored, gone back onto his line, been left for dead and was relieved to see Vile’s excellent fullback Foley head clear.
Half time came and I took the opportunity to meet up with Brian, editor of Singing The Blues. We’d never met before and had a pleasant little chat, interrupted only by our spotting John Deehan in the crowd and by Ms. Freely ringing me to tell me her USB memory stick was ‘stuck in the computer’.
55 minutes and Birley robs a tired-looking Berger to set Kuqi free. Kuqi wasn’t having a good game and his control let him down and two defenders closed in on him. Shortly afterwards Asa Hall hit the post with a classy curling shot from outside the box.
By now, Blues had replaced ‘Sadler’ with James Blake. Blake had gone to right back, Birley had switched from right wing to left wing and Tebily moved up into right midfield. Tebs absolutely relished that role and embarked on a series of box-to-box runs, holding off his younger and lighter opponents with some ease. One of these runs led to him crunching into Foley, which led to a booking and a lecture. The next run led to him slipping a delightful ball through to Kuqi, who looked offside to me. Kuqi muffed his chance horribly, putting the ball wide with only Taylor to beat.
By now the game was entertaining, both teams were attacking on the break. Vile’s midfielder Ward and Blues’ Kilkenny were driving their respective teams on, Berger seemed to have got a second wind and Asa Hall was getting more involved. Luke Moore and Sam Oji were having a real tussle with Oji now coming out on top. It was good stuff. Berger seemed to be rising to the challenge of helping his youngsters stop Tebily. Berger’s actually bigger than Tebily, which surprised me.
73 minutes – Kilkenny takes the ball, runs 40 yards, beats two men and hits a firm drive which Taylor scrambles away.
86 minutes and Berger hits a beauty of a swerving, dipping, drive which Vaesen elects to punch away rather than try and catch.
89 minutes and goalie Taylor fails to come for another cross. A goal looks certain but again the ball is cleared off the line. Vile are covering their dodgy keeper very well, with two men behind him for every deadball situation.
Injury time and who should burst through but Tebs? He hit his shot firmly but straight at Taylor. Taylor treats us to a Sorensen Moment, letting the ball go straight underneath him. Lucky for him, the ball doesn’t have enough pace to cross the line and he manages to recover, turn around and desperately scramble it away.
Game ended 1-1. I manage to get away quite easily and have a piece of black pudding with a glass of Shiraz whilst typing this. Sounds dreadful, I know, but the two flavours actually go together quite well. J
Villa: Taylor, Paul Green, Foley, Cahill, O'Halloran, Berger, Hendrie, Ward, Kabeya, Moore, Agbonlahor. Subs: Olejnik, Paul, Williams, Lund, Grant.