Eagerly awaiting the arrival of Brentford to Villa Park.
After all the midweek hullabaloo it’s back to Villa Park for an ordinary Saturday afternoon fixture against ordinary opposition. Brentford it is who will be the bad guys and it’s nice to see a little club doing well, mixing it with the big boys of the Premier League. That’s the patronising out of the way, now let’s talk about reminding the little upstarts of their place and grinding them into the dirt.
Incredibly, the last time they came to Villa Park we were managerless and battling relegation, Things have changed a bit since then. At any other club Ivan Tonev would be the most reprehensible player, but this is Brentford and they’ve got Ben Mee on their books. Sadly he’s injured. That’s ‘sadly’ as in sadly he wasn’t dispatched by one of our players, screaming in agony with something career-threatening.
Brentford’s manager was given a free by Gretna as a player and got mutually consented when he managed Kidderminster. That’s what you call falling upwards. Their ‘celebrity’ supporters include members of Radiohead and Status Quo, plus Rick Wakeman. You do wonder.
We’ve taken a manager from them and bought three of their players in recent years, Two of these have gone on to become England internationals while the third has given up the chance of playing at a decent level. We should have a few of our midweek absences back, and hopefully that will include in goal and up front.
The results of the past week haven’t been as bad as they might have and it’s still all down to us. We could do with a decent win to get three points closer to glory as well as improve our goal difference. We could also do with nobody getting injured or suspended. One of these is much more likely than the other.
