It’s time to go to Bruges again. same bars, same chippy, same dangerous away end. The difference this time is that we got off to a good start with Leon Bailey volleying in an opener after three minutes, from a knock down courtesy of Tyrone Mings. Ten minutes later we let in an equaliser and looked like we were in trouble for a bit, with Mings making perhaps the finest goalline clearance of all time.

Then in the second half we started playing again, and it looked like we’d at least be going back with a draw when after 82 minutes Morgan Rogers squared a ball for three oncoming attackers and a defender, who got to it first and made no mistake. Then if that wasn’t good enough Matty Cash got brought down and Marco Asensio scored from the penalty. We’ll have to go some to cock this one up.

We’re playing Preston at 1.30 on Sunday. Ticket arrangements are announced and widely applauded by those who get first dibs and condemned by everyone who has to wait. So it’s normal service.

UEFA’s 2024 Financial Landscape report is out and it looks like we’l fail their Squad Cost test. I don’t know, if it in’t one thing it’s another.

Lo, Villa’s acclaimed social media team have ‘dropped’ another teaser about something happening down by the North Stand. No, not knocking it down – it’s bound to be a statue of a lion, hopefully being ridden, Putin-style, by a bare-chested Unai Emery.

For the benefit of anyone interested in unintentionally iconic players of the past, Glenn Whelan has become caretaker manager of Wigan. He replaces Shaun Maloney, if you’re interested in totally anonymous player of the past.

Lewis Dobbin’s out for the rest of the season, meaning that you don’t have to play for the Villa to be a Villa player.

Off to Brentford and an attempt to finally win after a European match. It looked a difficult one, especially when the team is announced and Robin Olsen’s playing instead of Emiliano Martinez. Marco Asensio is missing as well, which of course could mean anything except a slight muscle strain, which is the explanation given. The rest of the team was a bit unusual and there’s talk that the boss is concentrating on the cups. Or perhaps he’s doing what we’ve always wanted and rotating the squad to suit the opposition.

The match began and the team responded. There wasn’t much to talk about in the first half, with few chances at either end. Then four minutes into the second half Ollie Watkins finished off a move that had been started by Youri Tielemans. Then not long after that Watkins set a second up for Morgan Rogers but he was a nostril hair offside so one-nil it remained and that’s how it ended. It wasn’t a great performance but it was three points.