Aston Villa v Manchester United: A little live text, some banter and a beer

End Of Match: 4th place lads ... you gotta be happy

89': Lads - we've almost got 4th ...

80': Carew comes on for Sidwell, who if we're going to be honest, has had a poor game.

63': Shrek just missed from 6 yards when all he had to do was get it on target. Monkey.

59': We're bossing this. There was a shout for a penalty a few minutes ago, but it really wasn't, although you've seen them given before. We could win this ...

52': It's all us at the moment. Even Milner put in a good cross!

49': Young just had a beautiful shot from a long way out tipped over by the United keeper. It really was very nice.

46': Sir Alex has a towel placed on his seat and in my book he can have anything he wants on it.

46': Manchester United kick off the second half and we're attacking the Holte End. Is there a happy ending today? 45 minutes to go ...

Half Time: Go get a beer lads ...

45' (+1): Only a few seconds to go ... we've won this half, only becasue 0-0 is better for us than it is for them.

41': Nothing from it ... Vidic heads wide.

40': Foul by Barry on Evra gives United a free kick on the edge of the box.

38': Exquisite tackle from Ashley Young, in the box, against Park. Saved a goal, no doubt. Absolutely perfect tackle.

30': I might be getting carried away with a short period of time, but we are on top of this game at the moment and if we could just score now and keep the tempo, we could win. Three points is ours for the taking today.

26': Sidwell isn't at the races today. Actually, he could be, because he's not in this game. His touch is woeful and he's running into his own team. He has to get better or all this fairth I've put in him could really be lost in one game.

20': Fee kick to United. Reo-Coker foul. 25 yards out.

19': I would like to see a little more from Sidwell though - I'm not sure when he last touched the ball and we need to get him involved.

17': We've had a good few minutes where we've played good football. It ended in Reo-Coker having a shot from 35 yards when he could have crossed but the opportunity presented itslef and he did what we'd all do. We really could win this - I've seen nothing from United to suggest they're here for the 3 points - it's like playing, say, Arsenal.

10': A little trickery from Milner results in him tricking it out of play. We really are 5 players awat from United. Their passing and movement is lovely - we are very mucha team of 'if you think you've got a chance, pass it' while United don't pass unless the percentage chance is higher and it works for them.

8': Long free kick (no real surprise there) from Luke Young, nodded on by someone and Gabby got on the end. Hit it like a player that didn't need to score - but I'm looking for the negative.

4': My biggest fear tonight is seeing Gabby do bugger all because he won the game last weekend and has had good press since his England debut. If that is what we see, I'll be very annoyed - we need to see the real Gabby today and not someone happy with what he's got. Only time will tell.

1': We kick off, attacking the North Stand. 90 minutes to go.

Before Kick Off: The players are in the tunnel ... minutes to go.

Before Kick Off: Just in case it wasn't clear from the title of this post, the text commentary isn't going to be as usual. I've had a few beers today and my main objective this afternoon is to keep my eyes open, which I'll be bale to do, as long as I can concentrate on the mission. There will be some text updates - just not as many as usual. Sorry for me having a beer. Five minutes to kick off ...

Before Kick Off:

Before Kick Off: 10 minutes to kick off and the wife has just brought me two cheese and pickle sandwiches with a can of beer. How good is that?

Before Kick Off:

Mark Lawrenson thinks it will be 2-0 to United today. He might be right, only because we can all take guesses, but who is going to take a defender that only did well because of the team he was playing in seriously? Lawro is one of those players that got lucky and his opinion is generally dismissed and usually wrong. I could have played in that Liverpool side instead of him - it doesn't mean my predictions are going to be right.

The man is a monkey.

Before Kick Off:

You have to assume Reo-Coker is playing right back but we're also playing Luke Young who would prefer right back over left back and while my name isn't Martin O'Neill, I'm a big fan of playing players in their best positions.

What we are doing tonight is playing two players in positions they are not at their best when we could have atleast played Luke Young in his preferred position and looked for a stand in left back - meaning only one player is playing out of position. We would be stronger.

Before Kick Off:

Some team news:

Aston Villa: Friedel, L Young, Davies, Laursen, Reo-Coker, Sidwell, Barry, Petrov, Milner, A Young, Agbonlahor. Subs: Guzan, Knight, Harewood, Salifou, Gardner, Shorey, Carew.

Looks like we're playing 4-5-1 again which is good but Reo-Coker is playing, which isn't a bad thing, if he was playing in midfield but by the looks of things, he is in defence. 

Before Kick Off: Is it wrong of me to think positive about today? Why can't we beat United? It's 11 v 11 at the end of the day and we can, like any 11 players, beat them. I'm feeling more confident today than I have for a while.

Before Kick Off: Just over 30 minutes to kick off and Chelsea have just dropped 2 points against Newcastle and Arsenal have lost at Man City. If we win today, if, we'll go third. A draw will mean 4th place. If I'm honest, I'll happily take a draw before kick off.