Wasteful Villa

I'm a tad disappointed to lose to the barcodes. They weren't great and we were better in the second-half.

I wouldn't use the phrase 'Mr Dependible' to describe Mark Delaney. He was woeful at times and played everybody onside, for no apparant reason, for Ameobi's opener.

Craig Gardner got an assist from a superb free kick and I was pleased with his full debut. I think there's a lot more to come from him.

We were wasteful and kept giving Newcastle opportunities. If we were playing Boro this week we could've conceded six or seven!

In all honesty though, we need some serious investment in the squad.

I'd ship out Baros, Delaney, Samuel and Hendrie and more than likely Liam Ridgewell too.

I know I praised Samuel the other day (and I eat my words!), but what a muppet he was for Newcastle's second. His stupid jump gave Ameobi all the time in the world to control and shoot from a short distance. It was a great save from Sorenson but it was in such a dangerous area I wasn't surprised someone scored from the loose ball.

What the defence was doing I do not know!

Barry was excellent again and Moore must be loving life in the Premiership. 5 in 3 is the sort of ratio former players have been touting him for.

But we wasted chance after chance and Baros, albeit a good idea, would have made a small child embarrased with the way he took that penalty.

I still believe we need a new manager but we also need some money. And to get the latter we need the former. Yesterday was just not good enough and it just showed that we don't have enough quality.

Four or five players were superb, but they were let down by four of five that weren't.

We need some defenders and a good right winger, because if we don't have Milner we struggle.

Moore and Phillips are the only consistent strikers and Phillips, at his age, is always going to struggle to be a 10-15 goals a season striker.

Without our Academy we'd be in serious trouble. Just imagine where we'd be without Moore and Davis. I wouldn't like to speculate.

I don't think we'll have a match report today because there's not too much to say. We were nearly good. That sums it up and much of our season.

But nearly isn't good enough in the Premier League.

Newcastle were a bit lucky, but you make your own luck and if we were good enough we'd have won easily. They're not a great side at the moment but Roeder's doing ok and when they get a good manager and a clean bill of health I think they'll be back up where they have been in the past. But at the moment they're a side we should have beaten. Especially at home.

It's pretty rubbish being a Villa fan at the moment. The new millenium has not been kind to us and we don't finish this decade as a good team I think it really could have disasterous concequences on the future of the club.

Big players want to play for big clubs and we're in danger of losing that tag. At the moment many people still believe we're a sleeping giant. But if we slip into a coma then we're gonna become a Nottingham Forest.

No offence to Forest, I miss them in the top flight, but what a fall from grace they've had. And Derby. Both massive clubs who have suffered by having a few seasons of doing poorly.

We need some ambition at the top and luckily the club will be in new hands in the next few years (it's not looking like it's gonna be soon...) and that could awake the sleeping giants we are.

Enjoy your Sunday and remember- don't watch Match of the Day!

Comments to luke@astonvilla.biz.