‘ I ACTUALLY ENJOYED IT TODAY ‘

By Carl Curtis

Despite being on the end of a 3-1 defeat, I actually enjoyed today.

It was excellent to see nearly 2,500 City fans in great voice supporting the team from beginning to end.

City played some very good football today and the first twenty minutes of the first half we were the better team by far, ok there were some individual errors that proved very costly later on but in the main you can see that the players are trying.

Sol Bamba was excellent again this afternoon but it is Junior Hoilett who was man of the match for me again, following on from his performance last week in the win over Huddersfield.

The more he plays and the fitter he gets, I honestly believe Hoilett will become a genuine match winner for City in future games.

I cannot mention Villa’s second goal without criticising Sean Morrison, Kodja may have been all over our captain but the centre half made no attempt to challenge for the ball, no attempt to jump and win the header but instead challenged the officials after the ball hit the net to appeal for a foul.

A centre half, probably more than any other position on the pitch, is where you expect to see the physical aspect of the game taking place, Morrison simply didn’t show any authority in that moment and it cost the team dearly, I hope he at least walked in the dressing room and held his hands up.

I am a fan of Anthony Pilkington but today it just didn’t happen for him, he didn’t get on the ball in dangerous areas and offered little to no threat this afternoon.

The scoreline suggests a comfortable Villa win but for the vast majority of the game it was by far nowhere near comfortable for the home team, in truth had they been trailing at half time they could have had very little to complain about.

City didn’t collapse in the second half, we actually had good spells in the second forty five but a lack of pace upfield is too obvious and we all know our lack of quality up front, Rickie Lambert is a good hold up player and linking others but has no pace to keep the ball moving forward and slows the play down when we need to push on, that’s not a criticism but more of statement of fact.

Hopefully Neil Warnock will be able to address that problem in January because with just a couple of additions and keeping players fit then I am sure we will win games like today instead of losing them.