March 2008 Archives

The European picture is now much clearer.

Manchester United's shock FA Cup defeat to Portsmouth means that Villa will need to pip, more likely than not, Everton into fifth place to qualify for Europe next season.

Villa fans might be left with another free weekend and be left to support the two North-East clubs today as they tackle Merseyside's finest.

But in the weeks to come they might find themselves also hoping for a few Birmingham wins.

No, before you bash the computer screen and yell all sorts of obscenities, I'll explain...

Bad news always comes in threes.

And sure enough after Curtis Davies and Stephen O'Halloran were put out of the game long-term within an hour or so of each other, along comes Jonathan Hogg to complete Villa's misery.

Forget Martin Taylor for a second, had a reserve game at Orient been featured at all on Sky Sports earlier this week, then all the talk would be of Danny Rose.

Not all of Villa's teams struggle to get past the third round of major competitions having been drawn invariably against Manchester United.

And so it is a hearty good luck message to the under-18s as they head into tomorrow's FA Youth Cup semi-final with Chelsea.

Whether Villa's policy of searching far and wide for their youth talent (Hungary, Austra, Australia, Sweden and... err... Watford in the case of Harry Forrester) is good for the English game is open to question and a debate for another time.

But there is no doubt whatsoever that it is good for Villa.

Villa's youth set-up is the envy of, I would suggest, all of the Premier League- yes, and that includes Chelsea and Frank Arnesen.

It's hard not to feel sorry for Curtis Davies.

But where do you start with Stephen O'Halloran?

At least Davies got a decent run of matches and showed everyone what he is about.

Considering the pain they must have felt having conceded in the fourth minute of stoppage time (when there were only three minutes, supposedly) I was amazed by how many Villa players actually had to the grace to stop and do interviews.