Watch out Doncs, Barry and Milner are on the warpath! – Doncaster match preview

January 24, 2009 by Martin Banks
Filed under: Aston Villa, Match Previews 

milan barosThe 29th November 2005 was a cold, cold night for Villa fans. Cold in temperature and cold emotionally too, as we watched our team crash out of the League Cup to lower league opposition in an embarrassingly weak performance from the Villans. At the time, our league campaign was far from joyous, having lost half of the 14 Premier League outings and manager David O’Leary was not inspiring much confidence in the boys.

We lost the game 3-0 and at no point in the game did we look like a team 2 divisions above Doncaster. The line-up that marched onto the pitch with it’s heads up and then off the pitch with them well and truly down was:

Sorensen

Hughes – Mellberg – Ridgewell - Samuel

Milner – McCann – Davis – Barry

Angel – Baros

Baros in particular was abysmal, but the whole team followed his lead and played dreadfully. Gareth Barry was our best man on the night, having a few chances on goal himself, but anything he supplied the front 2 was badly wasted.

With that terrible night now refreshed in your memories, hopefully we have exorcised the demons and we can put such a bad night to bed.

Gareth Barry and James Milner are the only 2 surviving Villa players from that team and they will go out today with words of warning for the other lads but moreso with a vengeance to avenge. Barry and Milner will gee up the players in the dressing room, encouraging Villa to go at Doncaster like a juggernaut, the ultimate aim being a 3-0 win.

That’s if they play

Martin O’Neill has made it clear that his main priority now is the Premier League, so the team he picks today will very much have Tuesday’s game at Portsmouth in mind. Had our season not been going so exceptionally well, the FA Cup and UEFA Cup would no doubt see our strongest XI possible, but with Champions League looking like a realistic possibility, MON will sacrifice the cups if he has to. To get a top four spot will enable us to attract a much higher class of player in the summer.

Despite no doubt preferring to rest Gareth Barry and James Milner for Tuesday, Villa are already without Ashley & Luke Young through suspension, Laursen, Bouma & Carew through injury and new signing Heskey is ineligible.

Nigel Reo-Coker & Marlon Harewood could be making their last appearances for the club, with NRC being linked with a move to Spurs and Harewood linked with just about everyone.

We could also see some of the young rising stars get some action today, such as Barry Bannan or Nathan Delfouneso, but Ciaran Clark won’t be featuring as he too is suspended.

Nicky Shorey will very likely get a chance to shine in this game, being the only full back who can play today, but whether he is using it as a shop window for Newcastle or as an attempt to ignite his Villa career is uncertain.


Comments

One Comment on Watch out Doncs, Barry and Milner are on the warpath! – Doncaster match preview

  1. Sam H on Sat, 24th Jan 2009 15:32

    2. I’m giving streaming a Villa game another try! find a free live stream of the game today at http://onyahead.com/live-football

    Best of luck fellas

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