Bolton 1-4 Aston Villa EFL Cup

Despite all the hype about putting out "strong teams" it's looking like the game will be an opportunity for fringe players to make their case.
Problem is, Villa have fringe players like Philippe Coutinho and Tyrone Mings.
Anyhoo Chris Mann reflects the view of many that Evatt's focus in on Saturday's away trip to Plymouth and [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Meanwhile, this Brummie pundit reckons Villa should be going with [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] although there is a lively debate going on as to whether the weekend's starters should all play.
Whatever happens, we'll be happy to pocket the £100k TV money and hopefully the >16k crowd and the massive TV audience will enjoy a top performance from our lads - and we don't concede more than 5

I'll be a shit fan again and watch on the telly. I've not been to a league Cup game probably since the Semi final against Villa and that Okocha freekick all those years ago.

Anybody got a potential link for tonight - I can't get Sky Sports directly.

terenceanne wrote:Anybody got a potential link for tonight - I can't get Sky Sports directly.

Nearby pub?

wanderlust wrote:
Nearby pub?

I'm in the USA - normally Ifollow works but not tonight.

terenceanne wrote:
I'm in the USA - normally Ifollow works but not tonight.

It's on ESPN+ in the States, but I'll have a look round for anything else.

boltonbonce wrote:

It's on ESPN+ in the States, but I'll have a look round for anything else.

Aye - ESPN+ is a subscription service. Usually there is a link to Sky somewhere in internet land but I can't see one at the moment.

Here's a link I use when not available anywhere else. Have your popup blocker ready.
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COYWM !!!!!!!!!!

Jaysus! Full strength Villa team.

Front three of Coutinho, Watkins and Ings FFS.

They'll kill us!

Rustafar wrote:Here's a link I use when not available anywhere else. Have your popup blocker ready.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
COYWM !!!!!!!!!!

That site takes you to FUBO and that asks for a credit card - thanks for the effort. I'll just listen to it.

I'm watching it now.
If it directed you to Fub0 then you're not using a popup blocker like I said.
It's not Rocket Science.  It's all to do with a pop up blocker. You can try this one---- [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Well.
Good effort.
Dixon played very very well. Except a couple of incidents.
The ref and lino helped villa in their way.

Not disappointed with the performance...

Dixon was a mixed bag. His distribution was OK and he made a couple of decent blocks/saves, but was at fault for the crucial equaliser busying himself with pushing players away instead of following the flight of the ball and for the third leaving a gaping hole at his near post.
However the difference between the two teams was twofold - 1. passing - we had a paltry 72% passing accuracy which made all the difference when it came to threading a ball into their box and retaining possession in midfield - and 2. tracking runners - whilst Ings et al dropped off their markers easily at times, the midfield players were painfully slow at sticking with the runners from midfield and we made it far too easy for them to score.
Digne went through on his own with Aimson jogging back far too late to prevent the goal, and Bailey shouldn't have even got into the box, let alone walk it in to 8 yards unchallenged.
Quality on the ball and concerted effort at the right time was the difference - plus a couple of hundred million in transfer fees of course.
John McGinn was magnificent in their midfield - he was everywhere and MOTM by a country mile - if only he played for us!
Anyway I hope that Villa's second half dominance didn't take too much out of our lads for Saturday - and that the lessons are learnt.

Rustafar wrote:I'm watching it now.
If it directed you to Fub0 then you're not using a popup blocker like I said.
It's not Rocket Science.  It's all to do with a pop up blocker. You can try this one---- [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Thanks - I did find the game with Weakstreams.com  never heard of it till today but it seemed to work.

They had a corner fluke and the second was offside - to boot if dixon had not touched ings the ball was running behind for a goal kick. We were well in it the first half IMO.
I think the last two games have shown that our quality is not as good as we thought.
One thing I always notice is the lack of ball control by many of our players. As Wanderlust says above, another 10% accuracy is required going forward - I suppose that will cost millions. 
Saturday is a big game in my mind - not just for the points but to get back to a winning mentality.

terenceanne wrote:They had a corner fluke and the second was offside - to boot if dixon had not touched ings the ball was running behind for a goal kick. We were well in it the first half IMO.
I think the last two games have shown that our quality is not as good as we thought.
One thing I always notice is the lack of ball control by many of our players. As Wanderlust says above, another 10% accuracy is required going forward - I suppose that will cost millions. 
Saturday is a big game in my mind - not just for the points but to get back to a winning mentality.

Dixon stuck his leg out when Ings pushed it past him and yes it was going out but Dixon gave him the opportunity to fall over it - instinctive I guess, but he was mugged and it changed the game.

That 10 or ideally 20% difference in passing accuracy and quality of first touch - throughout the team - is what has made Pep's playing style successful - which is why I question our approach of trying to play in that style with players gleaned from the lower divisions. But we are what we are and it will be good to see how far it takes us.

Thank God we have Trafford as number 1, Dixon is poor! Other than that for an hour we played well and matched them until we tired.

Norpig wrote:Thank God we have Trafford as number 1, Dixon is poor! Other than that for an hour we played well and matched them until we tired.

Not quite an hour, was it? We competed well in the first half and scored a good goal through a combination of tenacity and skill. But they dominated the second-half from start to finish and it could easily have been six or seven in the end.

I couldn't help wondering why SKY hadn't secured the services of Doctor Dean Holdsworth for last night's presentation at the University of Bolton Stadium.

I expect he could do with another pay day. The Sports Shield money's all gone now and Sports Shield Investments Ltd was 'dissolved' last month.

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Personally, I think we were competing well until the penalty. Of course, VAR would have shown Ings was (very marginally) offside, so, no penalty anyway. 

Going one down had the effect of us chasing the game and that opened us up a bit too much. 

Overall, I felt it was a good performance against a team stuffed with internationals, some of whom are earning more than our whole squad. Anyone who thinks this was a reality check needs one of those themselves.