By Leigh Sanders
It all looked so promising. Following the massive blow of Martin O’Neill’s resignation as manager of Astion Villa merely days before the new Premier League Season, Villa seemed to be coping well.
With the James Milner transfer saga continuing to drag on Villa kicked off the new season at home to West Ham United with most of last term’s successful European qualifiers still on the books.
A comfortable 3-0 victory ensues, with Milner bagging the third with a sweet left-footed sweep across goal from the edge of the box. Promising displays from youngsters such as Marc Albrighton pointed to a rosy future for caretaker manager Kevin MacDonald.
Then a much changed and very youthful Villa side pinched a creditable 1-1 draw away at Rapid Vienna in the Europa League Playoff Round. This is the side that defeated a much stronger (on paper) Villa side at the same stage last season under O’Neill’s stewardship.
But then Milner’s deal suddenly pushed through after Man City’s Stephen Ireland agreed a payoff from the mega-rich club to move to Villa alongside a cool £16m in exchange for the England international’s services.
I’m not sure what has happened inside the club in the two days since that deal was confirmed but Sunday’s 6-0 drubbing away at Premier League new boys Newcastle United looked very ominous.
Newcastle rarely had to work for any of their goals. Other than Joey Barton’s opening wonderstrike Newcastle were gifted five goals from horrendous defending you wouldn’t expect to see from an under 15’s park team.
Toon striker Andy Carroll scored the easiest hattrick you are likely to see this season. The first came after a Newcastle corner was sliced as Richard Dunne attempted to clear and Carroll slammed home the ball left-footed from roughly 8 yards.
The second came when another Newcastle set piece was bundled forward by defender Mike Williamson and Carroll watched the deflected ball drop over his shoulder before volleying home.
The third came in the last minute when Barton’s lung-bursting run resulted in Carroll being played in behind a static defence and sweeping the ball home past Villa ‘keeper Brad Friedel.
Friedel himself was at fault for the second as he saved the first Kevin Nolan header from a Carroll knockdown but palmed the ball straight back at him and Nolan took the second bite at the cherry very thankfully.
Nolan’s other goal came when substitute Shola Ameobi knocked down yet another Newcastle corner and Nolan swivelled quicker than FOUR Villa defenders to poke home on the half-volley.
All in all, nightmare stuff. The kind of bad dreams every manager suffers the night before a Cup Final.
After what was a hugely promising week, MacDonald will now be very worried about the prospects of landing the Villa job full-time for himself.
If there’s one thing Villa always were under O’Neill it was organised. They defended well, pressed teams in to losing possession and then used the pace of Ashley Young, Milner and Gabby Agbonlahor to break quickly on the counter and punish teams either through them or by feeding battering ram John Carew. Carew’s shocking penalty miss, blazing the ball sky-high over Steve Harper’s crossbar, summed up Villa’s afternoon to a tee. With the score at 0-0, the day could have been oh so different.
MacDonald has a lot of soul searching to do. That away dressing room must have felt like a funeral after the final whistle. On Thursday comes the second leg of their tie with Rapid Vienna and MacDonald must now be considering wheeling out the kids again.
Then on Saturday they face another home league game against Everton who haven’t exactly started like a house on fire. They then face Stoke away, Bolton at home and then face two tricky trips to fierce rivals Wolves and Champions League-bound Tottenham Hotspur before facing goal-crazy Chelsea at Villa Park.
Villa realistically have to aim for three wins before that Wolves fixture as the next few are going to feel like a hangover on AGM day.
Teams don’t become poor overnight. Last year Villa pulled out some highly impressive results and in Ireland have a ready-made replacement for the departed Milner. Perhaps with one or two additions to the squad, namely a more prolific striker, they could get themselves back on track quickly and again challenge the higher echelons of the league.
Villa are a good club and deserve to be challenging for honours. If they can solve their managerial situation soon and bring stability back in at the top level then things may settle down.
One thing’s for sure, another display like that against Everton and it could be panic stations all round.
