Nobody seems to give us much of a chance tonight and that suits me. Okay they had a great win against Man U on Saturday, but we almost beat Man U too. Villa have got some very good players such as Milner, Downing and Carew but I didn’t think they were any great shakes in the League Cup game a while back and if our finishing had been anywhere near decent, we’d have won that game fairly easily. Bardsley and Richardson are back in contention and I’ll be interested to see what our back four is, considering Nos’s antics on Saturday when many rated him man of the match. If we’d closed down the game against Portsmouth like Fulham did against us in the previous match, we’d have won but I’ve a feeling we’ll buck up a bit tonight against a better side like Villa. I don’t think we’ll lose.

I woke up from a snooze on the sofa just in time to get Radio Newcastle on and like everyone I felt a great shot in the arm by hearing Cattermole was on the bench. The team must’ve been feeling the same as we started brightly, forcing two corners in the first five minutes and then Henderson went close following a good move. Cana picked up another early booking to be followed soon afterwards by McCartney who conceded a free-kick near the edge of the box that Downing hit against the bar.

Villa were now in the ascendency and those yellow cards meant that we’d have to be a bit careful. Mid-way through the half we went one down when a poor pass from McCartney led to Milner crossing and while our defence was half-asleep, goal-machine Emile Heskey slammed it in. On the half-hour we had a good shout for a penalty denied when Turner was manhandled in the box. At least we were fighting back a bit and with ten minutes left I thought we’d equalized when Reid’s great shot was well saved by Friedel following good work by Richardson and Henderson. Referee Kevin Friend was certainly being no friend to us with a number of harsh decisions and was booed off at the break. We hadn’t played badly but more sloppy defending had cost us dearly. Still, there was time to get one back.

There were no changes as the second half kicked off. A couple of minutes in Reid, under pressure, sliced a great chance wide after good build-up involving McCartney and Bent. Villa hit the post again when Ashley Young got through as we were appealing for offside and I could feel those cold winds blowing through the huge gaps in our defence. On the hour Milner whipped in a great long-distance shot to make it 2-0 and I reckoned that was that. I could just about imagine us getting one back but two, forget it. Cattermole started warming up, not a moment too soon.

Dunne stopped a good attempt as Jones closed in and it was particularly galling to hear a defender with whom we’d often been linked over the summer-break repeatedly clearing our attacking efforts. It sounded like we were lacking confidence in all departments and Villa had a lot more commitment than we could muster. Speaking of which, Catts came on for Henderson with about twenty minutes left and got a great cheer. I doubted if Roy of the Rovers could turn things round for us but hope once again reared its ugly head. Cana was sent off for a second yellow, which was no surprise, and got a good ripple but as the rain continued to pour down it didn’t exactly warm our cockles. With ten minutes to go Turner was struggling with an injury and I would’ve settled for the whistle then as it seemed likely we’d concede further. Mensah finally replaced Turner and at least it was good to see him return from injury. At the same time Bardsley replaced Jones. Cattermole was getting repeated mentions and that said a lot about his involvement. I couldn’t hear any booing as it ended 2-0 but maybe that was because a lot of the crowd had left by then. I think we’ve got the same number of points as we had at the same time last season but once again we’re looking behind us now instead of gazing at the dizzy heights above like we were a few weeks back.

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