Shrewsbury v Villa

Ahem! Shrewsbury 2-1 Villa.

Shrewsbury 2 in the last 15, us a pen almost on time.

We played some good stuff in the first half, against a well-organised Shrewsbury. Same team seemed to lose a bit of drive in the second half; mass changes on 60 minutes caused disorganisation.

Biggest worry was no real goal threat. In the first half Hogan ran a lot, McCormack less, but there was no real threat in the penalty area. Green and Hutton on the right did well, Bjarnason lively on the left, and there was a few good crosses going in, but nobody got on the end of them. We had no answers in the middle of the park in the final third. Work to be done.

On this showing I'd play Gabby ahead of Hogan or McCormack. Amavi and Hourihane were unimpressive.

We have some good, even very good players, but still have problems. And it's up front, not midfield.

Hourihane is a fantastic player, who didn't have 1 bad game for us. The fact he's struggling at Villa is down more to that fat overrated oaf that manages your team.

It may be more the fact that inevitably this was an experimental set up and Hourihane maybe wasn't that comfortable with it. We played some good one-touch football in the first half except in the final third where it came unstuck.

'Useful'