Sunderland 0 – Aston Villa 4: The Cult of Tim

In Tim We Trust

Is This the Real Life?

For awhile, blogging was difficult because I’d run out of new ways to talk about not scoring goals and not winning games.

After three wins on the trot, I’m finding it equally difficult to recall these long-forgotten words from my Villa Vocabulary: winning, scoring, cheering, excitement, happiness.

But though they sound strange on my tongue, and I’m no doubt pronouncing them wrong, it’s nevertheless time to use them again. It took a couple of games to kick in, but we are finally experiencing the joy of the fabled new-manager bounce. Villa has gained ground in the league, knocked the Baggies out of the FA Cup while advancing to a semifinal date against Liverpool or Blackburn (for the sake of argument let’s say Liverpool)—and possibly more importantly than any of that, Villa are fun to watch again.

Aston Villa 2 – West Bromwich Albion 1: Two Goals and Three Beautiful Points!

I think we’re all feeling how Brad’s feeling

Funny how much of our happiness depends on a little round ball and what highly paid professionals do with it. A 24-year-old Belgian, born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, passes the ball into the back of the net and tens of thousands rejoice. And I am one of them.

UTV!

Aston Villa – West Bromwich Albion: Predicting a “Convincing” Villa Win

Obviously, you’ve got a West Brom who, under Tony Pulis, refuse to concede goals. Aston Villa, who refuse to score them. So, the only possible outcome is a convincing Aston Villa win. Because it’s a funny old game, innit?

—Simon Burnton on Football Weekly, March 2, 2015

Newcastle 1 – Aston Villa 0: The New Definition of Insanity?

They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. So I guess it follows that, by watching Aston Villa and expecting them to pick up a point in the Premier League, I am insane.

And yet Sherwood is doing a few things differently—with the same result. Which also seems insane. So maybe the word to define that is futility?

I really thought we could win. We deserved at least a point—as we did last week, too. The team really is playing better under Sherwood but we still have nothing to show for it. Benteke was looking dangerous and the team created some very good chances and still the ball didn’t end up in the back of the net, at least without a linesman’s flag going up.

Whether we play poorly, not too badly, or even acceptably well, we still lose, and now things are looking very dire indeed.

As I’ve noted before, I’m running out of words. And now I’m running out of fingernails. But I will be watching until the end. Which I hope will be bittersweet, not merely bitter.

UTV