Villa Preview

After playing, and losing to the top three teams in the Premiership we now face the team in 5th spot - Aston Villa. And at the moment Frankie V´s prediction of an opening 8 game losing run don´t seem so far of the mark.

As the Addicks approach nearly a year without an away win - Portsmouth October 22nd last year - its another difficult game against improved Aston Villa. A long pre-season which saw many marked them down as relegation certainies, it all changed when Martin O´Neill arrived. They are unbeaten in 5 games and have won their last 4 games at Villa Park. Just the right time to catch them then.

History

Our record at Villa Park is not good to say the least with only 4 wins and 7 draws in the 26 games and its no consolation to say that I saw one of the victories. And overall we can´t claim to be one of their boogy teams with only 14 wins in the 52 games played.

Talk The Talk

Head Coach Monica explains That: "We need to go up to Villa and make sure that when we have the ball we are very positive and when we're out of possession we will be nice and dogged." Seem to remember similar words expressed before the Chelski game so at least the boss is consistent.

The Addicks

The Herminator returns and starts to ease our selection worries and he, Scott Carson and probably Jimmy-Floyd will be the changes from Tuesdays game against Carlisle.

As for the subs bench, one look at the injury list and obviously it´ll be full of youngsters. Out through injury are Sorondo, Gibbs, Diawara, Reid, Pouso, Thomas and with the midfield duo of Holland and Hughes also sadly (!) doubtful. And Young and Ambrose are both carrying injuries. Did I miss anyone?

Predictions

Good old Lawro thankfully sees it as a 2-1 home ( he apparently got 2 right last week).

Mine: God knows how and why but 1-1