11 min: First glimmer of a chance for Villa? Targett’s cross and Watkins is just - just put off his stride by Schar.
10 min: Andy Carroll, with his collection of ponytails, clatters Douglas Luiz. He escapes a yellow card, and Luiz escapes serious injury.
9 min: Newcastle are pushing up on Villa. They’ve not been the negative team of Toon Army lore so far.
7 min: Martinez rushes out to claim a cross aimed for Carroll and tries to start a counter. Villa eventually settle into a passing move, which concludes with Cash’s cross being headed out.
6 min: Villa corner, taken short, Traore’s chip comes back out to Targett but Darlow is equal to the shot. Schar’s pass to Shelvey catches Villa unawares until Martinez storms out and smashes the ball into the stands.
4 min: Jack Grealish tries to win a foul. He fails, and Almiron scampers away. As so often, his shot is not the best. He’s a good player with the sting of a butterfly.
3 min: Callum Wilson on the flank takes a pass from Shelvey, looks up but misses the run of Almiron. Wilson looks to be drifting left with Andy Carroll centre crash.
1 min: We are away, after the players take the knee. Newcastle look to be sat in a 4-4-2, as Brucey always likes it, though he did play three at the back when he was Hull City manager.
Newcastle striker Callum Wilson (C) and players ‘take a knee’. Photograph: Gareth Copley/AFP/Getty Images
The players take to the field at Villa Park, that long walk from the corner to the centre circle. It’s only Marvelous Nakamba’s second Premier League appearance of the season as John McGinn had been an ever-present until now.
Steve Bruce speaks, and tersely.
A couple with injury, we have been hit in one area which is central defence. The one thing we have done is change a lot due to illness. They have recovered after suffering through Covid. That’s the captain [Jamaal Lascelles] fit and Saint-Maximin fit who has been struggling for six or seven weeks. We’ve found it’s the aftereffects, a lot of them have been struggling with the fatigue.
With Dean Smith on the naughty step, John Terry is on media duties tonight for Aston Villa.
Pretty similar, me Shakey (Craig Shakespeare) and the gaffer usually sit up high near the directors’ box, and then get the message down to Richard [O’Kelly] and Cuts [Neil Cutler] on the bench. It feels like a while, it’s nice coming home. It’s good to be home, players feel comfortable but we’re up against a tough side. I was just speaking to Steve who’s a great manager. We have got to be careful. They are good on the transitions and counterattacks. But we are at home and fancy ourselves.
This game was supposed to have been played in December but was the first Premier League match postponed due to Covid-19, and an outbreak within Steve Bruce’s squad.
What did those teams mean? Marvelous Nakamba is recalled into Villa’s midfield as John McGinn is suspended after receiving his fifth yellow of the season. Steve Bruce makes four changes to his Newcastle team. Javier Manquillo, Fabian Schar, Isaac Hayden and Jeff Hendrick are recalled come in, while Saint-Maximin is on the bench as expected. Ryan Fraser accompanies him, returning after his silly sending-off at Sheffield United.
Dean Smith will not be in the dugout tonight, as he is serving a one-match ban for his ref rage during the Manchester City defeat. He also got fined £8,000 for disputing an offside decision. He looked to be in the right, but it turned out that none of us knew the rules. Which these days is part of life.
Could Steve Bruce be getting a tad obsessed with his predecessor? He wouldn’t be the only Geordie to do so.
If so, he may not have enjoyed this news. Should Newcastle escape Mike Ashley’s clutches and with Kevin Keegan now of pensionable age, the appointment that would appease the fans would be Rafa.
Aston Villa: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Mings, Targett, Douglas Luiz, Nakamba, Traore, Barkley, Grealish, Watkins.
Subs: Heaton, Taylor, Trezeguet, El Ghazi, Engels, Guilbert, Elmohamady, Davis, Ramsey.
Newcastle: Darlow, Manquillo, Schar, Lascelles, Lewis, Almiron, Shelvey, Hayden, Hendrick, Wilson, Carroll.
Subs: Dubravka, Matthew Longstaff, Joelinton, Saint-Maximin, Ritchie, Gayle,
Krafth, Fraser, Murphy.
Referee: Simon Hooper (Wiltshire)
Both are managers in charge of the club they supported as boys, but there is real difference in the perceptions with which fans receive Dean Smith and Steve Bruce. Deano is beloved by Villa fans, appreciative of his pulling the club back into the Premier League, something Bruce failed to achieve during his time in charge of the club. They have also been graced with Smith’s embracing of attacking football, and his freeing up Jack Grealish to become one of the main attractions in the Premier League. Bruce, meanwhile, just doesn’t appear to have been able to win hearts and minds, and that’s despite his team not being much more defensive than that of Rafa Benítez, coincidentally back available after his Chinese adventure came to an end this weekend. Brucey adopted the vernacular of the Gallowgate when describing his team’s loss as “frigging hopeless the other night; we were absolutely s***e”. It doesn’t seem to have won over too many, despite there being some mitigation for Newcastle’s recent slide. Allan Saint-Maximin, the player who supplied a bit of magic, is finally back in the ranks, having had a hard time recovering from Covid-19. And Jamaal Lascelles, the captain, has similarly struggled. But no wins since 12 December would put anyone under pressure, and particularly when the team play as timidly as they. An opponent who ran Manchester City very close in midweek looks a tough proposition.
Kick-off 8pm, join me.
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