Aston Villa FOLD at Old Trafford... what's new?

Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Colt Blue Podcast post-match reaction

for us customery standard defeat at Manchester United, the way old

Trafford, every single bloody season. I'm here today with Neil Dunworth from the

For the Love of Pormograph Podcast, who has given me 15 minutes of his time,

which doesn't sound like a lot, but you've just done your own, and nobody,

absolutely nobody wants to talk about this game twice. So this is going to be

very raw, very emotional, very reactionary, probably not very analytical, and that's

something we can do in the coming days. I'm telling you, and I'll be doing a Q&A

Monday. This is, let's get everything off our chest straight away, and I feel

like a kind of bundle of energy of lots of things to say, would also, in equal

measure, nothing to say. Do you know what I mean? Like, kind of done.

I just did my own there, and I was, I just can't, I can't get over the lack of

maturity at times. In a team that, like some parts of the season, we've looked

bulletproof mentally wise, we've looked mature, we've looked like we're

grown into a team. I think I read somewhere that, I think the commentator say,

this is the second oldest team that's involved put out in the Premier League, or

something like, I could've been wrong in that, thought I just heard something like

that, don't quote me on it. A team needs to be a small bit better mentally,

specifically, like, Jamaican goes off, and then everything. All the, the, the,

defensive effort, the midfield effort, the, the tracking back, the transitional effort

from the tree behind the striker, just wrapped off a cliff. And I know for anybody who's

watched mine, that's very repetitive, makes that sort of, I spent 10 minutes kind of

bleeding on about that there a moment ago, but just find that sort of, sort of frustrating

that, like, you, like, you trained to be a professional sportsman, and all of them want

to give this effort, or want to absolutely, you know, want to succeed, but why in that moment,

when a midfielder loses the ball, or attacking midfielder loses the ball, they don't

immediately sprint back to trying to win it back. In an instance where we're gone,

one all, and talk about this is after we go to one all, and that's when kind of, like, it was

case of like, oh, we've, we've used all our energy to get the one on, that shouldn't have been

the case, because that was on about 63 minutes or something like that, when we scored the second,

when we were equalized, that to me was worrying. Before the game, I said all of it, and I said

anyone who listened to the fans over Kendrick was, we all feel like we lose here every single season,

nobody expects anything really, but for some weird reason, maybe we might nick a draw somehow,

like, isn't that a bit of positive result, right? We go one, they'll down, we don't play brilliantly,

we have a couple of half moments here and there where we look like we might do something,

and then get to one all, they say, oh, okay, here we go, right? Maybe we can try and hold onto

something if we get away with the one all, I'd absolutely say it that, that's a good result.

I actually think I was offside by the way, I think we've really got away with that one, which

ultimately doesn't matter at all now, but we've had so many, we've been on the wrong side of so

many decisions against Manning Knight, I'm amazed that one went our way for change, but it's one that

was in a three-one defeat anyway, that no one I'll ever remember, so that's completely relevant,

but I thought we got away with that one, but you get back into it, let's hold onto something,

and then just completely fold, which we've seen a million times before against Manning Knight,

and that's not a surprise to anybody. Now, I am angry, frustrated, irritated, pissed off,

annoyed, whatever you want to say, I'm sure everyone will be feeling the same things, but the specific

90 minutes, I also want a little bit of colour, silver lining, context, whatever, that no one

want to hear, but it's how I feel, that's my opinion, for the ability to finish in the top five,

whether people think we're going to do it or not, whatever, if we're going to do it, I had us

doing it by losing an old traffic anyway, because we always do. If I'm mapping out real a season,

I put zero next to this result anyway, and we've got zero today, so we can still go and do something

this season and finish top five, with this game included, so I wouldn't have taken any points from

it anyway. That's the context, right? The season's not over because you are lost today, so I expect

it just to lose anyway, and I'd put that down at the start of the season. Sellhurst Park, Old Trafford,

Amfield, Bieti Had, St James's, you might as well just put zero points from six games. If they're

going to do anything, they probably need to do it in the other 32, and I say that at the start of

every season, over the last couple of seasons, so I'm not going to sit here and say top five over

because we lost at Man United, because we always do, and I factor that into my season predictions,

if you like. However, that's not good enough in that one performance. That's not good enough,

and that performance will not get us the points we need in the other eight games, right? So everyone

or so, yeah, we won't finish top five. Yeah, playing like that, we won't. There has to be

signs of improvement. Now, I'm going to stick with it, diluted or otherwise, that I think somehow

will scrape our way into fifth. I think, and I thought before, it's between us and Chelsea anyway.

Chelsea also lost. We've lost. Both of us look like we don't really want it to be honest. Someone's

just going to finish fifth by default, see what it feels like, and they're running pretty harsh,

to be honest, Chelsea's, and as looks more favorable, that doesn't mean anything at all,

and Marzy and the comments are stopped waffling. So I will. You'll hear for 10 more minutes now.

Shoot. Yeah, look, I agree that, look, suppose, when you take a totally thousand foot,

look at this, we never get anything from a Trafford or Macadon as a zero. The thing for me is that

they were there for the take, and especially when you're near a lot of half time,

near a lot of half time, you want to play this active, or why is this resting defense stuff that

we play, you know, we're we're conserving energy. Then they come out in this score, look, as I say,

that ball that Morgan Rogers loses for the, for the, they go down the other end, get a car on

Kazimiro, then Ross backly loses Kazimiro in traffic, and he gets his header to, head to it,

Emmy Martinez gets a finger to it off the post, and that's just like a hammer blow, because we

lose it in an area where we're comfortable. We were comfortable in that area, and to a good

degree, Morgan Rogers is pretty comfortable on the ball where he was, and next thing he just laps

a concentration, he bounces off his body, it goes out, they win it, they break, and then goes down

the other end, score. That's the annoying thing, like cotton transition, and like, yes, it does go

for a corner before they actually get the goal, but cotton transition, big stud, second goal,

cotton transition, that's the annoying thing, and people will be annoyed today, because you know,

just like there were at the end of the last season, just like there were probably, there were for

three or four seasons over the last seven or eight, they were there for the take, and then we didn't

do it, it's the Indian burial ground of, of Aston Villa, you know, it's cursed, we, like, it's like

we just, we're, it's like we, we can only hit a 30% of our ability when we go to that ground,

whenever it's wrong, and then it's just frustrating. First training that we let it, we let it slip

again, you know, yeah, I was the big thing, it was the big thing, and then it was just, we were

robbershaft, we got back to one hour, yeah, completely great, and if anyone's hesitant to, to what

I just said about the context of how I feel about the season to come, including that result,

that's not me saying today was good by the way, or that we've been good enough, we haven't been

crap for 2026, we're, what, nine weeks into it, or whatever it is, you know, we've been poor,

besides Newcastle the way that we weren't fed about shows obviously, hopefully, but we played

well there and got to play well, we got a good result there as well, we've had our moments here

and there, and I think in parts we have got better a little bit, the bar is extremely low by the way,

like first to be better, we were wofful six games ago, whatever it was, you know, so we're,

there's little signs I think of, oh, we look a little bit better today, we have a bit more control,

or, you know, what do you know what I mean, it's like, bar is down here, us looking better, we're here now,

I'm not saying we're up here, I don't know, I don't have lots to say to be honest, which is terrible

for a bucket, I just, I'm very disappointed and frustrated, but I'm not, I'm not shocked or

surprised that we've lost our old traffic, because I thought we would, it's rubbish the way it's

happened, because we've got back into the game, we shouldn't fold the way we do, Leon Bailey's given

the ball away, yeah, that can happen, but track back, fight, scrap, like do some of it, show something

a little bit, you know, like, I don't know, go on now, this is your show, mate. I don't know,

I don't know, put the comment in there, but they said, imagine if we didn't go under winning streak,

where it would be that, that might be the most reductive comment, I think I've ever seen it,

that's like said, imagine if we didn't win any of the games, we won this season, where would it be,

with bottom league, that's where we would be, 100%, because it would mean that we wouldn't have won

any games this season, but I understand what you mean by it, you know, we went down that big streak

and now we're in a bad streak, like, then I'm kind of, I'm like, you know, I don't think fifth is

gone, you know, I don't think fifth is a last cause, you know why it's not a last cause, because

we're still three points ahead of Chelsea, Liverpool are going to go out and tank as far as today,

is it going to get more difficult it absolutely is, but we have to stay ahead of flaky Chelsea,

that's what we really have to do, and we're as flaky as them, so we need to out-unflake Chelsea

for the rest of the season, but it's, I am frustrated with that game, my normal veneer of

huge optimism and trying to find positive points and stuff like that was tested with that game

today, because as I say, there was something there for the taking, it's the like, yeah, look.

So I got this interrupt with the, the duality of comments and fan opinion that there's two on

screen for those that are watching, that country villain says, Champley hasn't gone, have faith,

and literally underneath it from a raw care you'd have football, fifth is absolutely gone in

capitals, so everyone will feel exactly how they want about it, some people think we're going to

finish sixth, seventh, eighth or worse, so we're going to, we're going to get knocked out by Leo

or whatever, the other people that think West Ham, Burnley, Tottenham, Sunderland and Forest are

opportunities for points, now you put those goals, they're opportunities, three of those may have

been at the moment, do I think we're going to win three out of those five? No, because we've

been on a terrible run for a long time, can we win three out of five? Absolutely, because Tileman's

might be back and other players will play better, it isn't gone yet until it's mathematical off,

so this for ages, I'll keep banging the drum, that whilst there's still something to play for,

I am there playing for it, if we are six points beyond Chelsea and there's two games left and we

have to win both and they have to lose both, very unlikely, but still possible, but I would then

be going, oh yeah, this is fine, there is still time, they're not very good, we're not very good,

somebody will finish fifth, it might just be us, it might not be, but I can't kind of throw it all

away because we lost today, because I thought we'd lose anyway, so we have to beat West Ham, it's always

on the next game, isn't it? You have to win the next one, we have to get out of this rhythm of

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And the thing at the moment is, if we're in a rotted moment, if we win, we have to win one

deal. We just don't look like we're going to score two goals. That's the problem at the moment.

What's the only thing I was not going to be easy with? That's not going to be easy.

Do what's the only thing we're going to draw today? I don't know. I've picked up a little bit

obviously. It's not going to be easy at all, but as I say, we have to go there.

We can all sit there as fans and say, this should be done and that should be done.

Realistically speaking, the 11 players that were out there in the field today were good enough to

go and win that game. You know, as players, but they just, like, they didn't.

This is what I've been saying for weeks as well. It's a huge worry, like, you know, that we have

those 11 players. And there's a lot being pinned on what we play, Alison, right wing,

our left wing and stuff like that. He's played probably less than 20 minutes. A football first

of a little suffer. I can't put my faith in somebody who's played 20 minutes there, a football

for a professional football league. You know, there's little things like that. We are having

strung with the players that we have. And then conversely, as I say, I can't keep on saying we're

seeing one or two of these players being the only options we bring them off the bench and

and they're the only options. Like, I can't keep continuing to see Leon Bailey come off the bench

because he's done. He's done very little since he's come back and he's not the silver bullet.

Tammy Abram came on today. He got no service. Ali Watkins got no service prior to that.

The issue is going to be service for us in the coming days and coming weeks.

And it has to come from somewhere. But at the moment, it's not. And we are kind of spluttering

and burning smoke at the moment. But sometimes something will have to come about and will have

to be changed. And you know what? It's very reminiscent of what we spoke about the start of the

season. What's going to change as this team given up? You know, these are all the things that people

were saying. It's started the season. And then something did change. We went on that run.

I'm hoping we can do that again. I need to see who's going to do it though. I need to see who's

going to be the person who's going to step up above the head above the parapet and go and

drive this team forward, specifically in the creative aspects and in the goalscoring aspects

because that's the issue that we have at the moment. Good to see you us badly getting the score sheet.

Another non-traditional score, let's say hello to the last two stats. First Premier League start

for 400 odd days or something. I think it was last January, 2025. It's the coming from King

81 to end who get to get a customer shout out. I must get a rise for me somehow, but all in good

good faith. Only need to win six games down from 15, 14, 30, 12, 11, 10, and now eight. Yeah,

absolutely. I completely agree. We thought or we hoped rather, but I need to win six or seven

and I've got 15 games to do it. That seems pretty doable. The games are running out.

But it's pretty, pretty simple. What I would say and King 81, you were like this.

I think the narrative has changed a little bit now. I'm not even sure we'll need to win six games.

We just need to do one better than Chelsea. If Chelsea win four, we need to win four.

Actually, we already need to win four to a three ahead and we've already lost to them. We've lost

to them. We've lost them and united. We still have to buy Liverpool. We've still got to play the

five that I've just mentioned. There are still points up for grabs. There's eight games left.

There's 24 points available. If they'll get 10 to 12, Chelsea can get 15 max out of that same period

for us to finish above them. Are they going to win five out of eight, Chelsea? I don't know.

Are we going to win four out of eight? I don't know. Probably not. I don't think the narrative is

to win six out of eight anymore. I think it's just to do, you've just got to match Chelsea now.

If they win five, we've got to win more than that. Yeah. We need establishes win and won

and see where that takes. That's realistically it. That's why I pin my hops and getting a draw

today. I thought we'd lose anyone. I'm annoyed. I hate money. I'm not happy we lost. I thought

we'd lose. I'm still annoyed about it, but I never expected us to get anything out of this

anyway. I'm not like, I had us down for getting 10 points from these games and three of them

were old-traffored. I had it at zero, so I can't be like, do you know what I mean? I'm not shocked

by it at all. I think the performance is poor and this is what I said in the preview.

I'm not bothered about performances if you get the result. If you get some kind of positive result,

but you play poorly, it's a results business. You're in the running now. Pick up the points as

and where you can. When you don't win and the performance is a poor, that's when it's okay to worry

and wonder what the hell is going on here. If we play poorly against West Ham, but win,

that's fine. It doesn't matter. The problem is we've had three defeats on the spin and haven't

played well for two and a half months or something. So this idea of how are we going to win six out of eight?

Yeah, we're not. We're not at the moment unless something just changes out of nowhere. If that's

teed them and it's coming back and all of a sudden we look like October to December,

sales again, that's fine, but that won't happen. Will it? I wouldn't have thought.

We just need to match Chelsea now. That's the goal for us to the season. If they keep losing,

we'll be okay. It's mad, isn't it? It's mad at a challenge. We're at ten points ahead of you,

you know, at one point. That's three behind them. Absolutely. Yeah. At 13 points, we've got money

not yet. It's crazy. I don't know. You said you give me 15 minutes. We've done 17. I know this is

a lot shorter than usual, but you've just done your own show and I'm sure people are feeling the

same way that we are. And as I say, if you're positive, if you're negative, however you feel about it,

it's on you to feel what you want. I'm not sitting here saying, I think we're going to win five,

so you should think the same. Do you think what you wanted? It's up to you, right? It's coming

there from Dimension Shift. I think we'll finish ninth. It's on the deriside ninth. It's on the horizon.

If you think we're going to finish ninth sound, I don't. I think we'll finish a little bit

better than that. How many mean we need to use our games? I don't think we'll finish fifth somehow.

I don't know why. I've got a set of ages ago. I feel like I've got to stick with it out of

stubbornness now. The same way that Emory Pixie's stubborn line up. I've just got to go with the same

thing that will just somehow or somehow be better than Chelsea in their fixtures. We'll just

scrape over the line. I actually said it a few weeks ago that there's a phrase in that Kendrick used

in the McCleese season going back to the good old days that we stayed up in installments.

Just did a little bit here. I feel like we might scrape into fifth in installments. We're just about

doing off. Chelsea might draw next week and we beat West Ham. We're actually five points ahead of

them now. It's fine. Nothing to worry about. The opposite happens, right? We lose to

West Ham and Chelsea win however they're playing. It swings around about. It changes very, very quickly,

but until it's mathematically impossible, I will sit here and believe. If that pisses you off,

you go, this guy is an idiot. He's deluded. How can he not see that we're finishing eighth?

That's fine. Until we finish eighth, I'll talk about that if it happens. At the moment,

I'm just holding on to blind faith and hope that something will change. Emory will

rediscover that actually Rogers off the left is what we need. Whatever it is, some little tweak,

or Telemann comes back and scores the winner against Forrest or whatever.

We'll see. Fifth should be still far from the Champions League by the way, for those asking in

the comments. It's not over three years. I think let's just say, and once again, if Villa Golden

Beat Leal, if Villa Golden Beat Leal, because a long way, it's actually solidifying. Fifth,

it's like second last year finished on what England have currently, and that's even before the

next leg's to come. I need two English teams to do anything. It draws, I think, and it's

mathematically impossible. To wrap up, then, I'll leave it over to you. How do you kind of summarize

the day in the next eight years? I don't think I'm going to summarize the next eight games,

because I think that's impossible. I don't want to do that because one win changes the direction

of where this season goes. My thoughts are sorely on today. Today, I was frustrated, as I said, because

today was a bit of a, it could have been a come to Jesus moment, the sliding doors moment,

whenever you want to call it, and it wasn't. It was one of those moments. The annoyance for me is

we get to one aisle, and then we let the trickle down our leg directly after that, and that's the

annoyance for me. But they have to dust themselves down. They've got Leal, they've got West Ham,

then they've got the break. I think, if you beat Leal, and you beat West Ham, you went to the

break brilliantly, but I said that, if you beat my United, you go into the, you beat Leal the best

right? Beat West Ham, you go into the break in a brilliant position. Now, we almost have to win

those other two games. I taught today, we played almost like a cup game, but today was one of those

games that we looked like when we went out, we played in Europe two years ago, and we were laggy,

you have to play in Europe. Today, I looked like that again, and I find it disappointing,

and I find it a bit galling, to be honest, but all you can do is dust yourself off, come back

the next day, use Leal at Villa Pack, get out, roll your lungs out, get Villa true into the quarter

of finals, and then you've got West Ham, then in the horizon, then the week, next weekend,

and then use utilize the international break, then to do a bit of soul searching, and

self-scalting, see where you're going wrong or where you can potentially put it right.

Yeah, absolutely. Right, we'll cut it there. Neal, thanks for giving me your time. After you've

done your own podcast, I do appreciate it, and I hope everyone listening does as well, whether

you agree or disagree with anything we've said, that is football, right? Please be polite and

respectful to each other as well, and only for in fan arguing, whether we're going to finish

fourth or ninth or winning this or winning that or losing that. We'll be back for a Q&A tomorrow,

so if you want to get involved with the mailbag, I'll pick John Townley's brains with whatever

who you want to ask him, and we'll kind of debrief in a bit more detail before turning our attention

to Leal on Thursday with our build up to that as well on Tuesday or Wednesday, and then it'll be

West Ham a week today, where Villa kind of have to win, I guess I suppose, but if Chelsea lose,

I'm not going to say it. Right, that'll do Neal. Thank you for joining me. Thanks everyone

for watching or listening, and we'll see you for the next one. Bye-bye.

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