Don’t do it Barry, don’t leave us without you!

By: Martini Extra Dry | July 15th, 2008

Lincoln City 3-1 Aston Villa
Not a scoreline you expected to read is it? But unfortunately it’s true. After losing to FC Zurich a few days ago, Villa have now lost to Lincoln City. The Red Imps finished in the bottom half of the lowest division of English League football last season, but today have beaten us by a two goal margin.

Not a good sign.

It doesn’t appear to be an ideal situation for the Mighty Villans, who have European competitive football to play this weekend, to lose to an opposition so much below Premiership standard. The team that started the game was near full strength too.

There seems to have been a lack of backbone in the team in the last two games, which hopefully is just due to the team still getting back into the swing of things. Sidwell will need a little time to get used to his new team mates and there are still some gaps that NEED to be filled before the Premiership season kicks back off.

Of the team that started tonight, only 2 of them are defenders! Zat Knight, who has struggled to regain the form he showed when he first arrived at Villa and Wilfred Bouma, who has barely caught his breath from finishing last season at the Euros, less than a month ago. Even makeshift defender Gardner didn’t feature in the game, due to a groin strain, so we were understandably caught out at the back.

However, American youngster Eric Lichaj, who joined a year ago, saw 45 minutes of action, his first for the first team. Lichaj is a 19 year old defender who has represented his country at youth level and will be doing his best to knock on the senior teams door this upcoming season.

It’s not time to start worrying just yet though, these games are, after all, simply just to help get the team back to match fitness. So it’s to be hoped that these disappointing results aren’t a cause for concern, but just a sign of the smallness of our squad and that time is needed for everyone to get used to each other.

Is Barry’s influence on the team from the middle of the park the missing element? Can Sidwell fill his shoes given a bit more time to gel?