 Friday, 11th Jan 2013 13:05 Saints travel to Villa Park looking for their first win on the ground against Aston Villa since October 2002. It was just over 10 years ago that Saints last won in the league at Villa Park, of course since then we have won there in an FA Cup semi final but it was a live Sky TV game on a Monday night on 21st October 2002 that we last recorded a victory there against the home side, then we won 1-0 with a James Beattie penalty settling the game just after the break with Villa keeper Peter Enckelman being sent off when the spot kick was given. Since that day we have only played there in the league twice a 1-0 defeat in November 2003 being followed by a 2-0 reverse on the opening day of 2004/05, so its high time we took all three points off of the hosts. Whilst its never been a great place for us to visit its never usually been too bad either a draw or a narrow defeat being the usual outcome and this year gives us a good opportunity to redress the balance a little, for all their staus as a club games between Saints and Villa have not been one sided on a head to head, in the league Saints have won 19, 18 have been draws and Villa have won 24, most of these games have been played since Saints first played in the top flight in 1966, indeed before this the clubs had met only four times, home and away in seasons 36/37 and 37/38 when Villa spent two years in the second division, given that those two seasons saw two villa wins and two draws its been pretty even since then. But Saints have a few injury problems ahead of tomorrows game as well as the failure to land crucially needed transfer targets with virtually half the transfer window being used up by the start of next week and the real problem now is that our central area in defence, perhaps our weakest area is now weaker still with an injury to Jose Fonte. The obvious answer would be to replace him with Jos Hooiveld but Im afraid in my book this could prove to be folly, Hooiveld has not looked mobile enough for the Premier and if we discount his 1 minute sub appearance against Newcastle, his six starts and 1 other appearance as sub has seen 20 goals conceded, Villa have a big forward in Bentake, but his strength lies in his pace and chasing the ball in the channels, an area that Jos Hooiveld is not strong enough in to combat him. With Nathan Clyne returning at full back, by preference would be to use Jack Cork at centre half, its not ideal but Cork has played there before for Saints and showed in his stint at right back he is quick enough and mobile enough to deal with teams that will attack on the break with pace, Villa showed against Bradford that this is their preferred method of attack and we need to be able to counter it, Cork has been our most consistent performer in the midfield this season, but we have players there able to compensate for his loss in that department as was shown against Arsenal, than we do to replace Fonte. he other big question for Nigel Adkins is who to play in goal, Artur Boruc was less than convincing against Chelsea but clearly Adkins has no faith in Kelvin Davis at this level and with Gazzaniga now having been out six weeks even if he is fit is he ready to return in a game of this magnitude. Going on to the game itself its massive for both clubs, Villa sit a point above us at the moment and although many consider Villa to be in disaray this season they should note that they are still above us, however a win will not only ensure that we dont drop into the bottom three again but will lift us above Villa with a game in hand, although as that game in hand is next Wednesday against Chelsea I cant see that counting for much, therefore its essential that this is a game that firstly we dont lose and preferably win. For their part Villa have been at their most woeful on the road, at home their record is ver similar to Saints we have both lose four and drawn four, however having played a game more we have an extra win over their two, they have conceded 15 at home whereas we have conceded 14, but the main difference comes in goals scored, they have managed 8 so far whereas at St Mary's we have scored 15, however when making comparisons for this game perhaps the most telling stat is that as stated they have scored only 8 times at Villa Park in 10 games whereas on the road we have hit 12 in 9 and this could be a game where the defences are not the strongest but Saints have the edge in attacking prowess. We have to set out our stall from the start, Villa will start like a train but as the game goes on if they dont score then the crowd will start to get on their back and we can get a grip on the game, if we can dampen down their attacking threat we have more than enough going forward to cause them a few problems, as they showed at Bradford they are vunerable at set pieces and this is where we can excel, we not only have a plethora of players who can deliver at dead ball situations, but In Rickie Lambert a master of getting on the end of them. My team line up for this game would be Boruc Clyne, Yoshida, Cork, Shaw Puncheon, Schneiderlin, Davis, Ramirez, Guly Lambert Bench Davis, Hooiveld, Rodriguez, Fox, Richardson, Ward Prowse, Lee Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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