Date: Saturday 2nd December 2000 3pm. Venue: Villa Park.  Conditions: Not too parky. Officially "bracing." Crowd:  34,255. Highest at the rapidly expanding Villa Park.  Referee: David Elleray (Harrow-on-the-Hill).

AVFC (normal home kit): James, Wright, Southgate, Boateng, Dublin, Merson, Ginola (Samuel 79mins), Barry, Alpay, Hendrie, Stone. Subs:
Subs Not Used: De Bilde, Walker, McGrath, Enckelman.
Booked: Wright (41 mins). Late tackle on Solano.
Hendrie (51 mins). Wild lunge on Solano.
Sent off: None.

NUFC (normal home kit): Given, Barton, Goma (Domi 36 mins), Acuna, Lee (Lua Lua 75 mins), Dyer, Speed, Griffin, Solano, Cordone, Hughes (S. Caldwell 20 mins).
Subs Not Used: Bassedas, Harper.
Booked: Speed (33mins). Foul on Hendrie. Third game in a row for Speed who has now got four bookings. Doesn't look like the one picked up in the US friendlies was reported to the, FA otherwise he'd now be suspended.
Domi (89mins).
Sent off: None.

Goals:

The Prince of Darkness legged it back to his crypt before nightfall. However, his captain Gareth Southgate said:

And Assistant boss Steve Harrison added:

Villa fans make their feelings known, holding up £ sign banners.

Waffle: 

Well, it was an improvement on Wednesday, but only in the way that chemical castration is marginally better than a rusty hook round one's tackle....

Weekend press speculation had it that the Prince of Darkness John Gregory was being lined up to take over from uncle Bobby. Well, on this evidence he'll be looking for a job soon, as he is seemingly incapable of either making a tactical decision or communicating it to his players. After going a goal up in the opening moments and possessing a multiplicity of talents onfield capable of dropping it on the prominent head of Dion Dublin, Villa became increasingly prosaic as the game progressed and failed to capitalise on the departures through injury of Hughes and Goma.

This game also marked a belated first start in a Villa shirt for David Ginola, who seemed to have been on the Thomas Brolin "eat yourself fitter" diet, a fact only partly hidden by his baggy shorts and billowing top. Griffin by and large handled him well, forcing him deeper and eventually seeing the Frenchman substituted.

In simple terms, we should have been dead and buried by the time Nobby salvaged a point, but having weathered what little Villa threw at us, we seemed to belatedly realise that a point was there for the taking. Cordone made a hash of the one chance he had with a header than passed wide of the post, while on another day we could have been awarded a penalty when Stone seemed to indulge in a spot of basketball.    

A cynical person would say that Barton's one-man fist waving appreciation of the away fans at the end was part of a bid to quell the terrace unrest that sprang up as a result of his aberrations at Birmingham. No matter what one's own opinion of the player however, he was outstanding as a makeshift central defender and deserved the Man of the Match marks that many journalists gave him. 

He also partly compensated for the grudging applause that his colleagues managed. They could hardly have been less appreciative, given that they had to walk off the pitch and down the tunnel, situated only a couple of yards from where the away fans were housed.

A good point then, and one which kept up our fantastic record on this ground, but the jeers of the home fans at the end showed that their opinion of Villa was little different from my opinion of the toon. A makeshift side played well enough and stole a goal from a rare chance, but doubts persist about the quality of the stand-ins (if there happen to be any) in all areas of the pitch.

Barring some more seasonal cheer at Highbury, I cannot help but approach the trip to Arsenal with a mild feeling of dread at the possibility of whichever of their striking combos is picked running riot. A home win against Bradford or something from Derby is absolutely vital, given the stiff home opponents and tricky away matches (i.e. in London) that lie in store.

At present, we're still well away from a Boro-type capitulation, but equally nowhere in the vicinity of the Holy Grail of European qualification. There's always the FA Cup though.....      

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