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Post by lambethgull on Jan 20, 2013 18:29:04 GMT
Really enjoyed the first leg, and thought Bradford were excellent. The second leg will be played this Tuesday, weather conditions permitting.
Even with a 2 goal advantage and Villa still shipping goals, the bookies make the Premiership side clear favourites. If they take an early lead then that's probably justified.
However, Villa looked vulnerable from crosses in the first leg, and a goal for Bradford could set things up nicely.
Would be fantastic to see a representative from League 2 in the final, imo.
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JamesB
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Post by JamesB on Jan 20, 2013 22:25:44 GMT
Villa are awful. An inexperienced side with little leadership and only one star player. Think Bradford might hold on
Villa make me quite sad. There's genuine potential there - a large stadium, ideal location, great history of league titles and a European Cup win, and they had a good core of players there. McLeish killed their confidence and Lerner has refused to invest. Now they look doomed for the Championship - everything O'Neill built (and I'm not an enormous O'Neill fan) has been dismantled. At one point they genuinely looked like becoming regular contenders for European spots. Now that Lerner's pulled his money around, they've become a farce
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rjdgull
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Post by rjdgull on Jan 22, 2013 22:59:32 GMT
Well well, well! Congratulations to Bradford on getting to the final, 4-3 on aggregate!
Will need to win it to get into Europe though!
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Jan 22, 2013 23:07:04 GMT
Well well, well! Congratulations to Bradford on getting to the final, 4-3 on aggregate! The tenth best team in League 2 makes the League Cup Final. Where does that leave the "It's obviously a weak league this season" theory?
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JamesB
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Post by JamesB on Jan 23, 2013 13:33:13 GMT
It's as much a circumstantial thing as anything, as is always the case with cup runs. They've only won 2 of their games in normal time. Of the three Premier League sides they've beaten, 2 were beaten on penalties, 2 are in the bottom 3 and the other is known for screwing up when they should be winning easily. And all 3 play passing football which I think has played into their hands
Not to take anything away from them but it doesn't say anything about the league. Moreover, it makes us look rather pathetic for failing to beat Harrogate given that a team that only just beat us has also got to a major cup final
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petef
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Post by petef on Jan 23, 2013 16:11:43 GMT
Well well, well! Congratulations to Bradford on getting to the final, 4-3 on aggregate! The tenth best team in League 2 makes the League Cup Final. Where does that leave the "It's obviously a weak league this season" theory? Playing as poorly and as inconsistently as we have all season whilst still managing to flirt with the play offs does give the impression that the division is weaker than last. The two extremes as James says, our pitiful performance and loss against Harrogate and Bradfords amazing run in the League cup. No doubt we will be finding out how good or bad it is and how tough it will be to survive the rest of the season intact. I suppose if any club were going to do something in the cup it would be a city club from up north who have at least been to the top and back again. Well done to them though a huge achievement.
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jerry
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Post by jerry on Jan 23, 2013 16:50:36 GMT
the other is known for screwing up when they should be winning easily. That would be Arsene Wenger's Arsenal who, despite fielding the most heavily weakened sides of any of the big sides in the cups, have only lost against lower league sides twice in 17 years! Burnley (in the year they were promoted to the Prem) and now Bradford.
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JamesB
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Post by JamesB on Jan 23, 2013 23:52:30 GMT
Perhaps we should take some tips from Swansea and have our ball boys lie on top of the ball for 90 minutes. Apparently it's OK because if the player tries to kick the ball from under the ball boy it's his fault and he gets punished. May be our best chance of beating Exeter
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