That’s all from me. Here’s the match report again. Bye!
Steve Bruce has his post-match chat:
In the first half in particular we didn’t do enough, certainly with or without the ball, and of course two free kicks. Whether they are free kicks, looked a bit soft to me. Look, Conor’s very good, I’ve seen it many times, and he’s got the accuracy and puts enough power on to score. The second one, I think our defenders should have defended that better. Too many stood and watched it. Overall it was a difficult evening for us. Second half we opened ourselves up of course, and when you do that you always run the gauntlet, but we had a few opportunities ourselves as well.
I felt we should have held on to the ball, created a bit more, and had a bit more possession than what we did. We surrendered it too quickly in the first half. That’s what we said at half-time. If we’d got a goal it might have been interesting. With the standards that we’ve set in the past few weeks, we weren’t there in the first period. We’ve been done by two set pieces.
On Sky, Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher are almost coming to blows as they discuss Aston Villa’s second goal. Should Hourihane’s delivery have been cut out before it reached the six-yard box? Neville says yes, Carragher says the ball was too good. There’s a lot of head-shaking going on.
Here’s Paul Doyle’s match report from Villa Park:
This was a fruitless return here for Steve Bruce, whose Newcastle side arrived here in promising form but left soundly beaten. Conor Hourihane opened the scoring in the first half for Aston Villa before creating a goal for Anwar El Ghazi four minutes later as the hosts claimed a deserved and important victory after three successive defeats.
Much more here:
Dean Smith has a chat, first about Jack Grealish, who has just told us that he’d prefer to play as a No8, rather than the wideish 10 he played tonight:
He’s been productive when he’s played higher up the pitch. He draws fouls for us, people don’t want to tackle him. There’s times I will play him as an 8, because he makes lung-busting runs from there, him and John McGinn complement each other really well. Jack’s got a really good relationship with Conor Hourihane so when Jack does have a bit of a drift Conor sticks in that hole behind where Jack’s left.
It’s a really tough league. We’ve just played Man City and Liverpool at home, and we were competitive in both games. From fifth down there’s only Burnley that’s won five games. It’s so tight from five own. You’ve got to put little runs of results together, be tough to beat, and probably the most pleasing thing about tonight was the clean sheet. Because we haven’t had too many of them this season, and they’re the ones that will get you results.
Villa’s next five games include trips to Manchester United, Chelsea and Sheffield United, and home games against Leicester and (some version of) Liverpool (in the Carabao Cup). So, in short, good to get a few points in the bank.
Aston Villa have only kept three clean sheets this season, and they’ve all been live on Sky. That is statistically unlikely.
A more than decent game for the neutral, even if both of the goals came from set pieces and there weren’t a lot of clear opportunities from open play. Aston Villa have an excellent midfield and it’s a pleasure to see the ball go through them; Newcastle have Saint-Maximin, who’s fun in his way and could at any moment start to actually contribute to actual goals, and a defence shoddy enough to make something interesting likely at some point.
Final score: Aston Villa 2-0 Newcastle
90+4 mins: It wasn’t! There’s nearly another minute added on, which gives Villa time for one more attack, and McGinn one more shot. It’s tipped wide, and that is that!
90+3 mins: Villa counter, and McGinn sidefoots wide. There are three seconds of stoppage time to play,, so that’s probably that.
90+1 mins: Henri Lansbury replaces Hourihane. We’re in the first of three minutes of stoppage time.
90 mins: It looked to me like Willems had a bit of a stamp on Grealish there. On first viewing it looked deliberate, but nobody else thought so, so I’m probably wrong.
88 mins: The game is rather petering out now, with Newcastle apparently having come to the conclusion that they are definitely going to lose.
86 mins: Hourihane hammers a volley into near-earth orbit.
83 mins: An overhit Newcastle pass gives Villa a bonus free corner. “You’re really bad” sing the home fans, or words to that effect.
80 mins: Wesley is booked for a foul on Willems. Shelvey lifts the ball to Carroll, who flicks it on, but nobody in a black and white shirt is near enough to benefit, and Villa clear.
80 mins: Saint-Maximin absolutely leathers a cross from the right, which Atsu throws himself at gamely, but can’t control.
79 mins: A final Newcastle change sees Christian Atsu replace the largely invisible Almiron.
77 mins: What a miss! Grealish passes to Hourihane, scampering down the left, whose low, first-time cross presents Wesley with an easy finish from just inside the six-yard box. He sidefoots straight at Dubravka, with the goal yawning!
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76 mins: Grealish tries three times to feed McGinn to his right. Twice a defender gets in the way but eventually he succeeds, and McGinn has a shot that Dubravka saves and holds.
74 mins: Carroll is doing his job: winning the high balls, flicking them on. He wins a high ball and flicks it on, but two team-mates are offside. And here’s Grealish on his shin pads:
@Simon_Burnton Grealish uses U6 shin guards. https://t.co/UUrab5OBZF
— Capital Villans (@CapitalVillans) November 25, 2019
72 mins: Newcastle toss the ball up to Carroll, who nods down to Joelinton, who blasts a shot way high. That’ll be his last contribution to the evening, as Dwight Gayle replaces him.
69 mins: Shots at both ends! Grealish takes one, which rolls low straight at Dubravka, and Carroll has the other, blasted chest-high straight at Heaton.
68 mins: Play restarts, Joelinton now with cotton wool up both nostrils and in his mouth.
66 mins: Joelinton and Hourihane compete for a header. Hourihane wins the ball, Jouelinton gets an arm in the face, and the physios are on.
63 mins: Some of Villa’s build-up play has been really very good. Grealish, teed up by El Ghazi, curls another shot high. Newcastle fling on a big man up front, bringing on Andy Carroll for Dummett.
60 mins: Nearly an own-goal! Saint-Maximin crosses from the left and Konsa wildly mishits his volleyed clearance, sending the ball spinning just wide of the near post!
59 mins: Space suddenly opens up in front of Hayden, and he has a free shot from the edge of the area that flies straight at Heaton.
58 mins: Grealish curls a left-footer wide from just inside the penalty area. These have been 13-and-a-bit very fun minutes, since the break. Chaotic, but fun.
56 mins: Newcastle’s post-interval whirlwhind appears to have blown itself out. They haven’t been out of their half for five minutes, and Villa have another corner. And then another.
53 mins: What a chance! From Grealish’s corner, Konsa pummels a header goalwards but Dubravka beeats it away!
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52 mins: Now Villa have a corner, after some fine keep-ball around the Newcastle area involving Grealish, Targett and McGinn.
50 mins: Now Joelinton tackles Douglas Luiz, who just doesn’t see him coming. Where was this Newcastle in the opening half?
49 mins: Shelvey sprints 20 yards to dispossess Mings with a sliding tackle, leading to a half-chance for Joelinton on the edge of the area, but his shot deflects wide.
47 mins: A fine start to the second period for Newcastle, and after about 70 seconds Saint-Maximin curls in an excellent shot from 25 yards, which Heaton fingertips round the post!
46 mins: Peeeeep! The second half has begun!
Jack Grealish in full. What proportion of his shins are those shin pads protecting? Hardly any, that’s what. They’re barely more use than a Newcastle defensive wall.
Half time: Aston Villa 2-0 Newcastle
45+3 mins: Peep peep peeeeeep! Aston Villa deservedly lead at half-time. There haven’t been very many actual goalscoring chances other than the actual goals, but it’s been a half of two halves. In the first, Newcastle lacked ambition. In the second, they lacked quality.
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45+1 mins: There will be about two minutes of stoppage time.
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45 mins: Saint-Maximin loses the ball and Villa break. El Ghazi runs through again, but McGinn overhits his pass. There were aching chasms in Newcastle’s defence there.
44 mins: Then Villa break, but El Ghazi is offside when he’s played through.
43 mins: Top save from Heaton! The corner is curled onto the head of Fernandez, who heads down but too close to the keeper, who flings his arms to his left to turn it away!
42 mins: They have started to come out of their shell, though. Just then then had three people inside Aston Villa’s penalty area. The ball didn’t join them, but they do get a corner.
38 mins: Newcastle have got this all wrong so far. The 10 men behind the ball approach was worrying, the hack Grealish whenever he’s in the vicinity of the area tactic was just a few extra hundreds and thousands of idiocy atop an already silly cake.
GOAL! Aston Villa 2-0 Newcastle (El Ghazi, 36 mins)
One free-kick goal for Hourihane, and one free-kick assist! Dummett just stops running as it curls into the six-yard box. Behind him, El Ghazi doesn’t.
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35 mins: Grealish gets near the Newcastle penalty area again, and he’s brought down again. Fernandez is booked.
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GOAL! Aston Villa 1-0 Newcastle (Hourihane, 32 mins)
And in it flies! Hourihane taps the free kick to Grealish, who tees him up. Those extra couple of feet allow Hourihane to curl the ball around the static wall and just inside the post!
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30 mins: McGinn lifts the ball over the Newcastle defence towards Grealish. It would have been difficult for him to control it, but Yedlin shoves him from behind and now he’s got a tasty free-kick-based shooting chance.
29 mins: Douglas Luiz has another shot from outside the area. This one looked to be dipping just under the bar, or perhaps into it, until Dubravka fingertipped it over.
28 mins: It’s hard to tell whether Shelvey deliberately shot, or just crossed badly. Either way, Heaton catches.
27 mins: Saint-Maximin takes on Guilbert, but both run past the ball. They turn back and grapple with each other in their desperation to reach it first. Both look equally culpable to me, but the referee gives Newcastle a dangerous free-kick scenario, out on the left.
25 mins: After that promising start, Newcastle have settled in and sat back. They are playing like they’re 2-1 up with two minutes to play.
24 mins: Joelinton goes on a run now, but he gets no help from any of his team-mates and eventually falls over.
22 mins: Targett plays on, apparently after being sick on the pitch.
21 mins: Targett is receiving medical attention. He seems to have something stuck in his throat. “Greetings from California, where it’s the lunch hour,” writes Peter Oh. “I’m looking for a place near my work that is showing this match because I like watching Newcastle’s Saint-Maximin play. He’s skilled, crafty, and has an all-around impish way of playing that makes for pure entertainment. And his name is delightful as well.” He is indeed a lot of fun, particularly I feel if he doesn’t actually play for the team you support, in which case I fear he might be wildly frustrating.
19 mins: Suddenly Saint-Maximin springs out of defence! He hares with the ball from his own half into the heart of Aston Villa’s, frightens the living daylights out of three defenders and then passes to Almiron, who miscontrols. Saint-Maximin does a dramatic total strop, flinging arms all over the place.
18 mins: Another decent ball into the box from Targett. This time he finds Douglas Luiz, but Willems tracks his run and gets a foot in the way of his shot.
15 mins: Saint-Maximin, the furthest back of the nine-man backline Newcastle appear to be fielding at the moment, does a useless clearing header, but gets away with it.
13 mins: Chance for Villa! From the throw-in they attack. Grealish’s dummy gives Targett space on the left to consider his options, and he fires in a delicious low cross that El Ghazi looks destined to turn in, but doesn’t turn in.
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12 mins: Villa have the ball in defence. They pass it right, they pass it back to the left, they pass it back to the right. There is no space in front of them whatsoever, and eventually they just try a random pass, which goes off Willems and out for a throw-in.
9 mins: Grealish is fine. His socks are rolled most of the way down to his boots, and thus almost all of his shins are uncovered and there’s no sign of any shin pads. Presumably he is wearing some, because he has to, but they must be extremely small and useless.
7 mins: Joelinton goes in a bit high on Grealish. The Newcastle player immediately apologises; the Villa player immediately starts limping, and then goes down. The referee meanwhile sees nothing wrong with it, and waves play on.
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4 mins: Almiron has a shot now. It’s high and wide, but this is all very promising, with both sides throwing people forward.
3 mins: Newcastle try to play the ball out of defence, but the home team don’t give them any time or space, and after trying on the left, trying through Dubravka and trying on the right, they eventually give it away, and Douglas Luiz has a shot that deflects wide.
1 min: They’re off! Newcastle get the game started, and Saint-Maximin’s early cross bounces harmlessly through to Heaton.
And out they come! Kick-off but moments away now.
The players are in the tunnel! It’s a very large tunnel, Villa Park’s, and very claret-coloured.
“You’re not fooling anyone here,” says John Palethorpe. “We all want a link to the Dyer/Bowyer fight during one of the more hilarious Newcastle v Villa Games.”
Yeah, OK, fair enough.
Dean Smith has had a chat, firstly about the return of Jack Grealish:
It makes a big difference, because he’s a top player and when you’ve got top players in your team you’ve got better chances of winning football games. You can always try to improve. The aim of the game is to score goals, so you need to create chances, but the downside of that is you maybe leave yourselves a bit more open. But our last performance here against Liverpool, we were very unfortunate to lose that game, it was a terrific performance and we need the same again tonight.
And Steve Bruce also has a word, about returning to a former club:
I had the privilege to manage the club for a couple of years. It didn’t quite go the way we wanted but I’ve been in football a long time, so you understand that’s what happens. But of course when you get the sack you want to come back and haunt a few. But look, I had a tremendous time here but if we could win, that would obviously be great.
Less than 20 minutes until kick-off. Hands up if you’re excited!
In only one of the last seven games between these teams has either of them scored more than one goal. That was the last, a 2-0 home win for Newcastle in February 2017. The last three meetings at Villa Park ended 1-1, 0-0 and 0-0. None of this is very promising. Here’s proof that some Villa v Newcastle games are fun:
The teams
The team news is in! Tom Heaton, Conor Hourihane and Jack Grealish are in for Vila, Ciaran Clark passes his fitness test for Newcastle:
Aston Villa: Heaton, Guilbert, Konsa, Mings, Targett, McGinn, Douglas Luiz, Hourihane, El Ghazi, Wesley, Grealish. Subs: Lansbury, Nakamba, Trezeguet, Nyland, Kodjia, Elmohamady, Hause.
Newcastle: Dubravka, Fernandez, Clark, Dummett, Yedlin, Hayden, Shelvey, Willems, Almiron, Saint-Maximin, Joelinton. Subs: Schar, Carroll, Gayle, Krafth, Darlow, Atsu, Matthew Longstaff.
Referee: Lee Mason.
This is your #AVFC team to face Newcastle United! 👊
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) November 25, 2019
Presented by @eToro.#AVLNEW pic.twitter.com/R5Ke59A3fo
🚨 TEAM-NEWS
— Newcastle United FC (@NUFC) November 25, 2019
This is how #NUFC line-up at Villa Park this evening! ⚫️⚪️ pic.twitter.com/1f5FT0y8tE
Hello world!
It’s the Steve Bruce derby, and the Newcastle manager’s first return to Villa Park since this cabbage was thrown at him during a 3-3 draw against Preston last October in what turned out to be his last game in the Villa Park dugout.
There has inevitably been a lot of talk about cabbages these past few days. Here are Bruce’s memories:
It was one of the most unsavoury times of my career. I thought it was a ball to begin with, it was a big old thing. How the fan got it into the stadium I don’t know. It didn’t miss be my much. The fans can throw some things, but a cabbage? I went the next day so I didn’t have time to get angry about it. “I got criticised [by Villa fans], but for 18 months only Manchester City scored more goals than us ... they’re a difficult lot. Great club, great support with great history, but it was in a mess.
It was arguably my most difficult job, even more difficult than this. We didn’t know if we were going to get paid in May and June. It was practically close to the wall. It never got that far but there was a threat at the end of the month that we couldn’t pay the wages. It was the worst and probably the most difficult six weeks after the play-off game, it was unrivalled from where we were. To be fair to the chief executive at the time he had kept it quiet for three or four months. We were aware we couldn’t bring anyone in but financially we didn’t realise the enormity of it until he got the sack. It was a really difficult time. Then...the new owners came in and everything changed very, very quickly. If they hadn’t come in so quickly I would have feared for a great club the way it was, because we were practically bust.
And here’s Dean Smith on the cabbage, and Bruce in general:
I thought it was a disgrace. You don’t want to see that in the ground. I said that at the time. I said when I took the job that I have an awful lot of respect for what he has done in management but, more importantly, for how he is as a man as well. This season, if you look at Newcastle at the start, there were a lot of questions about the club and where it was going. But Steve has gone in and done what he does best - got them organised. They’ve got pace and power up front. They are winning games - they’ve won the last couple - and they beat Manchester United at home as well. They are in a good run of form at the moment.
Here’s our match preview. In team news news, Jack Grealish is expected to return after a month out with a calf injury while Tom Heaton and Bjorn Engels are also fit to play for Villa. As for Newcastle, Ciaran Clark was due to undergo a late fitness test, while Florian Lejeune is ready to come back after a seven-month lay-off and Fabian Schar is also ready to rock after a three-match absence.
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