FanZoner Craig Cochrane ate his words as Emile Heskey marked his Villa debut with the winner at Pompey.
Villa FanZoner Craig likes his strikers big and fast - like his food!
Prior to the game at Fratton Park, Aston Villa fan Craig Cochrane was in two minds about new striker Emile Heskey.
He felt the burly forward from Leicester could either prove a complete disaster or the signing of the century.
Well big Emile did not take long to prove it might be the latter with a fine debut goal.
Poor Pete Alexander the Portsmouth fan stared at the screen in disbelief as his back four yet again produced comic defending. Sylvain Distin will have nightmares about losing a flick-on to Gabby Agbonlahor, who is at least half a foot smaller than him. Then Heskey was given the freedom of Hampshire to slam the ball home.
Tony Adams may have been a defensive genius during his time at Arsenal but he seems unable to preach what he used to practice.
This was summed up just before half-time when David James found himself heading a ball clear while his fellow defenders struggled in vain to clear their lines.
Discipline was also the Arsenal way when Adams was captain at Highbury but something must have been lost in translation when he gave his pre-match orders to full-back Nadir Belhadj.
After attempting a Maradona-esque swivel the former Lens defender lost the ball then lashed out at Craig Gardner with a wild kick.
It was the sort of petulance you would expect from a teenage girl who has been told to change her outfit before a school disco.
Enjoyable
And if that was not enough Belhadj added the icing to his bizarre performance by catching the ball before it had gone out of play and then screaming at the linesman for having the temerity to notice!
It was almost a shame when ref Peter Walton gave him his marching orders, I'm sure everyone was waiting to see what he would do next!
You had to feel for Pete who had penned and sung a special ditty in honour of the angry Algerian just before half-time. To be fair the lyrics didn't really scan and even another Pete - Waterman - would have struggled to turn it into a terrace hit!
Craig on the other hand was having a far more enjoyable game, until he received a text from Celtic Jim...
This season, with invision now available, the FanZone commentators have started to take more pride in their appearance. A few of them have even started watching what they eat - well orders for Diet Coke have increased if nothing else.
But it also leaves them open for less than complimentary texts from the viewers, and sadly for Craig, Jim provided one of these. 'When was the last time the Villa fan ate a salad?' read the text.
Well, give Craig his due he didn't break the
Sky Sports swear ban but he came close! At least he had the last laugh when Peter Crouch missed a host of late chances for the home side. He may have the slender physique that Craig craves but his finishing? Well it was to be scoffed at.
At the final whistle all the size-ist comments were forgotten as Craig celebrated a hard fought victory on the South Coast. As for Pete let's hope he won't be singing the Blues if Portsmouth continue their recent poor form.
