This meant something to me. Oh Vienna!

The portents weren’t great.  After all the success we’d had down the flanks against West Ham, we now appeared to have no width at all.  Downing was rested.  Poor lamb must be worn out after all of three games.  Albrighton on the bench may have been a sensible decision given his obvious fatigue in Geordieland, but with Ashley continuing to act as a second class striker rather than a first class wing man, it soon became obvious that going past the full backs was not gonna happen.

Even when Albrighton replaced Gabby after half an hour – our best chance of winning disappearing at a stroke – we seemed to be playing a bizarre 4-3-3 which none of the players seemed that comfortable with.

I kept a special eye on Ireland, hoping to see a glimpse of something for the future.  He played like a Petrov clone and that’s Petrov on a bad day.  Patently, he’s badly in need of games and the midfield as a unit needs to some sort of game plan.  It seems that flair and creativity went out of the window with Milner to be replaced be industriousness and sporadic industriousness at that.

That said, Rapid shouldn’t have been fearsome opposition and largely weren’t for much of the game. Happy enough to bide their time and wait for their chances.  It’s a tactic that should have failed because for all the lacklustre play, we did somehow create enough chances to win several matches.  It shone a bright light on our lack of goalscorers.

All that wouldn’t have mattered had we not been so woeful in defence.  I Love Carlos Cuellar but with the best will in the world, he is never going to make a right back.  Had he been played a centre half it might have been a different story,  but we got Curtis Davies – the most vocal about not being given a chance.  The game was barely minutes old when his form led many of us to recall his “pub player” debut in the League Cup.  There are poor performances and there are completely unacceptable ones.  I’d place Mister Davies’ showing in the latter category.  I hope it’s a long time before he’s “given a chance” again.

Where do we go from here?  Backwards seemed to be general feeling as we slumped out of VP last night, many saying that were actually dreading the Everton game.  That becomes a massive game now in every sense.  If Villa’s players  find some form, battle as they’ve shown they can and provide a convincing home win, then we can take it as a real statement of intent.  Any sort of poor performance – a failure to take the three points – will see the good times laid to rest and a season of struggle will lie ahead.

We need leadership.  Now. A permanent coach should be appointed without any further delay.  MacDonald?  Not if he doesn’t truly have the desire.  Don’t think he does. We need leadership on the pitch.  Petrov is not proving to be inspirational leader.  Despite his showing against Newcastle, I’d give the armband to Dunne.  We need leadership at the very top too.  Sure Randy has a chief exec in place and uses the General to liaise with the fans but why not appoint a Director of Football?

We're now rudderless, don't have either a coach or European competition to draw in better players and the perceived lack of action from the board since MON's departure had been staggering.

Last night meant something to us. Defeat was entirely avoidable. Mister Lerner needs to  get his act together or sell to someone who can.    Kenny Huang anyone?