The biggest cheer of the match during Villa’s 2-0 defeat to local rivals West Brom arrived in the 61st minute when the fourth official’s board went up and the home crowd saw that it had Conor Hourihane’s number on it.
The camera panned to the Republic of Ireland international, and you could see that he was upset by the ironic cheers. Tyrone Mings was to quick to notice this and ran over to him to, I would assume, offer him a few words of comfort as he made his way slowly off the field.
Let us be perfectly honest here, the 28-year-old has been playing poorly for months now, and you could be forgiven for thinking that he doesn’t care. For example, at times he seems to just wander aimlessly around the field, like he is having a kick about on a Sunday morning with his kids (if he has any).
Therefore, I can somewhat understand why Villa fans are immensely frustrated with him at the moment, but what good is cheering as he is subbed off going to do in the long run?
If he was running low on confidence before that moment due to all the criticism he has been receiving recently, he probably has none left now, and with John McGinn suspended for the next two matches, Dean Smith won’t be able to take him out of the firing line – I bet he can’t wait until the next game.
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