Villa beat Brentford and Dave Woodhall is as relieved as everyone else.
As the teams were coming out for the second half at a cold and damp Villa Park I couldn’t help but think that in more enlightened times the match would have been over by now and we could all have gone home to warm up. Then again, with the ecore 3-0, the match was as good as over anyway. But at these prices, nobody was leaving at half-time.
There was definitely more than an air of dampness around at kick-off time. Villa’s long run of bad form had started to raise doubts about the long-term effectiveness of this team. There were even a few sacriligeous, unhinged mutterings about Unai Emery. As it was, our managerial genius knew what to do about those ideas. Leon Bailey was back, as was Tyrone Mings, while Emiliano Martinez was in goal despite a broken finger.
Only a cynic would say Emery preferred Martinez with one hand to any of our other keepers with two, but there was more to it than that. Mings and our very own world’s number one bring with them a feeling of confidence. With Martinez it’s knowing that he really is the best there is, while Mings has got that undefinable quality that marks a leader, and more than that an inspiration. He might not be the best in the world, he certainly isn’t the best we’ve ever had, but Tyrone, perhaps more than any other player, defines the NSWE era.
Again perhaps unsurpisingly there was a bit of hesitation about some of Villa’s early play. Then after 21 minutes Morgan Rogers, badly out of form and lucky that there was no-one to take his place recently, scored with a twenty-yard curling shot that will do his confidence no end of good. Ollie Watkins might have got the assist but even more noticable was that the move started with Boubacar Kamara, and how we’ve missed him since he was injured.
Not long after that Watkins was brought down in the box, got up to take the penalty and although it wasn’t the best it was still enough to give Villa a two-goal lead. And if that wasn’t good enough, John McGinn powered through from midfield, the ball came back to Rogers and his cross was hit home by Matty Cash, with the compulsory VAR check afterwards.
The second half was bound to be an anti-climax and so it proved. The team’s confidence was clearly back and they could have scored a couple more but the only goal came from a bit of defensive slackness that gave a minor cause for concern. Still, they managed to see the match out with no further scares and the crisis is over. Keeping a clean sheet would have been good but getting the win was the most important thing. In such a situation even the scrappiest one-goal vctory would be enough so a win in such style is doubly rewarding. Back up to seventh in a crowded table and another three points at the weekend will make it look even healthier.