Dave Woodhall sees Villa knock Spurs out of the FA Cup.
At the beginning of 1924 Villa announced that they intended to mark the club’s fiftieth anniversary by winning the FA Cup. Back then when the Villa said they intended to do something they usually did it, although this time they only got to the final, where they lost to Newcastle United.
Incidentally, this match was notable for two things – because it rained the programme is said to be the rarest and most valuable Wembley cup final programme of all, and by my reckoning it remains the only time Villa have lost at the venue to a team below them in the league.
101 years later (don’t ask…) the club decided to celebrate the 150th anniversary at an FA Cup tie with West Ham. We won that one and the reward was that most notable of things, a fourth round tie, this time at home to Spurs. As the world knows, our visitors on Sunday are the only club to have injuries so the nation’s sympathy was with them, or so you’d think if you cast even a cursory glance at the build-up to the game.
Meanwhile, Unai continued with a patched-up defence and midfield that didn’t seem to provide much cover. Within seconds of the start any worries were cast aside when Morgan Rogers moved through midfield and laid the ball off for Jacob Ramsey, whose shot was helped in courtesy of the Spurs keeper.
After that Villa should have finished off the game long before half-time, despite another injured central defender, Ezri Konsa being replaced by Lamare Bogarde. Leon Bailey had a couple of shots well-saved while at the other end the best keeper in the world dealt with any occasional counter-attacks from the visitors.
There were other chances for a second goal but it took until the 64th minute, when Bailey, looking the player he can be, made space for Donyell Malen, whose ball was poorly cleared to Rogers. Two-nil, game over.
This was the cue for a couple of substitutes to enter the fray. Marcus Rashford got most of the attention and he played well enough but the star of what remained of the show was Marco Asensio. During the years of decline you’d look at some players from other teams playing a different game to what we’d become used to and wonder how we could possibly catch them up. I do hope Spurs supporters were thinking the same for the final half hour of the match.
Annoyingly Villa let in a stoppage time goal to provide a few worrying moments but that shouldn’t distract from what was a superb team performance. That makeshift defence held together well, with Boubacar Kamara looking every inch as classy as he does further forward. Rogers, Ramsey and John McGinn were having their own battle for the man of the match award with even Bailey, possibly the most infuriatingly frustrating footballer in all of those 150 years, looked the part.
If history has taught us nothing else, we know that Villa have become as adept at losing trophies as we were at winning them in the early days. There’s a long way to go this time and I’m not going to tempt fate by saying anything else.
