Villa lose at Crystal Palace with Dave Woodhall on a familiar journey.
Villa, as I’ve said before, are like a London cabbie – they don’t like going sahf of the river. Over the years north, east and west London have been reasonably happy destinations; we’ve had some stinkers but on the whole a decent Villa team has usually held their own in such places. Once we cross the Thames, though, the story changes. In the past Wimbledon, Charlton, Millwall. All of them have seen performances that have been disappointing, dismal and sometimes downright disgraceful (Charlton on Easter Monday 1987, if your memory goes back that far, being the worst. if you aren’t that old, suffice to say it could have sat well in a 2015-16 showreel).
Now all that’s left is Selhurst Park, and Crystal Palace. Villa tend to save some of their worst performances for this unlovely part of the world, although there was at least an excuse for last season’s five-nil defeat in that most of the team were out injured and the rest might as well have turned up wearing sunscreen and carrying deckchairs for all the effort they put in.
So after a couple of Villa Park performances that hinted at the good run we’ve been waiting for since August, there was a mild bit of optimism as the teams lined up on Tuesday evening.
After the gung-ho selection of last Sunday, Unai picked a more reserved starting XI, reverting to the three/five at the back formation that rarely does us any good. The team started off well though, and had a goal disallowed when Jacob Ramsey’s good finish was ruled offside. Then, with their first real attack, Palace went a goal up, which is something that’s happened sadly too often this season. And like last Sunday, Villa responded well to conceding. Morgan Rogers and Ollie Watkins played a one-two and by all normal events Rogers would have got the equaliser but we play by VAR not normality and the goal was ruled out.
If that wasn’t enough, when the teams lined up after the break Robin Olsen had taken Emiliano Martinez’s place in goal. Leon Bailey was another half-time substitution, replacing Andres Garcia, and any forebodings seemed to be ill-founded when another Watkins/Rogers combination had the same result as the earlier one, although this time there was no doubt that the goal should stand. All looked good but within eight minutes Villa conceded again and the final half-hour of the match is best forgotten.
Two more goals, some ineffective substitutions and Villa’s record in south London continues. To continue with the driving metaphor, the corner that seemed to have been turned last week had led to another dead end.
There are, of course, some mitigating circumstances. The lengthy injury list, added to Martinez’s departure, and the number of games we’re playing has meant that minor knocks can’t be rested properly and out of form or tired players have to carry on. We’ve got another important game coming up on Friday, which for some reason doesn’t seem to happen to other clubs in similar circumstances, so such problems are going to get worse before they get better.
And the most annoying aspect of the evening was that losing saw Villa drop to tenth in the league. If we’d won we would have been fifth. The table continues to be so tight that at the end of the season a lot of clubs are going to look back ruefully at points dropped and chances that weren’t taken. Villa seem to have more of them than most.
