Dave Woodhall enjoys watching Villa beat Cardiff City in the FA Cup.
If you want a quiet, relaxing hobby, don’t support a football club. In particular don’t support the Villa, an institution who I’ve said on many an occasion will be the death of me. Something else I’ve said almost as often is the importance of a routine win. Kick off, contain the opposition, step up the tempo to score a couple when the mood takes and then wind down towards the final whistle; job done without scarcely breaking sweat. At times like that football can, almost, be relaxing.
Villa’s sensible pricing strategy and a goodly number of away supporters conspired to bring in a gate of over forty thousand, which for a Friday night cup tie on TV, against lower division opposition, is a bit of an eye-opener. Unai Emery duly picked the sort of team that showed how Villa are, fingers crossed, breaking the habit of what seems like several lifetimes and taking the competition seriously, while at the same time showing what strength in depth we’ve got now. Cardiff, in contrast, made enough changes to show that their priority is the more mundane task of staying in the Championship.
And that, basically, was how the game panned out. Ollie Watkins had a one on one that crept inches past the post, Leon Bailey’s shot was well-saved, Marcus Rashford skied a chance that was a lot harder than it first appeared. As half-time approached Watkins had another one saved and by the time the teams went in for the break the Cardiff keeper had already won the man of the match award.
Unai didn’t make any changes at half-time and the game continued as it had done from the start. John McGinn and Andres Garcia had shots saved, Rashford had another, while at the other end Emiliano Martinez woke up to make his first save of the match after 65 minutes. That must have stirred Villa because ninety seconds later Youri Tielemans chipped a lovely ball over the defence for Rashford to pull back to Marco Asensio. Players of his quality don’t miss that sort of chance.
Ten minutes from time Leon Bailey’s ball found Asensio unmarked and that was the game won. There was time for a quadruple substitution which included the first sight of Jamaldeen Jimoh-Aloba, another product of our feeder club’s Academy, Morgan Rogers hit a shot just over in stoppage time and the final whistle heralded a generous reception for both teams. There was also a thunderous ovation for Anwar El Ghazi, whose two children had earlier been wearing each club’s shirts. Following on from remembering the late Peter Whittingham, the evening had the rare but welcome air of mutual respect.
For what it’s worth, the stats were much as expected and showed Villa’s domination. Asensio and Rashford were a class apart and Lamare Bogarde continues to show promise. For all the inconsistencies and frustrations of the season, Villa are now ninety minutes from Wembley and it’s our year for the cup. That’s something else I’ve said a few times.
I would love us to win the cup, didn’t remember 57, I’m 75 this year so come on!