Villa beat Preston in the FA Cup as Dave Woodhall sees a plan unfolding.
For as long as I can remember it’s been our year for the cup, so much so that it’s become a bit of an in-joke. Every January, during third round week, the Villa manager of the time says he’s aware of how poor our record is in the tournament, then picks a weakened team that goes out with scarcely a whimper. Sometimes they get to round four but the end result is always the same.
Not this time. From the first match Unai Emery has chosen the best players available and they’ve responded. We eased our way into the quarter-finals with scarcely a worry and if we got the easiest draw, then we deserved it. This, added to the number of Big Clubs going out in the early rounds lends evidence to the belief that this really might be our year.
First we had to see off Preston, mid-table in the Championship and the sort of team we’ve traditionally been worried about. Memories of Oldham and Bradford, similarly grim northern towns, have been returning but this time round we had nothing to fear.
The gap between the top echelons of the Premier League and the rest is growing all the time and there’s no way on earth that Unai would let there be any complacency or anyone giving less than their all on such a big occasion.
Looking at the two line-ups was almost embarrassing. Preston were hit by injury, suspension and cup-tieing, which meant they had a keeper who’d scarcely played for years and a bench reminiscent of Villa against Liverpool in Covid-time. We’d got Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio starting, with Tyrone Mings partnering Ezri Konsa at the back. Our bench featured Pau Torres, Ollie Watkins, John McGinn and Amadou Onana.
Preston, naturally, started off with maximum effort although Villa’s defence was able to prevent any problems and it was noticeable that when the best keeper in the world was stranded after slipping while cutting out a high ball, there were three defenders on the goalline ready to snuff out any danger.
Nil-nil at half-time might have seen a bit of apprehension but the team’s self-belief overcame that and with the amount of play they enjoyed, the first goal was always imminent. Picking up on a loose ball in midfield, it was played out to Lucas Digne to square for Rashford, whose first Villa goal was greeted rapturously.
We didn’t have to wait long for the second, as five minutes later what appeared to be a soft penalty but was subsequently shown as the correct decision came as Morgan Rogers was brought down in the box. Rashford stepped up and one brief bit of mind games later, Villa were two up.
Then after 71 minutes Jacob Ramsey picked up the ball from deep, ran with it and his shot provided Villa’s third goal.
With the tie won and another game midweek, substitutes came on and one of them, Ollie Watkins, should have scored another but Villa had got through to the semi with the minimum of effort. It was nowhere near the best performance of the season but the team raised their game for fifteen minutes and that was all they needed to do. And so we march onwards towards the next date with destiny.
