Villa lose to Manchester United and Dave Woodhall is more than disappointed.
Many years ago, there was a team from Manchester who, to put it mildly, were a bit of a joke. The team were poor and off the pitch they were run even worse. They were the biggest laughing stocks in football yet whenever they played the Villa a strange thing happened. They suddenly played like world-beaters. Clogging defenders were infused with the spirit of Paul McGrath; carthorse forwards spent ninety minutes impersonating Marco van Basten. They were Manchester City and although it was annoying when they started buying trophies, at least it stopped us thinking they did it to us out of spite.
What we could never have guessed was that their place as national laughing stocks except for twice a season would have been taken over by their charming neighbours. So it was with more than the usual trepidation that we rolled up to the Old Trafford circus on Sunday afternoon for the final act in the reality soap that was 2024-25. They were demoralised by their Europa League cup final defeat, supporter unrest and the knowledge that they can’t afford to buy their way out of trouble. We were in top form, almost every player fit and knowing that if we won there was every chance we’d be in the Champions League again.
The teams were announced; ours was more or less as expected, with a wealth of talent to call from the bench in case of emergency. Theirs was the same bunch of no-hopers that have been grateful there were three worse teams all season. We were odds-on to win at Old Trafford for the first time probably in decades. The match kicked off. And it happened again.
The opposition didn’t have to be world-beaters. They didn’t have to be anything more than what they’ve been all season because the Villa, on the brink of glory, were even worse. Much, much worse. The home side hit the post, they had most of the possession but with half-time approaching Villa looked to have weathered the storm and in the break surely Unai Emery could re-organise and re-group.
Then came the rush of blood that could change history. It was a poor backpass but Emiliano Martinez could have stayed back and let their player make the error. He could have psyched out the forward as he advanced, forced him wide, enabled the covering defenders to get into position. He didn’t. The best keeper in the world behaved like a kid in the playground.
Twenty minutes into the second half the traditional last match of the season roar goes up as news begins to circulate that Newcastle are a goal down. At this point Villa should have been encouraged but there still seems an end of season lethargy until Morgan Rogers seizes on a mistake by the keeper and the ball’s in the back of the net. You know the rest and all I’ll say is that either VAR is used all the time or it isn’t used at all. Either the whistle is blown right away every time there’s an infringement or it isn’t.
There was still time for an equaliser but you could tell the team’s collective heart wasn’t in it. We let in another goal as the match, and the season, moved towards its inexorable conclusion. It was the most inevitable moment of the day.
We finished sixth, out of the Champions League places on goal difference. That might have been acceptable given that we had to sell players during the summer and suffered our annual injury crisis midway through the season but the way it all went wrong in the final minutes of a marathon season was a crushing disappointment made worse by the nagging feeling that such a promising team might be broken up by forces out of our control. VAR and PSR; for however bad Villa were this afternoon – and there are no excuses for the way they played – these are two sets of initials that sum up everything wrong with modern football.
