Villa lose to Newcastle in the FA Cup and Dave Woodhall isn’t surprised.
The FA Cup fourth round is a strange time, one of those neither one thing nor the other dates. Most of the smaller clubs have been knocked out so the Magic of the Cup isn’t really there but there’s still a way to go before the competition can be taken seriously.
A virtually sell-out crowd showed that Villa supporters were taking it seriously already, although reduced prices helped, and a team that was almost at full strength showed that Unai Emery was in agreement.
If that was the case it’s a pity he didn’t tell the team. Villa started off well enough and it seemed as though we were finally getting a bit of luck when Tammy Abraham, who appeared to be offside when he collected the ball, put them a goal up after fourteen minutes. Newcastle complained but with no VAR there wasn’t much chance of the decision being over-ruled.
That should have given the team added enthusiasm but there was still the same reluctance to get fully committed and in stoppage time, when it looked as though Villa were going in at the interval winning and Unai could do something during the interval, disaster struck. The team had not long earlier won a corner and Leon Bailey tried, and failed, to knock the ball back to Marco Bizot.
The Villa keeper came charging out as Newcastle broke, took out the first of two attackers and there was little option but for a straight red. This was the second time in less than a year we’ve had such an incident and both keepers should have learned the lesson by now.
If Bizot had mastered his rush of blood, the worst thing would have been that the scores were level at half-time, and we’ve seen Unai pull something out of similar situations plenty of times. Instead we were a man down and Newcastle exploited their advantage to the full.
Lucas Digne seemed to have got away with a foul inside the box when a free-kick rather than a penalty was awarded but Newcastle equalised regardless, albeit with the help of an unfortunate deflection. If that goal was a bit lucky, the next was unstoppable, again thanks to some unfortunate defending and the third was as inevitable as it was unnecessary; Villa were never going to equalise.
And so this year’s FA Cup run comes to another inglorious end, as almost every other one has for the past sixty years. It was cheaper to watch than last season’s exit, quicker to get home and there was none of that ludicrous optimism. There was another bit of bright side to be able to look on, in that there were no more injuries and we’re a week closer to getting the existing casualties back.
Apart from defeat, the other disappointment of the day is an ever-growing realisation that getting knocked out means less with every passing season. Perhaps we should just accept that Villa are never going to win the FA Cup ever again.
