Dave Woodhall sees Villa beat Liverpool, qualify for the Champions League and approach glory.
Before the match I had the latest in a never-ending series of signs about how old I’m getting. Long ago I accepted that the players are young enough to be my children. I’m learning to live with the fact that some are young enough to be my grandchildren. Now I see with a sinking heart that chicken & chips outside the ground costs more than my first season ticket.
That sobering thought apart, there was a strange atmosphere before the match. It’s the last home game of the season, our hopes of the Champions League depend on it and yet there wasn’t much of a big-game feel. Perhaps it was because traffic hold-ups meant a lot of late arrivals, or it could be that we just aren’t used to the idea that even though it’s a massive league game, there’ll be upwards of twenty thousand of us flying off to an even bigger one over the next few days.
The team was a bit of a surprise as well, and there was the impression that this, with the possible exception of Victor Lindelof replacing the injured Amadou Onana, is the line-up we’ll we watching in Istanbul. It was, therefore, a bit of a gamble but needs must and Unai was clearly taking no chances against a Liverpool side who could have guaranteed the Champions League qualification with a win. As of course could Villa, not that you’d have known from the build-up.
There wasn’t a great deal to talk about for much of the first half but a corner three minutes before the break was worked perfectly to give Morgan Rogers as much room as he needed and more for a perfectly-placed shot to give Villa the lead.
There was a hint of offside about Liverpool’s equaliser early in the second half but never mind. They also hit the post, then the forces of justice turned back in the correct direction.
When this match was played in similar circumstances two years ago I wrote about how Peter Morris’s legions had turned up to will Villa back into the game. They weren’t needed this time, but I do wonder if one of those ghostly figures didn’t play a part in a defensive slip that led to Matty Cash getting the ball for Ollie Watkins to put Villa back into the lead.
Emiliano Buendia hit the post and then a couple of good saves ended with the ball running for Watkins to get his second. For the second time in a row a supposedly difficult opposition were being brushed aside as Villa ran riot, with John McGinn getting a fourth.
Liverpool pulled a goal back to the half-hearted applause of the handful of their supporters who were remaining to Walk Alone at the final whistle. Well, it is a long way back home on a Friday night, although with luck the Oslo plane won’t be delayed.
What a performance, and what a season it’s been at Villa Park. The obvious question has to be why the team couldn’t have played like this for the past two months, rather than putting us through such panic and angst. To which the answer is even more obvious – because it’s the Villa.
