Dave Woodhall sees Villa go behind again and eventually draw at Ipswich.
However you look at it, Sunday afternoon was an occasion to get out of the way rather than take as seriously as most. Not that Unai Emery would ever let the players go into any match with anything less than 100% focus but the prospect of what’s coming up on Wednesday night must have had some effect, even if only subconsciously.
The team was, yet again, virtually unchanged with only the injured John McGinn missing from the regular eleven. There’s been some talk lately that we might have outgrown our Scottish totem and while it will happen one day, it will be a sad time when a player who’s given so much is reckoned surplus to requirements.
On this showing,though, it’ll be a good while yet before McGinn is no longer an essential part of the Villa squad. Ipswich have struggled so far on their return to the Premier League but they were at least Villa’s equals for much of the game. They certainly started the brighter of the two teams and there was no great surprise when theytook the lead on eight minutes, courtesy of the son of one of the most annoying players in Premier League history.
Still, no matter. This is the Villa and we like to give the opposition a bit of a lead to make the match more exciting. Seven minutes after going a goal down Villa were level when Morgan Rogers picked up a poor ball out of the Ipswich defence and exchanged passes with Ollie Watkins before a clinical finish from fifteen yards out. Rogers has been superb since his arrival from Middlesbrough and perhaps the only thing letting him down has been his final ball. There was no problem with this one, ending up as it did in the back of the net.
Then, on 32 minutes there was a typical bit of Villa play with some quick passing before a clinical final ball, this time Leon Bailey’s cross which was met by in-form goal machine Ollie Watkins, whose header from close range gave him his fourth in three games.
That should have been game over, but Villa seemed to have come to that conclusion a bit too readily and sat back far too much. Emiliano Martinez had to be at full stretch to make one save and then in the second half Ipswich had several chances to equalise before the scorer of their first goal was allowed to go through the Villa defence far too easily to get another. By this time the home team should have been reduced to ten men after a cynical foul on Jaden Philogene but Villa aren’t yet a fully-fledged top four side so a player who had already been booked got off with a warning.
I suppose a point is better than none but this was definitely also a couple dropped. The Villa defence is a concern and although they deserve credit for overcoming yet another early setback, I can’t help but think that if Ipswich can score twice against us, what might Wednesday’s visitors do.
