Our recent poor form was punctuated by a hard earned point at Villa Park against the Eagles.
In true Villa fashion, we found ourselves once again behind to an easily preventable and strike. In the opening ten minutes, Ismaila Sarr found himself baring down on Emi Martinez courtesy of a pass from Mateta. After a nervy start, Villa took a foot hold in the game with Watkins rounding Henderson and ending his drought with an equaliser. The pressure on the Eagles built as Villa threatened, Bailey striking the woodwork. With the interval looming, Will Hughes brought down the winger in the area, which VAR confirmed as a penalty. Tielemans claimed responsibility despite having only scored two of his last six. Saved. A poor placed effort was saved by Henderson just to his left. Comically, the visitors stormed up the other end and punished us on the counter leaving us trailing at the break.
VIlla came out swinging in the second half, bossing all areas of the pitch especially in the middle of the park. Cash replaced the young Bogarde during the interval which represented a positive change in maturity and stability at the back. Despite this bright start, it took until the 77th minute for Villa to once again draw level. A brilliant header from the substitute Barkley found the back of the net from a Tielemans corner, a sufficive redemption for his earlier penalty miss. Until the death, Villa continued to ask questions of the visitors late into the game. Against the run of play, at the death, Palace hit the woodwork before the rebound was pushed away by Dibu. A nervy end to a nervy game,
Oh well, at least we haven’t lost again. Although I personally cannot remember the last time we won or even looked like winning a game. That’s two points dropped and a game we absolutely should be winning especially when the European places are so tight. An annoying early goal unsettled us and affected the tempo of the rest of the game.
Good to see Watkins on the scoresheet and ending his mini drought. Ollie capitalised on a brilliant through ball from Mcginn representing one of our only real moments of quality in the 90. In addition, Ross Barkley continues to prove his price tag as one of the steals of the season. Hardly put a foot wrong since coming on and topped it all off with a tidy set piece goal. Would like to see him start in the coming weeks.
UTV.