Aston Villa 3-1 Blackburn

Aston Villa 3-1 Blackburn

FA Cup 3rd Round Saturday 2nd January

A Villa Park crowd of 25,453 saw the team record a largely comfortable victory against mediocre opposition to advance to the next round of the recently- neglected FA Cup.
The tradition and romanticism of the FA Cup has given way to Champions League aspirations and Premier league finance these days and these teams will meet again in Tuesday’s Carling Cup semi final. With these considerations in mind, Martin O’Neill opted to blend the experience with promising fringe players. The Blackburn support stayed away, leaving 50-odd away fans to fade away in the Saturday sleet. Today’s Wigan-Hull FA Cup fixture mustered a measly 5,335 so Villa Park’s turnout was respectable although the atmosphere had the air of a training game at times.

Villa’s young players shone in the first half, with Delfuoneso and Delph bursting forward with pace and intent: Reo Coker, captaining the side, was stubborn and resilient, winning possession and distributing neatly. Young was influential in his return from suspension, providing the cross for Delfuoneso’s opening goal in the 12th minute and his constant surging runs troubled Blackburn’s defence. Young should have made the margin of victory greater but a one on one with keeper Brown ended with a low parried shot when a goal seemed more likely.

Villa were cruelly shown the value of clinical finishing by Torres in Tuesday’s match with Liverpool and O’Neill’s hints tonight that he is looking for another striker in January are welcomed. However, this was not a game of small margins and despite a dubious penalty which was saved well by Guzan, and an error by the same, dropping the ball into his own net to give Blackburn a glimmer of hope, Villa were rarely troubled, and dominated possession: Diouf was evidently frustrated and his two footed, late lunging tackle on Beye saw his dismissal midway through the first half. Cuellar’s headed goal on 37 minutes was untroubled by a challenge and Carew sealed a comfortable victory with a laid back penalty on 91 minutes after being shoved to the ground.

Despite Blackburn substitute Dunn’s best efforts in the second half, Villa were comfortable and will go into Tuesday’s Carling Cup clash with a stronger starting eleven, and real confidence.