Villa beat Middlesbrough in the FA Cup third round...

Villa beat Middlesbrough in the FA Cup third round. Dave Woodhall is wondering

Every year around this time, the manager of Villa delivers a press conference prior to the FA Cup third round, during

which he laments the team’s poor performance in the cup and believes it’s time for improvements. Then we don’t.

Another Amazing Fact surfaced in the lead-up to the beginning of 2024’s triumph of hope over experience: we

haven’t advanced past the third round since 2016, and we all know how that season ended. If we lose, the records for

the top two divisions would be broken.

Whatever the omens might say, Villa had hopefully travelled up to Middlesbrough thinking about this season rather

than the past 67 years of failure. There was always going to be a few changes to the team and we got them, with Jhon

Duran given another chance to show what he can do and Douglas Luiz amongst others given at least some of the day

off. It’s taken a while for Villa to get the hang of this squad rotation thing but they seem to have managed it now, and

if the scoreline showed that the game was close then what happened during the ninety minutes proved that three- or

four-nil wouldn’t have been unfair.

Duran looked sharp and had one opportunity where he should have done better for Villa, and the returning Boubacar

Kamara also had a decent shot saved. There wasn’t much else to say in the first half as Villa continued to play the way

we’ve seen so frequently in games similar to this one: the superior club kept the ball, didn’t take any chances, and

patiently waited for an error from the opposition. Naturally, Villa has been the opposing team up until this point.

They have put up a strong fight, but ultimately, they are simply not good enough to make a significant impact. It will

take some getting used to our squad taking the lead without being overpowering and the tables turning.

In the second half Villa should have had a penalty when Alex Moreno was brought down but without VAR we could

only shrug and get on with the game, which the traditionalists amongst us say should happen all the time. McGinn

had a chance, Duran hit the post and as the game wore on Villa showed another example of the gulf between the two

clubs when bringing on four substitutes who between them were worth more than the entire population of

Middlesbrough. Still Villa had chances, still they didn’t go in until with three minutes to go Douglas Luiz took a short

corner, seemed to mis-place his second ball but Matty Cash had enough room to hit his shot via a defender and just

inside the post.

Commentators looking for the magic of the cup will say Villa were lucky with such a late goal but if it had been scored

three minutes from the start rather than the end it would have been the same end result. Villa had most of the

possession and almost all of the chances. There weren’t many of the team who could say they were on top form

although they didn’t have to be. They won, we’re in the fourth round and with one annoying bad run out of the way

perhaps, just possibly, we might dare to dream that an even longer one might be coming to an end.

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