Apart from everything else about this game, in particular that these two ancient rivals are trying to get their act together in order to return to success, the Villa included a squad member who terrorised the Everton defence back in 2008 to score two cracking goals in his first sojourn with the Villa. We are talking of Ashley Young.
Well, Ashley Young is now old and is now nearing pension age as a footballer, but what a feeling of nostalgia there would have been if he had come onto the pitch!
Anyhow, that is by the way. I did feel, however, that in the first half little Beundia reminded me a little of Ashley. His movement was at times wonderful to behold as he glided through defenders, and he was itching to score today, having not been on the scoresheet last week when Ramsey and Courtinho stole the limelight. Well, he got his goal, and it's worth commenting how this little player very often times his headers to perfection.
Villa, first half, looked purposeful and were well worth their half-time lead. As it turned out it is just as well they had the lead, for in the second half the Everton caretaker manager got his players to rely on the tactics that he loved as a big striker - the purposeful flood of centres and corners to find the heads of the biggest players. Luckily, Villa had just enough about them defensively to repel those old-fashioned attacks, but attack-wise we lost our way. We had no shots on target in the second period and the movement we saw earlier was hardly there.
But it was a scrappy game at times, leaving little chance for good football. There were, sadly, nine yellow cards issued. And the crowd lost its bottle when we scored.
We did, however, have to expect that, under Ferguson, the Toffees were never going to give up easily, and if they had scored a late equaliser it might have made us feel that we had been defeated. Thankfully Mings (being more focused than he was first half) led his defenders well. They all played their part.
Villa gained their first double over Everton in 21 years.
This is a win that will be a shot in the arm to Villa as we have to wait a couple of weeks or more for the next match because of the Cup and another international break. But it gives Villa more of a chance to acquire a new defensive midfielder (Luiz makes me wince at times as that is not his natural role) and get more training ground practise involving Villa's latest acquisitions.
We wait with bated breath!
UTV!
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