CASH ‘N’ GRAB
Boro broken by Villa’s first Cup win since 2016
MICHAEL CARRICK stood with his arms folded and look of haunted disbelief. His goalkeeper Tom Glover roared in bitter frustration, while Middlesbrough’s fans raced to the exits with ashen faces.
Isn’t the FA Cup supposed to have lost its meaning? Once again, that belief was proven to be utter twaddle. Middlesbrough had invested everything they could into causing an upset on third round weekend and losing to Aston Villa was, plainly, heartbreaking.
What made this elimination worse was the manner of the goal that ended their resilience. Matty Cash took a speculative shot, which took two deflections and squirmed in at Glover’s far post.
He didn’t deserve his night ending in this manner and neither did anyone else in red.
Not that Villa will give it a second thought. Having been eliminated at this stage, remarkably, for the last seven years — including a wretched day against Stevenage 12 months ago — to have their names in the hat and retain momentum in a campaign of great promise was huge.
In the corner of the Riverside Stadium, the away fans celebrated as wildly as if this was a goal to settle a semi-final, let alone the first meaningful hurdle. Cash was mobbed as he wheeled away in the 87th minute and, on chances created, this was just about deserved.
Still, you would require a flint heart to not have sympathy for Middlesbrough, who more than contributed to an absorbing tie that was played in a wonderful spirit and reminded you how enjoyable football was when VAR wasn’t a persistent, digital menace.
The hosts had lost three of their last four fixtures at home, the most recent being a 3-1 defeat to Coventry on New Year’s Day, but there was no sense of them feeling daunted by the task of trying to contain one of the Premier League’s most in-form teams.
It was easy to see early on what a well-coached team Middlesbrough are, from the shape they held to the calm way their players wanted to work the ball out of defence whenever they were in tight positions. Their manager played at his own graceful tempo and he wants his team to do the same.
All this meant the opening 45 minutes were a puzzle for Villa. Unai Emery’s team are never better than when playing fast and furiously, moving powerfully through the channels, but Middlesbrough simply wouldn’t allow the game to become stretched. For this, Carrick deserves full marks.
So, for all that they were heavily in opposition territory, the best chance — if it could be called that — for Villa before the interval was a thumped drive from Jhon Duran, their Colombian striker, which Glover turned away.
There were a couple of other little openings, such as a glancing header from Leander Dendoncker, but nothing that really had Carrick fretting. If anything, Boro had it within them to pilfer something through a counter-attack and that so nearly proved the case.
Morgan Rogers drew gasps in the 33rd minute when he went close after bursting onto a fine pass from Sam Greenwood and, on the stroke of half-time, Josh Coburn and Isaiah Jones couldn’t steady themselves to provide a finishing touch to an Alex Bangura cross.
Even when things are going well, Emery has the agitated manner of a man who is running late for a meeting and can’t hail a taxi but he was even more animated here, prowling and fidgeting, barking at anyone and everyone when the picture he had in his mind wouldn’t pan out.
The second half, then, was inevitably going to bring a new set of questions for Boro to answer and, sure enough, Villa started with tremendous intensity, like a boxer who wants to put a pesky opponent away with a flurry of blows.
John McGinn threw the first one, a super left-footed curling effort that Glover — who was growing in confidence with each minute — leapt to his right to push away; Ezri Konsa went next with a glancing header that thudded against the base of the post from Leon Bailey’s corner.
Emery showed his intentions when introducing four substitutes who cost more than £100million combined — Ollie Watkins, Douglas Luiz, Moussa Diaby and Nicolo Zaniolo — and it paid off. They made a splash with Cash.