THE ART OF FINISHING! screamer wins it for Fulham
Harry
IT WAS a family affair at Craven Cottage as Aston Villa were sent tumbling out of the cup.
Harry Arter had only been on the pitch for 90 seconds, sent on by his brother-in-law and manager Scott Parker, when his glorious longrange strike crushed the Premier League side’s hopes.
The Midlands club must be sick of the sight of the Cottagers.
They lost in the Championship play-off final to Fulham in 2018 at Wembley – and now their FA Cup hopes have disappeared after an insipid display.
In truth, Villa manager Dean Smith had his eye on other matters as he made nine changes. Namely survival, with his team just one point above the drop zone, and a Carabao Cup semi-final against Leicester looming on Wednesday.
But if Smith thought his second string was good enough to take care of promotion hopefuls
Fulham, who passed Villa on the way out of the top flight in the summer – he was wrong.
Parker’s lively, neat footballing side thoroughly deserved this win.
And Arter, 30, won’t care at all – in his first game back after three months out with a calf problem he celebrated his first
goal since netting for Bournemouth in November 2017. He was lured by his family connection on loan for the season in the summer – and this was his moment.
Parker said: “The performance was outstanding. It was a result we can build on.
“Harry has been out for three months. He has worked hard but it has been a long and lonely time for him.
“This justifies all his hard work. It was a great finish. I wish substitutions were always that easy!
“This will help him push on now. We brought Harry in the summer because we knew he would give us something extra, and it was a shame he had that setback. But he is a strong character.
“Both of our goals were great strikes. Anthony Knockaert was exceptional.”
Arter said: “I can’t even remember when my last goal was! I definitely was not planning to do that when I was sent on. Nine times out of 10 when I hit them from there they go over the stand.”
Villa had looked like they had saved themselves when Anwar El Ghazi cancelled out man-of-thematch Knockaert’s opener.
But Parker then threw on his trump card in the 72nd minute – and it all changed. The midfielder picked up Stefan Johansen’s pass, looked up and curled the ball into the top corner from 25 yards.
Villa boss Smith said: “We were beaten by two wonder goals. I picked a team which I thought could win, but it was not to be.
“There was not a lot of quality out there. They got a goal, we equalised, but then Arter scores a goal he will probably never score again.”