Source: Telegraph
Aston Villa 1 Cardiff City 0: match report
It had all seemed so simple after Portsmouth, Aston Villa’s straight forward win seemingly providing the perfect formula. Gabby Agbonlahor would score from open play, Stiliyan Petrov would provide a penalty and James Milner would finish it off. Villa nearly did just that, only Milner hit the post so that his side’s progress to the fourth round of the Carling Cup was just a little fraught.
Not that Martin O’Neill will mind. This was another demonstration that Nigel Reo-Coker, again excluded from the squad, is not necessarily needed, and that O’Neill now has a squad worthy of rotating – although he left in just enough first team players to show that he is taking this competition seriously.
It was not an approach mirrored by the supporters judging by the turnout, but fortunately for O’Neill, the same cannot be said of his players, who were set to attack mode from the start with Delph and Petrov orchestrating events in the middle. Time and again they threw James Milner forward on the flanks, allowing the winger to ramp up the razzmatazz in the absence of an injured Ashley Young, cutting this way and that, trying to find John Carew, to be found throwing his weight around in the box, or Agbonlahor, as usual moving at such speed it was surprising his boots weren’t striking sparks.
It was only a few weeks ago that Villa had to deal with the consequences of conceding an early goal, against Rapid Vienna in the Europa League, but this time it was they who dished out the early dirt, Delph finding Carew on the right in the 3rd minute. The striker sent a simple ball into the box and Agbonlahor, on smoking form at present, put it past Peter Enckelman with a flashy backheel flick for his fourth goal in as many games. As if Enckelman, formerly a goalkeeper of the Villa Park parish, didn’t have enough problems already, looking as he did like an ostritch in his electric pink kit.
Knowing that this tie was far from decided – a probing shot from Jay Bothroyd which came tantalisingly close to tickling Guzan’s left stick could have made life unpleasant – Villa opened up the second half with renewed intent. The match should have been resolved in the 58th minute. Gabor Gyepes must have gone in with his eyes closed on Petrov in the box, and the Bulgarian hit the deck for the second time in two matches. Milner hammered the ball against the post.
It almost mattered. Bothroyd poked the ball past Guzan in extra time, but was ruled offside. Villa are through - just.
Match details
Aston Villa (4-4-2): Guzan; Beye, Cuellar, Collins, Shorey; Milner, Delph, Petrov, Gardner (Albrighton 79); Agbonlahor, Carew.
Subs: Friedel, Sidwell, Dunne, Delfouneso, Warnock, Clark.
Booked: Delph, Beye.
Goal: Agbonlahor 3.
Cardiff (4-1-4-1): Enckelman; Matthews, Gyepes, Gerrard, Capaldi; Scimeca (Chopra 60); Burke, Ledley, Rae (Wildig 90), Whittingham; Bothroyd.
Subs: Marshall, Hudson, Quinn, Comminges, Magennis.
Booked: Gyepes.
Referee: A Taylor (Cheshire)
