Aston Villa boss Unai Emery was ‘very happy’ after our FA Cup win over Middlesbrough, and praised the travelling fans for their support at the Riverside Stadium.
It was a tough watch for the most part, as Villa struggled to find any rhythm and tempo to produce a top performance and we toiled for 87 minutes as it looked like it would result in a replay.
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Fortunately though, Matty Cash’s late deflected effort from distance found its way into the back of the net, and that in turn booked our spot in the fourth-round draw on Monday.
Given Emery opted to go with such a strong Villa XI, more was expected from us, but we couldn’t find a breakthrough and didn’t produce enough quality in the final third to really put the hosts under sustained pressure.
That said, it was ultimately job done, and we’ll hopefully continue to learn from these type of games against deep-sitting defensive sides, while continuing to develop our winning habit.
“I’m very happy,” he told VillaTV. “Before the game we were speaking about how we lost in the third round to Stevenage at home; we were very upset but it was a different moment.
“We were remembering with the players that Aston Villa hadn’t got to the next round for seven years. Today was a good opportunity to break it, and we did. I’m very happy because we played being mature, being passionate, being responsible and trying to understand the opponent’s tactical idea and transitions.
“We respected the opponent because a lot of Championship players can play in the Premier League. In 90 minutes, we were controlling the game and being mature. We were responsible and trying to impose our gameplan, which we did.
“At the end, we won and I think we deserved it. We were in 90 minutes getting more chances than them and controlling the game more than them.
“I’m thankful for all the supporters that were here because we need them. We are being stronger with them and their support. They travelled from Birmingham to here to be with us and try to transmit their energy to us. We appreciate it a lot.”
Given our poor record in the FA Cup over the last seven years, perhaps it was an important mental hurdle to overcome, even though many of the current players weren’t involved for much of that.
In turn, it’s another important box ticked that will hopefully give us more confidence moving forward in the competition, while Emery does make a good point in that we didn’t panic or lose our shape in the latter stages in search of a winner in this one, as we’ve done previously.
That’s a potential sign of increasing maturity and trust in what we’re doing, but of course, there are still improvements and lessons to be learned against sides sitting deeper and being defensive, as we have struggled to find openings against them in recent weeks.
Emery will know that requires adaptability and versatility in our approach and game-plan to break these sides down, and we’ll hopefully see more of that in the coming weeks to show different dynamics to our attacking play to be more unpredictable and difficult to contain.
