Crystal Palace force FA Cup replay against the Villa.

What a roller coaster ride in what should of been plain sailing for the Villa. When we went one goal behind after a rare Brad Friedel error, I had faith we could come back, it was just a case of when and thankfully for my health it was in the first half from a clinical header by James Collins. That took us to half-time, no big deal, minor hiccup from which we recovered, second half should see another goal or two and finish the game nicely right? WRONG, a thunderous free kick from Crystal Palace’s Ambrose saw Friedel beat from 36 yards! To say I was bricking it would be an understatement, after numerous decisions not going our way (like an outrageous offside call to say that Nathan was offside when in fact he was about 4 yards ON side) we had a decision go our way in the form of a corner, which in turn led to our second equaliser from the head of our captain Petrov.

Now we have a replay in about 3 weeks time, which happens to be a couple of days before the Carling Cup final, not exactly ideal but I’m sure we can handle it, with the winner of that having to play either Reading or West Brom in the next round, even though Villa will be away again, its probably the best draw we could of hoped for.

Couple of things to note from this game:

1. Our strike force, I’m not sure if its the fact we only play either Carew or Heskey for a half or less, or the fact they are both off form, but it isn’t working for us, Carew kept giving away free kick’s and didn’t really seem a threat, and Heskey’s confidence is lacking, what do we do? Delfouneso came on in the second half, showed some skill, but no clear chances from the youngster, ideal replacement for Gabby though.

2. Delph, really liked him against Manchester United, but failed to impress today, played a lovely ball into Milner but apart from that, quite a few sloppy passes.

3. Do we field a strong team in the replay? It’s at Villa Park, but with Wembley only a couple of games away, MON has got some difficult decisions to make.

All in all I’m proud of the boys from coming from behind twice, and Crystal Palace played really well, but we should of sailed it today, we shouldn’t of let palace play, but instead, they stopped us playing. Oh and that’s my £5 bet gone out the window

Rx

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Category: Domestic Cups, Match Reports