Aston Villa Central

Wow! What can you say about that? I’m still trying to catch my breath.

Honestly, when I saw the teamsheets confirm the early whisper that Ciaran Clark was out, replaced by Jonathon Hogg, and Ireland too would be missing, Chris Herd and Shane Lowry taking their places on the bench, I feared a mauling. Especially when I saw that Utd weren’t as weakened as I hoped.

In fairness, it was a slightly timid start, not unexpectedly, and Utd opened up a few early chances, but were fortunately not going to be bothering Brad Friedel. As the half wore on, confidence grew, you could see it, you could feel it.

By half time, Villa dominated the corner count; testament to their ventures into the final third, but their inability to get in behind the Utd back line and carve out any chances of real quality, while Utd edged the efforts on goal and possession. As the teams headed to the changing rooms it looked very much like Ferguson would be lighting a few rockets and Utd would come out after the break in another gear.

That’s not what happened though. In fact, if anything, it was Villa in another gear and Utd struggling to contain them. Time and again Villa surged forward, Stewart Downing in particular finding space to send in some quite superb crosses.

It looked like it might be one of those days when Marc Albrighton got on the end of another fine Downing cross, only to head back past the near post. He did everything right except score.

Next, James Collins rattled the cross bar with a thumping header, Gabby struck the foot of the post to cap a scintillating break. Yup, it was definitely going to be another day where the missed chances would come back to haunt us.

But no, maybe not.

Suddenly there’s Gabby chasing a speculative ball down the right! He stretched his legs and they didn’t let him down, he cut back inside and fed Ash, charging into the box, but he was brought down by a desperate tackle from Wes Brown and it was a penalty.

Yes! A penalty!

Brown booked, denying a clear goal scoring opportunity, instincts tell me it should have been a red, I’d have to see it again, but we know by now how those go for us. Vidic was also booked for his protests.

Ash buried the penalty, that seemed enough at the time. 1-0.

Ferguson responded immediately by withdrawing his two strikers; Berbatov and Hernandez, Obertan and that Macheda their replacements.

It failed. Villa went again. Ash through the middle, Downing once more down the left, another superb delivery into the box, this time no mistake from Albrighton, emphatically thumped into the net to send Villa Park in delirium. 2-0.

15 minutes or so plus stoppages left. Gabby withdrawn, Delfouneso his replacement. Out of nowhere, Villa fail to clear their lines, the ball falls to Macheda and he fires a lightening bolt to the top corner and a dagger to the home fans’ hearts. 2-1.

Hold on Villa, hold on.

Stewart Downing cuts in from the left and fires just over. He deserved a goal. We might need it too, Utd are on the cusp of a second wind.

Nani jinks one way on their left, then the other, before sending a rocket to the far post. The ball evades Dunne’s desperate leap and Warnock wasn’t even close to Vidic who made no mistake with his head. Friedel helpless. 2-2.

Marc Albrighton replaced by Eric Lichaj, clearly exhausted, and arm of encouragement around his shoulder from Gérard Houllier. Well done son, well done.

Utd turn up the heat. Please don’t let them win this, they don’t deserve a win. They don’t really deserve a draw. They should be down to ten men. What sort of refs do we always get? Yes, that kind.

Almost there. Chris Herd gets a debut, replaces Hogg. Hold on.

Injury time. Five minutes. Really? Five? Okay. Hold on.

Final whistle comes. Eventually. Tortuously. They held on.

Should be elated with the point, feel somehow disappointed…. but overcome with pride. Those kids were absolutely fantastic today. Every single one of them. Simply brilliant and deserved three points.

The future is bright, it really is claret and blue. Well done to you Young Lions. All of you.

And thank you, that was awesome!

(The refereeing will naturally be a major talking point, but I wanted this reaction post to focus on what was more important, the performance of a side decimated by injuries. There will be time to examine that later.)

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