Aston Villa 3, Blackburn Rovers 1: Mat Kendrick's big match verdict
Jan 4 2010 By Mat Kendrick
THE Godfather, Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean...
With the possible exception of the above examples, where the sequels have arguably been as impressive as the originals, the first parts of trilogies tend to be by far the best.
Yet, for all the action-packed excitement at Villa Park on Saturday, the first of three cup clashes between Villa and Rovers in 18 days had an anti-climactic feel about it.
Don’t get me wrong.
There was a starring role from acclaimed ‘actor’ Ashley Young.
There were thrills and spills from Brad Guzan.
There were joyous scenes involving Nathan Delfouneso, Carlos Cuellar and John Carew.
There was gratuitous violence from baddie El-Hadji Diouf.
There was even a twist provided by Nikola Kalinic.
But, with a Carling Cup blockbuster coming soon to a stadium near you, this FA Cup original was always going to be more of a ‘straight to video’ offering than a box office hit, as a low crowd of 25,453 testified.
It’s hardly surprising really. Why would Martin O’Neill’s claret and blue cast worry about winning a more prestigious Oscar just yet, when they have just been nominated for the imminent, if slightly less impressive, Golden Globes?
O’Neill called upon his talented understudies for Saturday’s third-round clash against Rovers, making seven changes from the team which lost the previous Premier League game to Liverpool.
Guzan, Delfouneso, Ashley Young, James Collins, Habib Beye, Emile Heskey and Fabian Delph came in, with Brad Friedel, Luke Young, Richard Dunne, Stiliyan Petrov, Gabby Agbonlahor, James Milner and Carew dropping out.
Blackburn boss Sam Allardyce went even further, resting nine players from his side that drew with Sunderland in their last league game, but there was no doubt that the Villa squad had much more depth and range.
There was even less debate over who was the leading man as Young stole the show.
