Newcastle United fought back from a goal down to beat Aston Villa 3-1 on Saturday evening to advance to the 5th Round of the FA Cup. Overcoming a generationally bad officiating performance from Chris Kavangh, and especially linesman Nick Greenhalgh, United rallied to beat Villa’s ten-man comfortably.
Sandro Tonali scored his first two goals of the season and Nick Woltemade ended a 14-game barren streak with the third. Tammy Abraham “scored” for Villa, but he was offside by a yard, so I’ve put it in sarcastic quote marks.
Here’s my three good and one BAD from the game:
Good: Sandro steps up!
With the news that Bruno will miss eight-ten weeks with a hamstring injury, and a general downturn in his form this season, this was the perfect game for Sandro Tonali to really step up.
His two goals were most welcome, one getting the slice of luck we deserved, and the other an absolute bullet into the bottom left corner of Martinez’s net, but his general play; his tracking, his positioning, and his passing were much improved from his recent displays.
Perhaps the rest at Spurs in the week has given him a moment to reassess, perhaps he revelled being the main man in central midfield, but whatever it was, he was much more like the maestro we had in midfield last season.
And with that aforementioned Bruno injury meaning he will miss as many as ten-fourteen games (and to win just a second game without the Brazilian) Tonali getting back to his best form can only help us in the final stretch of the season.
Good: Big Nick and 4-2-3-1
It’s safe to say Big Nick was enduring a hefty barren spell in front of goal before Saturday. He hadn’t scored in 14 games (since the brace against Chelsea) and his confidence looked to be at an all-time low.
But this is the second time in this competition that he has lined up in a 4-2-3-1 formation, and he was much more involved in general play, much as he was against Bouremouth, and whilst he wasn’t always in the right positions in the box when we were attacking, he held the ball up well under pressure and was part of attacking moves from a deeper position.
His goal came via some good pressing and even though it was tackled onto him and into the net, he won’t care a jot, and it was a just reward for an improved performance in a position that seems to suit him better at the moment. He now has 14 goal involvements in Black and White and this latest is all the sweeter for knocking Vile out of the FA Cup.
Bad: Disgraceful officiating
Early in the match the commentators fawned over the fact that VAR wasn’t in use and how it made the game “purer”. Yet 94 disastrous minutes later, VAR has never looked more necessary. Villa’s “goal” came from a well worked freekick, however Abraham was a yard offside, and with the giant white line of the 18-yard box to use as reference, linesman Nick Greenhalgh inexplicably kept his flag down to award the goal.
Then Lewis Hall was clearly tripped in the box by Lindelof: no penalty and another head scratcher. Barnes was also felled by a Bogarde trailing leg in the box which was also ignored. Next Lucas Digne put in a studs up challenge on Jacob Murphy, taking a chunk out of his leg: but the ref only awarded a yellow.
The ref finally decided he could give a decision against Villa by rightly sending off Marco Bizot for a reckless, last man challenge on Jacob Murphy. Lastly, the neat bow on the shocking officiating cake; with Lucas Digne (who shouldn’t have been on the pitch) five yards inside his own box the ref and his linesman somehow deigned to award a freekick outside the box (and all of this was at 1-0 too).
If you ever need evidence of just how incompetent the officials are in this country just show them this game; disgraceful, abject, and not fit for purpose, but thankfully justice was done in the end.
Good: More resilience (part II after Spurs)
With United suffering yet more injuries in the week (Bruno, Botman and Wissa), trailing to a joke goal, a non-red card, and two possibly three non-penalty awards, it certainly felt like the footballing world was out to get us at Villa Park.
Throw in our horrendous away form and earlier in the season, if not just last weekend, that could’ve been a game in which we surrendered and came away with nothing. A small part of me would’ve preferred this to be a league game, but it’s still against a side who are flying in the Premier League, and we’ve cut off an avenue for Vile to win something with a resilient, hardworking display that also had moments of undoubted quality.
If that Brentford game turns out to be a nadir for our season, then it could be the quintessential blessing in disguise as there are early signs that there has been something of a reset or a reaction. We need to be more consistent of course, but back to back away wins seemed like something that was a pipedream only a week ago, and digging in, fighting, and working hard mixed with the obvious quality we have has certainly put a brighter spin on the rest of the season in the last five days or so.
Qarabag next in the Champions League playoff and we should be going into it with confidence.
Keep the faith. HWTL
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