Fulham 2-1 Villa. Jan 4th.
This defeat means we’re out of the FA Cup at the first time of asking, no surprises there. The last time we won this competition was 1957, that’s three generations ago and we’ve figured in only two finals since. It’s pretty pathetic and we suspected there’d be little chance of improvement this year, The FA Cup being something of an intrusion on the serious business of Premier League survival, but that doesn’t excuse such a limp performance from our reserve team. Most professional footballers would have viewed this as a chance to impress, but the players who’d been given their chance barely broke sweat and their meek surrender points to the glaring shallowness of our squad.
The game was largely uneventful until Fulham took the lead into the second half, a prelude to a swift equaliser from El Ghazi, walloping the ball into the net just as it was about to cross the line. I’m sure an indignant Kodja had a quiet word with him afterwards, it was his chip over the keeper that was destined for the net until El Ghazi’s intervention. The shadow boxing continued between both teams as they laboured towards an apparent replay before, fifteen minutes from time, Fulham cracked in a wordly from twenty five yards after our midfield gave theirs all the time in the world.
If we’d put a shift in and been beaten by a better team we’d have taken our defeat on the chin, but to meekly subside against lower league opposition while fielding a team of reserves was inexcusable. Our second string players fluffed their lines badly, they should have been breaking their necks to force themselves into the manager’s thinking, but instead drifted about the park like empty crisp packets blown around in a gentle wind. 3,000 Villa supporters took the trouble to fetch themselves down to Craven Cottage, if they could be bothered to turn up so should the players, but the modern day, swaggering professional footballer, all haircut and tattoos, seemingly doesn’t want to dirty his shorts.
The FA Cup has gone for another season, we do though have the first leg of the League Cup semi final this week, hopefully our players will make an effort this time, but there’s no guarantee. If we stay up all might yet be forgiven, but there’s no guarantee of that either.
The game was largely uneventful until Fulham took the lead into the second half, a prelude to a swift equaliser from El Ghazi, walloping the ball into the net just as it was about to cross the line. I’m sure an indignant Kodja had a quiet word with him afterwards, it was his chip over the keeper that was destined for the net until El Ghazi’s intervention. The shadow boxing continued between both teams as they laboured towards an apparent replay before, fifteen minutes from time, Fulham cracked in a wordly from twenty five yards after our midfield gave theirs all the time in the world.
If we’d put a shift in and been beaten by a better team we’d have taken our defeat on the chin, but to meekly subside against lower league opposition while fielding a team of reserves was inexcusable. Our second string players fluffed their lines badly, they should have been breaking their necks to force themselves into the manager’s thinking, but instead drifted about the park like empty crisp packets blown around in a gentle wind. 3,000 Villa supporters took the trouble to fetch themselves down to Craven Cottage, if they could be bothered to turn up so should the players, but the modern day, swaggering professional footballer, all haircut and tattoos, seemingly doesn’t want to dirty his shorts.
The FA Cup has gone for another season, we do though have the first leg of the League Cup semi final this week, hopefully our players will make an effort this time, but there’s no guarantee. If we stay up all might yet be forgiven, but there’s no guarantee of that either.
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