If there is one thing Villa fans are quickly learning, it is not to leave a match early.
Their staff is mastering the late-night program.
PHOTO : Matty Cash goal against Middlesbrough
Unai Emery’s side has now scored a crucial goal in the 85th minute or later four times in the previous five games, with Saturday’s 87th-minute winner against Middlesbrough securing Villa’s first FA Cup triumph in nearly eight years.
Despite concerns about displays that have been more efficient than exciting since last month’s game-changing effort against Manchester City, Villa’s talent for stealing wins at the final minute does not indicate a side that is running out of steam.
True, there were lengthy stretches of Saturday’s game when they appeared laboured and out of ideas against a solid home defence.
But Boro, like Brentford, Sheffield United, and Brentford before them, realized that Villa is a team that refuses to give up.
Matty Cash’s winner may have had a lot of luck, bouncing off Emmanuel Latte Lath and deceiving goalkeeper Tom Glover, but on the whole, it wasn’t undeserved.
