Aston Villa 2 - 0 WycombeRémi Garde criticises Jack Grealish after Aston Villa overcome Wycombe
Home team scorersCiaran Clark 75
Idrissa Gana 90
• Aston Villa 2-0 Wycombe Wanderers
• Clark 75, Gueye 90
Rémi Garde was critical that it took his Aston Villa players more than an hour to break down League Two promotion contenders Wycombe Wanderers, saving his most barbed comments for Jack Grealish, after late goals from Ciaran Clark and Idrissa Gueye enabled the Premier League’s bottom side to claim a home tie with Manchester City in the FA Cup fourth round.
Aston Villa v Wycombe, Bolton v Eastleigh and more: FA Cup replays – live
Minute-by-minute report: Will Wycombe spring a surprise at rock-bottom Villa? Will Bolton see off non-league Eastleigh? Join Paul Doyle
Read more
Clark broke Wycombe’s sterling resistance within two minutes of Grealish, back after a fortnight out with tonsillitis, being withdrawn on a night when Villa were not only booed off at half-time but on their re-emergence for the second half. Villa have lost every league game when the former Ireland Under-21 forward has played this season.
“You saw the game,” the Villa manager said. “Jack started and it was his first for quite a long time now. But I haven’t seen exactly what I wanted to see from him tonight. I know he has played in the part of the game when we were not good collectively. It’s not only about Jack; I was not happy with the way the team played the first hour. We were the Premier League team tonight but for too long tonight I did not see that.”
Wycombe, back at the ground where they enjoyed an FA Cup semi-final with Liverpool 15 years ago, came out with most of the credit from this third-round tie, not to mention around £350,000. For a team boasting only one player signed for a fee, this has been a pair of games to cherish. “I’m extremely proud,” Gareth Ainsworth, their engaging young manager, said, “because for 70 minutes we matched them – more than matched them and had the better chances – but just ran out of steam.
“We’re full of players who we’ve got from here, there and everywhere who have been told they haven’t got a career. When we heard the reaction of their fans [at half-time] I said to my players, ‘Just listen that – that’s how well you’ve done.’”
Villa Park was enlivened by the 4,000 Wycombe fans who had driven up the M40, many allowed off work early by enlightened employers keen on supporting the town’s team.
Boasting the best defensive record on the road in all four divisions, having conceded only eight league goals away from Adams Park all season, Ainsworth’s side demonstrated their impressive defensive organisation, while breaking with effective directness.
Notwithstanding the 54 places between the teams, Villa barely caused the League Two side a problem in the first hour. The cries of ‘Come on Wycombe’ grew louder.
Sam Wood composed himself before unleashing a cleanly struck left-footed shot that Brad Guzan was relieved to parry to his left. Just before half-time Wood played in Joe Jacobson, scorer of the equalising penalty in the initial game at Adams Park, down the left wing and the left-back’s superb centre tempted Guzan out only for Garry Thompson to head just over the crossbar.
Idrissa Gueye makes sure of Aston Villa’s place in the fourth round of the FA Cup with his side’s second goal against Wycombe. Photograph: Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images
At least Villa had gained four points and a new chairman since the first meeting; a four-game unbeaten run almost represents a golden era in the club’s recent history. Garde had hoped that the ignominy of Villa fans abusing their own players at Adams Park would continue to galvanise his squad but not too many of the nine changes from the side that drew 1-1 with Leicester City can expect to retain their places against West Bromwich Albion on Saturday.
On the hour mark it was Thompson again who headed just wide as Villa, despite replacing Carlos Sánchez with the more creative Gueye at the interval, continued to struggle for any attacking fluency. Last year’s FA Cup finalists continue to look sluggish and lacking in confidence, their relegation remaining a near certainty despite going four games unbeaten for the first time in 13 months.
Villa have fallen to too many lower-division sides in the past five years of knockout football to take anyone for granted. Sheffield United, Bradford City, Millwall and Leyton Orient have been among their conquerors.
There was a desperation about Villa to make their technical superiority count. Jordan Ayew ran all the way down the right wing only to skewer his shot wide of the far post. When he did hold the ball up after a good dash and pull it back towards Grealish, it spun out for Sinclair who lashed his shot well wide. Gueye shot wide as Wycombe, able to make only one change from the team that lost away to Hartlepool United, tired.
Finally, with Carles Gil instantly making a difference on replacing Grealish, Clark headed in Ashley Westwood’s right-wing cross in the 75th minute after Ayew played the ball back. In the 90th Gueye stroked home his first goal for Villa after Rudy Gestede laid back Sinclair’s left-wing cross. But it was the Wycombe players who were last on the pitch sharing applause with their supporters.
Guardian
