Post Match report for the Aston Villa (EFL Cup R3) game - Wednesday, 25th September 2019

LEAGUE CUP 3rd round: Brighton v Villa

ALBION KIDS LEARN THE HARD WAY WHAT PRO FOOTBALL IS ALL ABOUT


VENUE: the Amex, Falmer.
RESULT: 1-3 . (h-t 0-2) . SHAPE: 3-4-3 . REF: did what he had to do without undue drama.


PREAMBLE: like initially last term, Albion had drawn a Prem outfit this evening, while all other participating elite clubs contested ties against Championship or lower league opposition.
Brighton fans knew goals had to be scored so expected a fairly fluid affair, where even a shootout might be a last-ditch way to progress.
GATE: 14,982 . WEATHER: dry & mild.

GRAHAM POTTER elected to field a whole host of players from the U23 group or younger. Niggling injuries kept several more well know names from the senior squad out of this match-day eighteen altogether.
Substitutes were full of youthfulness to boot.

TEAM . . . . . . . 27 Button
. . . . . 58 Roberts, 4 Duffy, 3 Bong
. A Davies, 72 Jenks, 28 Baluta, 50 Cochrane
. . 44 Connolly, 45 Richards, 55 Gwargis

BENCH: 23 Steele, 49 Yapi (72), 52 J Davies, 53 Ohora, 56 Radulovic, 60 Longman (58), 71 Spong (82).


GOALS: 22 - 0-1. Despite early attacks from the home eleven, travellers put a useful move together to set up the strike.
33 - 0-2. A counter by visitors tested locals teamwork which was brushed aside a little too easily via good interplay.
61 - 1-2. Seagulls corner gets converted in fine fashion by ROBERTS as defenders closed in on goal from the set piece.
77 - 1-3. It was men versus boys as the midlanders netted a third with superior striking power of finish.

INCIDENTS: just prior to the interval Connolly fired a dig goalwards that came back down from off the crossbar.

YELLOWS: Richards took a second-half liberty. Roberts overstepped the mark late in the day.

SUBS: 58 - Connolly is replaced by Longman. 72 - Duffy came off injured, Yapi went on. 82 - Jenks is withdrawn for Spong.
Albion reshuffled at the back to accommodate loss of the big Irish cent-def.


ANALYSIS: at kickoff, Albion appeared inferior on paper, where selected U23s would require a manful effort to overcome experienced visitors. But going a goal behind made things doubly difficult for locals gameplan. And pattern of play had not yet settled into full blooded cut & thrust cup tie action.
Very soon Villa went two up and things therefore developed into an exercise that also demanded more of the youngsters mentality, while playing for pride in facing defeat.
The second period exposed lack of prominence in midfield and creating dominance in our defensive third. Thus many forward forays were not built from the back but from a variety of counters. However any fail to score stat was deleted after periodic home pressure and restored the will to test opposition up to limits.
The game was up late when travellers two goal cushion was restored to further make it a continuous uphill struggle for youth.
MoM - Roberts, gave useful account of abilities.

NUMBERS: poss 30%-70%, on target 6-10, off target 8-18, corners 3-11, o/s 0-1, fouls 7-11, yellows 2-1, subs 3-2.

FS