Villa – Stevenage; The good old FA cup, 3rd round

Does this still rate as probably the best weekend of the football season, the last weekend of the season apart?
It certainly does for me, as there are always plenty of shocks and surprises.
It’s what makes the FA cup, isn’t it?

It has lost a bit of it’s gloss because of the bigger clubs not caring about it too much and playing sides more with resting their best players in mind, as opposed to trying to actually win it and I can only say I despise them for it.
But it still makes for a great spectacle overall, I feel.

Will Unai Emery be looking to throw our chance of some silverware then?
I’d already guessed there would be no chance of that and indeed, he’s come out and said he’ll be playing the game with a view to winning the cup.
Good man.

So shocks aside, another reason I like the cup is because it proves a good payday for any small club that meets a Prem side and Stevenage have practically hit the jackpot having drawn us at home as much as they might have preferred to face us on their turf.
Gate takings are split 45%-45% and when you add in broadcast fees and prize money, there’s a good chance they might get more than £750k out of the game.
If they were to beat us, that money increases quite rapidly, but of course, that isn’t going to happen.
Suffice to say if Stevenage are having financial problems, it’ll help them out massively. If not, it’s a nice few quid in the pot so they can improve their facilities.
Whatever, I’m all for it.

So Emery has inferred that he’ll be going all out, but the reality is that you’d expect some players will be rested with a view to some of the squad who are not first choices getting a chance to show what they can do.

There’s talk that Martinez may be rested and Olsen will come in for the game. What the thinking behind that would be, I’m not sure. Maybe just so Olsen can keep his hand in?
Regardless, I’ve no problem with it. He looked okay against Spurs and while noone ever thinks about the number 2 goalie because he usually plays so rarely, it does make sense that he plays in these sort of games.
Jacob Ramsey should be available and if so, you can bet he’ll definitely feature, even if he doesn’t start. The one thing I do like about Ramsey is his driving runs and they’re something we’ve missed during his absence. They’re exciting, if not always productive.
John McGinn is unlikely to even feature.
I’d expect there to be other players rested, but the team should include enough to beat Stevenage.

The league 2 side had centre half Terence Vancooten taken off in their last game, so he might be unavailable. Michael Bostwick would probably replace him.
January signings Daryl Horgan and Jake Forster-Caskey are both cup-tied.

I know one of my big complaints recently has been about how Villa always manage to let us down when we least expect it. So much so, that it’s become almost the default position where we expect to lose to any side that is inferior to us on paper. Well, “expect” is probably a bit strong, but certainly I don’t get surprised anymore. It’s all part of being a Villa fan, it seems.

Because we’ve been predominantly a top league side for decades, you’d expect us to win the FA cup every, say, 25 years by the law of averages alone, but we’re at nearly double that.
I don’t believe we’ll win it this season, purely because as a club we’re not winners, but if we did, it would surely be about time.

That said, I don’t see us going out tomorrow either and am going for a 2-1 win.
Stevenage are currently 2nd in their league, so they’ll be confident.
But I think we should have too much for them, whatever team we put out.

Then again, I’m sure I’ve used that line before and it’s bitten me on the behind more than once.

Nah, we’ll win, no worries.
I hope.

UTV!