Defeat at Villa Park in FA Cup

Our FA Cup campaign for this season ended at Villa Park on Sunday afternoon as we fell to a 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa in the fourth round.

A goal in each half from the home side did the damage, Jacob Ramsey firing Villa into the lead inside the first minute before Morgan Rogers doubled their advantage midway through the second period.

Mathys Tel opened his Spurs account on his first start when he pulled a goal back in injury time at the end of the game but it was too little, too late as we exited a second cup competition in four days.

We wanted a reaction after Thursday’s semi-final loss in the Carabao Cup to Liverpool, however there were just 58 seconds gone when Morgan Rogers played in Ramsey down the hosts’ inside left channel and he swept in a shot which was pretty much straight at Antonin Kinsky, who got good hands to it but was unable to keep the ball out.

The home side were causing us problems when they came forward and Donyell Malen fired over before Kinsky’s one-handed diving save prevented Leon Bailey’s curler creeping in and Youri Tielemans was just wide from the edge of the area after picking the ball up on half-way. But for all Villa’s early dominance, we had a glorious chance to level on 25 minutes, Dejan Kulusevski releasing Mikey Moore down the right, his first-time cross was perfect for Heung-Min Son but Emi Martinez got across to block his shot from eight yards out.

Back came Villa though, Bailey bringing another save out of Kinsky with Ramsey firing the rebound against the outside of the post. Just before the break, Malen intercepted Archie Gray’s pass only to fire into the side-netting while we ended on the front foot, Djed Spence hitting a 20-yard drive straight at Martinez.

We made a good start to the second period, playing with more tempo and energy and attacking with more impetus. Son saw a shot blocked by Lamare Bogarde, then set up Yves Bissouma for an effort that was also blocked while Kulusevski’s curling shot was saved by Martinez. But the home side were always dangerous going forwards and Kinsky made a fine save to deny Ramsey, who was played through by John McGinn, before they doubled their lead in the 65th minute. Malen and Bailey combined down the right, Pedro Porro was unable to get a proper connection on Malen’s low cross and Rogers was on hand to slam the ball home from close range.

Rogers lashed a shot into the side-netting after he and Marco Asensio played a couple of clever one-twos down the Villa right, while Ramsey was clean through again in the 75th minute but again, Kinsky made himself big to prevent him making it 3-0.

Kevin Danso then almost reduced the deficit but prodded Porro’s whipped low cross over the bar at the far post and, with four minutes left, we forced Martinez into another smart save, Son rolling a free-kick across the edge of the area for Porro whose fierce shot was saved at full stretch by the Villa keeper.

We eventually did breach the home side’s defence in the first minute of stoppage time, Kulusevski clipping over a lovely cross which Tel diverted past Martinez with an out-stretched leg to give us some late hope, but we couldn’t muster that one final chance to level the scores.

Match data

Goals: Aston Villa – Ramsey 1, Rogers 65; Spurs – Tel 90+1.

Yellow cards: Spurs – Bentancur, Bergvall, Pedro Porro.

Referee: Anthony Taylor.

Venue: Villa Park.

Weather: Light rain, moderate breeze, three degrees.