Key events
39 min: Villa push Newcastle back for the first time in a while. There’s no way through an organised defence, though. In desperation, Tielemans, quarterbacking from deep, tries to ping Cash clear down the right but wellies the ball straight out for a goal kick.
37 min: Rogers advances down the left. He’s not challenged, so upon reaching the edge of the box he chances his arm with a shot. His powerful effort is turned around the post by Pope. That’s Villa’s first shot on target since Watkins’ 32-second effort, a stat that doesn’t quite tell the whole story of this match, given Watkins has subsequently hit the woodwork twice.
36 min: Isak tries to burst into space down the right but is cynically – albeit lightly – tugged on the shoulder by Tielemans. The referee doesn’t whistle. Isak frowns quite a lot.
35 min: Tonali spins in from the left and curls a low shot towards the bottom right. Martinez, initially unsighted, turns it around the post late. It might have taken a little deflection en route off Konsa, too, so that’s a fine reaction save. Burn meets the resulting corner with a weak header that flaps miles wide right.
33 min: A corner now for Villa, won by McGinn down the left. This game is nothing if not end-to-end. Tielemans whips towards the near post but Joelinton bashes a header clear. Both teams on the front foot.
31 min: Livramento wins another corner down the left. Trippier swings it straight down Martinez’s throat.
29 min: Livramento works his way down the left and earns a corner in front of the Holte End. Nothing comes of it. Speaking of that part of the stadium, and the goalscoring legend Pongo Waring, here’s Tony Hughes: “His name was Tom, and his ashes are scattered around the goal at the Holte End of Villa Park.”
27 min: A free kick for Villa out on the left. Asensio swings it in. Watkins meets it with a fine header, aiming for the top-left corner … only to hit the woodwork again! This one crashes off the upright. Watkins has been an inch here, and another inch there, away from a first-half hat-trick!
25 min: Cash diddles his way down the right and swings a cross into the mixer, looking for Tielemans. Easy for Pope. Meanwhile more on Pongo Waring. “An outstanding name,” according to Espen B. “Straight out of a PG Woodhouse novel.”
23 min: Martinez may have done better with that Schar header, which went between his legs at his near post. Not the greatest look for a keeper, especially after the mistake that led to PSG’s first goal during the week. “I think every football club in the country would be improved by having a Pongo on their books,” opines Simon McMahon. “I mean, if England had had a Pongo Owen, or Pongo Rooney, or Pongo Kane, they’d have won the World Cup umpteen times by now.”
21 min: Asensio appears in the mood to make good that mistake, and after tangling with Burn, takes a quick free kick to send Villa on the attack. McGinn gains ground down the left and crosses, but there’s nobody in claret in there and Pope claims. This will not end 1-1. Not the way these lads are going at it.
19 min: Villa should be in the lead again! Maatsen reaches the byline down the left and cuts back for Asensio, who is in a pocket of space, six yards out! He shapes to sidefoot home, but lets the ball bobble under his boot and the shot pings harmlessly wide right! This is great fun. Unai Emery doesn’t look particularly impressed, however.
GOAL! Aston Villa 1-1 Newcastle United (Schar 18)
Schar, who arguably shouldn’t be on the pitch, draws Newcastle level! Barnes teases Kamara down the left and curls long. Schar meets the cross at the far post, his downward header squirting between Martinez’s legs and in!
16 min: From the corner on the right, Kamara has a dig from distance. It’s deflected wide left, and from the next corner Maatsen skies an effort high into the stand behind the goal. Villa by far the better team so far.
15 min: The resulting free kick is chipped down the right for Cash, who hits a cross-cum-shot from the tightest of angles. The ball pings off Pope’s chest and nearly flies into the net, but sails wide for a corner.
14 min: Konsa shovels a pass down the middle for Watkins, who was looking to tear clear when grabbed by Schar. The Newcastle man goes into the book. That could easily have been a red card for denial of a goalscoring opportunity. VAR isn’t minded to overturn the on-field decision. Some very odd calls being made here.
12 min: VAR also had a look at a tangle between Trippier and Watkins, the former accidentally grazing the prone latter with his studs. But the referee decides there’s nothing sinister in it.
10 min: Rogers is scythed down by a late Burn challenge, but Villa are on the attack so the whistle doesn’t go. McGinn crosses from the left but Asensio clatters Pope and that’s a free kick. No idea why Burn then doesn’t go into the book for that very poor tackle, but here we are.
9 min: Guimaraes has the opportunity to slide Isak into the Villa box down the right, but overcooks the pass and sends the ball out for a goal kick.
8 min: Kamara prevents Joelinton from busting into space in the centre circle, a hand around the waist from behind. He’s lucky not to go into the book. Some referees simply don’t like dishing cards out so soon.
7 min: Newcastle need to settle, and do so with a bit of sterile possession in the middle of the park.
5 min: Watkins, perhaps in the mood to prove a point after not being started against PSG, dribbles hard down the inside-left channel, enters the box, and sends a rising shot crashing off the underside of the crossbar! Pope beaten all ends up, but it rebounds clear. That was inches away from planting into the top-left corner. What a double whammy that would have been!
4 min: Newcastle respond by winning a corner, from which Barnes has a shot amid a penalty-box melee. It’s blocked.
2 min: That goal’s made Watkins Villa’s joint leading goalscorer in Premier League history. He’s level on 74 goals with Gabriel Agbonlahor. The likes of Billy Walker, Harry Hampton, Pongo Waring and Peter McParland airbrushed out of this particular version of history.
GOAL! Aston Villa 1-0 Newcastle United (Watkins 32 sec)
McGinn tries to release Watkins down the left. Tonali comes across to put a stop to his gallop. But Tonali’s clearance only goes to Tielemans, who immediately returns it down the inside-left channel to Watkins. He shoots. A deflection off Schar sends the ball into the bottom left, past the wrong-footed, and rooted, Pope. What a start!
Newcastle get the ball rolling. They’re kicking towards the Holte End in this first half.
The teams are out! Aston Villa are in their famous claret and blue, while Newcastle wear third-choice white shirts with green kecks. Newcastle are on a good run against Villa, having won five of the last six Premier League meetings to the aggregate tune of 16-2. Villa did win the other match 3-0, though, on their own turf in 2023, so that should give them some succour. We’ll be off in a minute!
The ever-polite Unai Emery talks to Sky Sports. “Good afternoon … or good evening! … it’s a most important match … more or less everything we did before was important but we are in a key moment … we face Newcastle who are having a brilliant season … we have to try to be close to them … for a Champions League position … or Europa League … our highest challenge is now.”
The 3pms have finished, and the results are a mixed bag for Champions League dreamers Villa and Newcastle. Bournemouth dropped a couple of points against ten-man Crystal Palace, while Brighton went down 4-2 at Brentford. However Manchester City scored a couple of late goals at Everton to consolidate their membership of the top five. Rob Smyth has all the details in this afternoon’s edition of your super soaraway Clockwatch. Here’s how the table looks as a result.
Jason Tindall, standing in for the stricken Eddie Howe, talks to Sky. “I think the team picks itself … individuals and the team are delivering, so: unchanged! … testament to Harvey Barnes for the time he’s spent out of the team, he’s stayed focused … it’s a very tough game for us today … one of the best managers that’s out there … two teams in very good form … aggressive football … it should be a good spectacle.”
This is a rerun of both the 1905 and 1924 FA Cup finals. Aston Villa won the former 2-0, denying Newcastle a league-and-cup double, while Newcastle repaid the favour by exactly the same scoreline 19 years later. No real reason to mention either of those games, other than an excuse to rummage around the Observer archive, because, well, y’know. Here’s a splash of colour from the latter affair, played exactly 100 years and 51 weeks ago today.
“Newcastle United won the Football Association Cup for the second time by defeating Aston Villa by two goals to none. Billy Cowan and Stan Seymour scored the two goals in just over a minute, but the losing team had eighty percent of the play throughout.
“From an early hour yesterday morning the neighbourhood of King’s Cross and Euston was crowded with thousands of men and women who, it was obvious from their accent, had come either from Newcastle or Birmingham to witness the match. The trains began to arrive from Newcastle at King’s Cross as early as 2.55 in the morning. Fortunately a considerable amount of accommodation was available in the waiting rooms, while many of the enthusiasts found the seats on the platforms handy for a nap.
“From an early hour all roads seemed to lead to the stadium. The visitors from the North, as well as thousands of Londoners interested in the great contest, travelled by charabanc, by bus and by train … there was none of the disorder which occurred at the entrance to the stadium last year.
“Cup football is notoriously sensational, but to describe yesterday’s final as unusually dramatic can convey but slightly to those who were not there the scene which prevailed when, a few minutes from time, a lightning Newcastle raid led to a goal – and the extinguishing of Aston Villa.
“In a sweeping dash, the Newcastle forwards suddenly found a way past the men who hitherto had valiantly baulked them. Cowan scored. A half-minute later and the Villa should have equalised. Straight back bore the men from the North, and Seymour, slipping past a defence which had not recovered from a stunning blow, again had the ball in the net. The first goal, however, had settled the match, which will go down in football history as the game which saw the winners play a reserve goalkeeper (Bill Bradley) whose sterling work paved the way for his side’s triumph.”
Villa make four changes to their starting line-up in the wake of their brave but ultimately futile 3-2 victory over Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League on Tuesday evening. Ian Maatsen, who nearly saved the day with a volley blocked on the line deep in injury time, is rewarded for his efforts with a start, along with Tyrone Mings, Marco Asensio and Ollie Watkins. Lucas Digne, Marcus Rashford and Amadou Onana drop to the bench, while Pau Torres misses out altogether.
Newcastle meanwhile are in If It Ain’t Broke mode. They thumped Crystal Palace 5-0 in the Premier League on Wednesday, so name exactly the same starting XI.
The teams
Aston Villa: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Mings, Maatsen, Kamara, Tielemans, McGinn, Asensio, Rogers, Watkins.
Subs: Olsen, Disasi, Barkley, Rashford, Digne, Garcia, Malen, Onana, Ramsey.
Newcastle United: Pope, Trippier, Schar, Burn, Livramento, Guimaraes, Tonali, Joelinton, Murphy, Isak, Barnes.
Subs: Dubravka, Wilson, Gordon, Targett, Krafth, Osula, Willock, Longstaff, Miley.
Preamble
Both of these famous old clubs really enjoyed their recent taste of Champions League football; both of these famous old clubs fancy some more. It’s third versus seventh with five points between them and fifth place at the very least the goal. And if that doesn’t whet the appetite enough, Villa have won nine of their last ten in all competitions, while Newcastle are on a six-game winning tear that includes the claiming of their first domestic trophy in 70 years. This promises to be a cracker. Buckle up! Or buckle in. Probably best to do both. Kick-off is at 5.30pm BST. It’s on!
