Aston Villa 3 Hibernian 0

Thursday saw the return of European football to Villa Park for the first time in 13 years as Villa took on Hibs in what was already a bit of a dead rubber. 

The first leg of the Conference League Play off had seen Villa see off Hibs 5-0 in Edinburgh, so it was a surprisingly relaxed visit to Villa Park. To be fair to Hibs, they still travelled in numbers and I can attest to the fact that the Dragon Inn, Wellington and Queen's Arms in town were all populated by travelling fans (and probably a few other pubs too). Unfortunately for them though despite the impressive amount of noise they made at the game and the non-stop singing, this was European football and not the Eurovision Song Contest, as they were blown away again on the pitch.

Villa made several changes as was to be expected. It was a good chance to see youngsters Jhon Duran, Omari Kellyman and Seb Revan in action.  It was Jhon Duran, who after scoring within a few seconds of being introduced in the Everton game a week before, put the Villa in the lead. A through ball from Pau Torres put him through on goal and Villa had the lead on 11 minutes. It was definitely going to be a tough and long game for the Hibees.  Villa continues to press and on 34 minutes it was two, when a fine through ball from another of the youngsters, Omari Kellyman, found Leon Bailey added to the scoreboard.

The second half saw Villa in cruise mode (Hibernian only mustered one shot on target all match and only 3 efforts during the whole match). At the start of the half Villa introduced John McGinn, who would have been keen to play against the other club where he is seen as a hero. Matty Cash, who had scored a brace against Burnley in the previous game was also introduced as a more attacking right-back. With the aggregate score already at 7-0 you might have asked why, but on the hour mark he helped himself to Villa's third and it really was, if it wasn't before game over. 
















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