Aston Villa 4 Sunderland 3

 Well, I have been to a lot of poor games this season including the Solihull Moors one the day before. However, this one was a classic and one that will live in the memories of both sets of fans, but probably longer in Villa fans'. 

The game got off to a blistering start when John McGinn found Ollie Watkins in space and crossed the ball for him to head home with only two minutes on the clock. However, if Villa thought it was going to be a rout, they were to be mistaken as Chris Rigg scored on 9 minutes to make it 1-1. For the next period of time Sunderland looked the better of the two teams, but with just under 10 minutes left in the half Ian Maatsen found Ollie Watkins in space for him to head home and put Villa in the lead. Finally, Villa really had the bit between their teeth and looked to increase their advantage before halftime.

the second half started as the first half had finished and with the half only 2 minutes old, a lovely placed shot saw Morgan Rogers put Villa 3-1 up. For most of the rest of the half it looked like Villa would win easily by either keeping the score the same or increasing it. With a number of important games coming up, Unai clearly saw it as a chance to rest key players and made a raft of substitutions. It was a plan that nearly backfired. With just 4 minutes left to play, Jadon Sancho who was coming back from injury and had only been on the pitch for 6 minutes gave the ball away and Trai Hume jumped on the opportunity to narrow the lead to one. And Sunderland weren't done there, another week challenge by Sancho almost straight from the restart saw Enzo Le Fee able to set up Wilson Isidor - who had only been on the pitch for a couple of minutes himself - to score and make it 3-3.

Villa had been cruising and it felt worse than a defeat. Soon after the third had gone in, it almost became a defeat when Martinez was forced to make a spectacular save. However, there was still time for things to go from agony to ecstasy. In the 93rd minute with time running out for Villa to salvage a win after being so comfortable for most of the game Luca Digne found Tammy Abraham. Tammy didn't make a mistake from close range and Villa won 4-3.

In some ways, it was a shame that Watkins didn't get a hattrick, but also great to see Tammy come on for him and finally get some of the limelight.










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