James Milner marked his 23rd birthday with two goals as Aston Villa saw off a dogged Gillingham side in a massively entertaining FA Cup tie.
His first came from Adam Miller’’s error but Gillingham replied well with Dennis Oli and Simeon Jackson going close.
Nathan Delfouneso wasted a great chance when he volleyed wide and was made to pay when Jackson beat marker Zat Knight to equalise on 57 minutes.
But when Miller fouled Ashley Young in the box Milner won it from the spot.
Gillingham began brightly so Villa were fortunate to go ahead on 13 minutes.
Stiliyan Petrov and Milner combined well after captain Miller lost possession on the edge of the box with Milner curling the ball into the left-hand corner.
But rather than being deflated by the early goal, Gillingham went on the attack.
Gary Mulligan served notice of intent when his twists and turns on the right wing left his marker on his backside, and fired the ball in to Oli, who shot just wide of the post, although an off-side flag would have ruled it out anyway.
Milner gifted the Gills another chance when his backpass put his defence under pressure, and only an expertly-timed Knight challenge took the ball off Jackson’’s toes.
After enduring something of a battering from the home side, Villa had a great chance to double their lead just before the break.
Milner sent over a beautiful cross to Delfouneso, who wasted the chance, volleying over when he”d more time then he realised.
Villa began the second half brightly, with Simon Royce forced to make a fine double save from Milner and Delfouneso, but when the next goal came, it was for Gillingham.
The diminutive Jackson had been closely marked by Knight all afternoon but judged Mulligan’’s flick-on perfectly to turn the Villa defender, sprint to the edge of the box and unleash an unstoppable shot past Brad Friedel.
The pace of the game was relentless, with Craig Gardner having two shots blocked as Villa tried to kill off their opponents, and tempers began to fray on the pitch and on the touchline.
The longer the game went on, the more Villa’’s class began to show and eventually it paid off when Young was sent sprawling in box by Miller.
It was a debatable decision, with suggestions that Young went down easily.
But the referee had a perfect view and pointed to the spot, from which Milner scored on 79 minutes.
As time ran out Gillingham hurled everything into attack but in the end they were just found short.
Gillingham striker Simeon Jackson:
“It’’s a sweet and sour feeling - I thought we”d a chance but it wasn”t to be so it’’s back to Aldershot on Saturday
“We knew it would be difficult for them as they”re not used to our home ground, so we set out to do a job - another 10 minutes and we might have had a replay.
“From where I was standing it looked like he (Ashley Young) went down a bit easy but the referee had a better view than I did and he gave it.”
Aston Villa manager Martin O”Neill:
“If our players didn”t know they were in a contest early on they knew after 10 minutes.
“Never for one minute did I feel comfortable, Gillingham were always in the game even when we were leading 1-0.
“They got the equaliser and the game could have gone either way, but I felt we were dangerous enough on the break.”
Gillingham: Royce, Lewis, Bentley, King, Nutter, Oli, Weston, Miller, Barcham, Mulligan, Jackson Read the rest of this entry »
Manchester United sealed an FA Cup fourth round date against Spurs with an easy win against 10-man Southampton.
Danny Welbeck headed United in front in the 20th minute after John O”Shea’’s header was turned on to the bar by Southampton keeper Kelvin Davis.
Southampton’’s Matt Paterson then saw red for a wild lunge on Nemanja Vidic.
Nani scored from the spot after 48 minutes when referee Mike Riley harshly ruled David McGoldrick had handled, and Darron Gibson slammed home a third.
Sir Alex Ferguson’’s side will now face another date with their FA Cup nemesis Harry Redknapp, who ended their hopes in this competition at the quarter-final stage last year with eventual winners Portsmouth.
Spurs boss Redknapp also has FA Cup victories against United to his credit with Bournemouth and West Ham United.
For Southampton, the whole day was an education for their emerging youngsters - although they also felt they were on the wrong end of several crucial refereeing decisions.
United left Wayne Rooney on the bench and rested Cristiano Ronaldo, but their absence did little to aid Southampton’’s cause as the visitors dominated.
Saints” keeper Davis was outstanding in the early stages, saving well from Nani and Anderson before Welbeck broke the deadlock after 20 minutes.
Davis did superbly to turn O”Shea’’s header on to the bar from Nani’’s corner, but Welbeck was lurking to finish the easyst of finishes.
Michael Carrick almost took advantage of a brilliant flick from Dimitar Berbatov to add a second after 27 minutes, only for Chris Perry’’s recovering tackle to cease what looked a certain goal.
Southampton’’s fans were angered six minutes later when Jonny Evans hauled down McGoldrick Read the rest of this entry »
Somebody must have purchased Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger a calculator each for Christmas because both managers have done their sums and criticised the Premier League’s fixture programme.
After the United boss wondered aloud if the league was handicapping his club through their fixture list, his Arsenal counterpart crunched the numbers over the weekend
Dear Premier League players, managers and pundits, I’ve got a great suggestion for a New Year’s Resolution - stop moaning!
Win or lose, it seems hardly a match goes by without an immediate post-mortem and it’s almost always the fault of the match officials rather than poor skill or tactical ineptitude.
“I think when he looks at that on replay he”ll probably apologise,” has become a refrain of hard-done by managers these days as they highlight one decision of hundreds in a match that didn”t go the way they would have liked.
Middlesbrough manager Gareth Southgate laughed off the idea that his team should have had a penalty in their defeat at Old Trafford on Monday, saying, “You don’t get those things here,” while Harry Redknapp let fly this week with a tirade of abuse towards a referee who sent off one of his Tottenham players.
Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor was sent off before Christmas for two bookings - virtually identical cases of clumsy tackling Read the rest of this entry »
The year is coming to an end, which means it is time for football’s annual awards, including the mischievous top-of-the-flops variety.
In Italy listeners of Rai radio show Catersport voted Inter Milan’s 18.6-million-euro signing Ricardo Quaresma Serie A’s worst player of 2008.
With Cristiano Ronaldo winning the Ballon d’Or and favourite for the FIFA World Player of the Year award, there’s a nice symmetry about another Portuguese player taking a top booby prize.
It’s a spectacular showing in a way, as Quaresma has only been in Serie A since the close season, but still got almost twice as many votes as his nearest rival for the ‘Golden Bin’ gong, Atalanta’s former Italy striker Christian Vieri.
Catersport’s listeners may have been a tad harsh. Fellow winger Mancini has been equally anonymous since moving to Inter from AS Roma in July, while forward Adriano, the 2006 and 2007 Golden Bin winner, could have come further up than third after wasting another chance to get his career back on track with indiscipline.
Andriy Shevchenko, who came sixth, is still looking for his first Serie A goal since returning to AC Milan from Chelsea and he too may have deserved a higher ranking.
The people have spoken though, so let’s assume that Quaresma was Serie A’s top flop of the year. But if we looked further afield, who would be his competitors for the title of world football’s massivegest letdown of 2008?
Chelsea’s John Terry for his miss in the Champions League final?
Bayern Munich striker Luca Toni for failing to live up to his billing for Italy at Euro 2008?
Who would get your Golden Bin?
PHOTO: Inter Milan’s Ricardo Quaresma controls the ball against Anorthosis during their Champions League match at San Siro, Oct Read the rest of this entry »
Somebody must have purchased Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger a calculator each for Christmas because both managers have done their sums and criticised the Premier League’s fixture programme.
