Unai Emery will not single out players in Aston Villa FA Cup inquest
Unai Emery promised there would be no finger pointing during the inquest into Villa’s FA Cup humiliation against Stevenage.
The Spaniard watched as his team were dumped out of the competition by their League Two opponents after a stunning late collapse in Sunday’s third round tie.
Villa were leading 1-0 with five minutes to go when a mistake by Leander Dendoncker, who lost the ball to visiting attacker Dean Campbell on the edge of his own penalty box and then fouled his opponent to concede a penalty, allowed Jamie Reid to equalise.
Campbell then struck the winner after Villa switched off at a corner and his shot went under the arm of goalkeeper Robin Olsen.
The defeat ranks among the most embarrassing in Villa’s history but while Emery later apologised to supporters, he insisted it would be wrong to merely focus on the errors made during the calamitous final minutes.
Instead the boss, who was taking charge of just his seventh match, also pointed to his team’s failure to take their chances and kill the game off after they led through Morgan Sanson’s 33rd-minute opener.
Villa finished the match with 17 attempts on goal, yet only three were on target and visiting goalkeeper Taye Ashby-Hammond was not forced to make a serious save during the second half.
Emery said: “I don’t think this is a day for looking at players, or looking at one mistake.
“A mistake in 90 minutes, we can be demanding, but the picture is not always clear. Maybe it is the final passes when we had chances to score a goal. That is also how we lost, in a way.”
Emery made eight changes to the team who had drawn 1-1 with Wolves in Villa’s most recent Premier League fixture. That included recalling back-up Olsen in place of No.1 Emi Martinez.
Emery said: “Every player was ready to play and with a good performance. The first half, we went 1-0 up and in the second we had a lot of chances to score a goal and finish the match. We changed players in the second half but we still had good players on the pitch.”
Villa will look to quickly bounce back when they host Leeds in the Premier League on Friday night.
Full-backs Matty Cash and Ludwig Augustinsson are both being assessed after being forced off in the second half against Stevenage with injuries.
