The proper football’s back at last.
Passing almost unremarked is Andres Garcia’s debut for the Spanish under-21s, which might cost us a few quid. They drew 2-2 with the Czech Republic. Slightly more remarked was the world’s best goalkeeper winding up the entire population of Brazil as Argentina beat their team 4-1.
Talking of internationals, England are playing one at Villa Park in September because Coldplay are playing Wembley. Insert your own witty aside here. Talking of England, they needed three Villa players starting to beat Latvia. They all done good and to make it even better, everyone came back from international duty in one piece.
We’re putting on another one of those pop concerts in the summer. Someone named Chris Brown’s playing, probably with no proper tunes and you won’t be able to tell the girls from the boys.
A team of Uefa inspectors have been visiting ahead of Euro 28, to inspect the facilities. If they came by train they’re probably still waiting at Witton station.
FA Cup quarter-final weekend begins and for a change we’re looking at Saturday’s matches with a bit of interest. Palace beat Fulham easily enough while Forest win on penalties against Brighton, which is a bit of a bugger but never mind. Then comes the main event.
This was the magic of the cup alright. Famous old club who’ve fallen on hard times for about a century at home to the brash big Premier Leaguers with all their money and their fancy foreign ways. There were tinfoil FA Cups held up by shiny-faced young scamps all over the ground and a lot of kids watching players they usually only see on TV. And in a season of upsets there might just have been another one. At least that’s what the BBC would have thought, although they’ve also have thought how many more would have been watching Manchester United v Liverpool.
Any remote possibility of an upset became even more remote when the teams were announced. Preston had a load of injuries, including their keeper, while we even had a bench filled with internationals. Looking at our squad now is like watching one of those property shows where a small army of tradesmen turn up to renovate a little old lady’s bungalow; the transformation is incredible and it seems to have happened overnight.
The first half was along predictable lines – Preston gave their all while Villa didn’t do much and didn’t have to. All we had to do was avoid making any mistakes and wait for them to make one. It took until a few minutes into the second half and there was Marcus Rashford to get his first goal for us. Then he got his second, then Jacob Ramsey got a third. Game over and see it out without any fuss. That’s what trophy-winning teams do.
Almost before the teams were off the pitch the draw sees us playing Palace,then after that Manchester City annoyingly came from a goal down to win at Bournemouth, but that was the only annoyance of the weekend. Even the women’s team won.
