A battling second half performance fell just short on Saturday evening, as we tumbled out of the FA Cup in a 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa.
The damage was really done in the first period as goals from Emiliano Buendia and Morgan Rogers, the latter in first-half stoppage time, gave the visitors a commanding lead.
But we gave it a real go after the break, Wilson Odobert firing home to reduce the deficit while Villa goalkeeper Marco Bizot made a couple of smart saves to keep his side ahead. In the end though, we couldn’t find that elusive equaliser and exited the tournament at the first hurdle. It was our first home defeat in the FA Cup third round since 1992, when we lost 1-0, also to Aston Villa.
On a cold evening at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the game got underway with us wearing a special all-white shirt to commemorate the 125th anniversary of our 1901 FA Cup success as a non-league team. However there was little play in the opening minutes following an injury to Boubacar Kamara, which led to his departure. When the game did get into its stride, it was the visitors with the first effort of note, Donyell Malen high and wide from 25 yards in the 10th minute. We responded with a spell of possession without troubling Bizot, before the visitors went ahead on 22 minutes. John McGinn and Malen combined to release Buendia and he struck a fierce drive high past Guglielmo Vicario from 15 yards out.
We suffered another setback shortly after when Richarlison limped off to be replaced by Randal Kolo Muani just after the half-hour mark, while Villa were setting the tempo of the game, forcing five corners although none that caused us any real trouble. Our best spell of the half came approaching half-time as Kevin Danso headed over from our first corner of the match before Kolo Muani had a goal ruled out for offside after an incisive run through the middle of the pitch from Xavi Simons. However, we fell further behind three minutes into stoppage time when Malen squared the ball into the box to Buendia, he laid off to Rogers who took a touch and slid the ball into the bottom corner, leaving us with a mountain to climb at the break.
Needing a quick response after the interval, we almost got one when a well-worked move ended with Xavi drilling right-footed from 20 yards but Bizot did well to dive to his left to push it away. But then we did get just what we needed in the 53rd minute, a lovely goal as Kolo Muani did well to win the ball back and drive forwards, slipping it right to Odobert who finished with a crisp shot into the far corner.
It was a goal that changed the whole momentum of the contest, not to mention the atmosphere in the stadium and suddenly, we were up for the fight. And we almost levelled it up two minutes later only for Bizot to make another big save to deny Xavi. We were snapping into tackles, putting pressure on Villa in possession and that led to an opportunity in the 71st minute, Joao Palhinha latching onto a loose ball and hitting a shot that was deflected away for a corner.
Villa always carried a threat though and we were indebted to Pedro Porro moments later as he cleared Buendia’s bobbling shot off the line after a Matty Cash cut-back, while Vicario showed good hands to save a Rogers shot which bounced right in front of him. We thought we’d levelled it up with 11 minutes remaining, Xavi rounding Bizot and rolling the ball home only for the flag to go up again for offside. The final stages were a bit stop-start meaning we couldn’t get into any kind of flow to mount any sustained pressure and the final whistle sounded to end our FA Cup hopes for another season.