Matty Cash profits late on to edge Aston Villa to victory over Middlesbrough

The sprinkle of smartphone lights waved through the air suggested a special night in the making as the clock ticked down. Middlesbrough never really looked quite like forcing a shock win over high-flying Aston Villa but the fact that squeezing out a draw would have felt like an achievement, when it would have been just a solid Premier League result in years gone by, says a lot for the Birmingham club’s current stature.

Matty Cash’s late winner, a shot from range wickedly deflected home off the substitute Emmanuel Latte Lath, also spoke of Villa’s pomp. It had the scent of a big side finding a way to get it done, someway, somehow, when Unai Emery’s team selection had suggested a dilemma in how to approach a tricky tie and increasing demands from week to week.

Michael Carrick made three changes from the dispiriting – but understandable – New Year’s Day defeat to Coventry, when the squad’s mounting injuries and relentless programme came to a weary head in a leaden second half. The returnees in the XI and on the bench here, led by Hayden Hackney, offered a longed-for light at the end of the tunnel in a season frustrated by twists of fortune largely out of their manager’s control. Yet this was not a side bristling with the vim and creativity of the best of the former Manchester United man’s reign.

Maybe a mid-season mini-break would have done Carrick’s men good but, as he reflected pre-match, his players are all hands to the pump this week for the best of reasons, with first Villa and then Chelsea visiting the Riverside to regenerate memories of the Premier League glory years. Making eyes at the meal and then actually having to sit down and plough through it, though, are two different things. Boro rarely felt capable of the sort of tempo that puts the wind up gilded visitors on FA Cup third-round weekend. Maybe the longer game, over two legs against Chelsea in the Carabao Cup, might suit them better.

Villa’s reputation preceded them, with their high line tempting the home side, led by Morgan Rogers, to look for the early ball over the top, prompting a few early sorties from Emi Martínez. Yet Villa’s control always looked greater and Jhon Durán, in for the rested Ollie Watkins, had the first chance of note with a well-hit low drive that Tom Glover did well to turn over at his near post. Nothing about either side was impetuous but Boro were still stretched by the adventure of Cash and Álex Moreno, with the latter forcing Isaiah Jones into almost an auxiliary right-back role helping out Rav van den Berg.

Villa’s eager press inevitably forced mistakes in possession but Boro generally coped well in what was becoming a half-pitch exercise of attack against defence. Emery’s team found an edge around the half-hour mark, with Jacob Ramsey and Durán again forcing saves from Glover, but the home side took their cue to launch a rare counter, with Rogers’ break down the right finished with a blast to the near post that Martínez turned aside. It raised Boro out of their timidity, with Dan Barlaser starting to make his presence felt in midfield and Jones slicing wide from one attack as they dared to be more ambitious.

That small flurry before the break appeared to embolden Boro on their return to the field, but Villa immediately reminded them of their superior quality, with John McGinn’s dipping shot from just outside the area forcing the impressive Glover into action again. Ezri Konsa then headed a Leon Bailey corner against the inside of a post before an unmarked Moreno blasted a volley over.

Emery’s own selection, leaving out Watkins and Douglas Luiz, perhaps betrayed his own concerns about his team’s workload, as they finished a sensational 2023 in second place in the Premier League but with the recent snatched win over Burnley papering over a few emerging cracks. If his choices made long-term sense, they left his dominant team without the killer instinct to make their superiority count.

As the Basque coach prepared to remedy that with a quadruple substitution, bringing on Douglas Luiz, Watkins, Moussa Diaby and Nicolò Zaniolo, Boro began to push harder, relishing the challenge of pushing one of the country’s best teams but perhaps relishing the prospect of a replay rather less. Zaniolo cut inside and unleashed a blockbuster from range just wide of the far post, but Cash, fortunately for Villa, had the luck the Italian didn’t.