Aston Villa bacame the first team to book their place in the semi-final of the FA Cup, on Saturday, after beating Midlands rivals, West Brom at Villa Park for the second time this week.
The influential Fabian Delph, who was at the heart of everything good about Tim Sherwood’s side, gave Villa the lead shortly after the interval as he powered a left footed strike past Boaz Myhill – brought in by Tony Pulis in place of Ben Foster – before Claudio Yacob was controversially sent off.
After a goalless first half in which Baggies striker Brown Ideye was guilty of passing up a glorious chance when he missed the target from eight yards, Villa came out full of purpose and Scott Sinclair, who was on loan at West Brom last season, added a second to set up a date at Wembley. West Brom paid a heavy price for failing to turn their first-half domination into goals as Fabian Delph produced a sparkling finish from Charles N’Zogbia’s pass to sweep Tim Sherwood’s side ahead on 51 minutes.
A horrid mistake by referee Anthony Taylor in deciding to red card Claudio Yacob on 80 minutes for a second yellow despite barely making contact the grounded Leandro Bacuna provided Villa with the space for their killer second goal five minutes later.
Scott Sinclair chewed up ground before turning Gareth McAuley inside out to fire the ball past the stricken Boaz Myhill in the visiting goal.
Sinclair proably wouldn’t have got the time or space to finish if Yacob had been on the park. There was still time for young Villa substitute Jack Grealish to be harshly sent off after he picked up two bookings inside the closing moments – one for a late challenge on Callum McMcManaman, the other for diving after skipping past Joleon Lescott.
The FA will no doubt be studying footage of the match with Villa set for a heavy fine after several fans raced onto the pitch in injury time to hold the game up before a full-scale pitch invasion at the full-time whistle in scenes straight out of the 1980s.
