Saturday afternoon’s Play-Off Semi-Final first leg between Aston Villa and West Bromwich Albion at Villa Park certainly had a few talking points.
A Glenn Whelan error saw Dwight Gayle capitalise to open the scoring, but having better dominated the game with the Baggies clearly looking to sit back, we finally got the breakthrough we deserved in the last 15 minutes as Conor Hourihane hit a rocket to tie the scores up. Four minutes later Jack Grealish was dragged down in the box and Tammy Abraham made it 26 for the season from the penalty spot and gave us the 2-1 comeback victory.
West Brom saw a penalty shout of their own turned away and Gayle saw a red card for two bookable offences, so all eyes to Tuesday at The Hawthorns now.
Statistics website Whoscored’s player ratings reflected our greater dominance in the tie.
Jack Grealish took their star man award with a score of 8.33 and Tammy Abraham took second spot with 8.01 for his efforts. Completing the top five were second half substitute Conor Hourihane (7.51), John McGinn (6.87) and Neil Taylor (6.70).
Imagine how the day could’ve gone had we actually played to our best!
Smith Admits Frustration As Villa Take Play-Off Advantage Over West Brom
