With Aston Villa and Steven Gerrard picking up a much needed second victory in nine attempts over Brighton and Hove Albion last weekend, the result itself has lifted more recent spirits after our poor run, but the manner of the performance overall continues to leave some questions, both tactically and also over the futures of a few individual players.
With some players coming out with more praise than others again, Matty Cash’s 17th minute goal, added to Ollie Watkins’ 68th minute effort to wrap up the 2-0 victory obviously saw them gain a few headlines, and despite a more mixed performance from Cash – his own personal drive to score the opener – saw BBC pundit Garth Crooks name him in his Team of the Week feature after the weekend’s action had finished.
That felt so good 😍😍 Stay strong bro and everyone in Ukraine ❤️🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/xbvwrTiB4s
— Matty Cash (@mattycash622) February 26, 2022
The 24-year-old now Poland international fullback scored only his second club goal in the game, despite making 55 across all competitions for us following his capture from Nottingham Forest in the summer of 2020, but he certainly caught Crooks’ eye giving us the advantage with our first shot of the game.
“This was an impressive performance by Villa having had a shaky period recently. Matty Cash came to Villa’s rescue a couple of times before the full-back got hold of a difficult-looking ricochet only to make a very decent contact and steer the ball past a desperate Robert Sanchez in the Brighton goal. Cash looked desperate to score and when he did we could see why, when in celebration he ripped off his shirt to uncover the support emblazoned across his undershirt for Poland team-mate Tomasz Kedziora, who plays for Dynamo Kyiv and stuck in the Ukraine capital under siege. Cash got booked for his celebration but this was one of those occasions when no-one seemed to care.”
Cash took his place in the side alongside Caoimhin Kelleher (Liverpool), Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool), Fabian Schar (Newcastle), Matt Doherty (Tottenham), Joelinton, Joe Willock (Newcastle), Dejan Kulusevski (Tottenham), Luis Diaz (Liverpool), Harry Kane (Tottenham), Phil Foden (Manchester City).
Can we make it back to back victories against Southampton?
