U23s – Aston Villa March On In Cup Against Blackburn

Aston Villa’s Under 23 side took victory in the clash against Blackburn Rovers in the Premier Cup on Friday.

Having closed out the group stage with victory over Sheffield United on Wednesday with a one nil win even if the club themselves seemed to forget we were playing, the tie against Blackburn had already been scheduled with qualification through to the next round assured.

The ‘game that barely was’ according to official site coverage saw us finish top of the group, and the players clearly responded to that with a two nil win over the young Ewood Park outfit.

Aston Villa are through to the quarter finals of the competition courtesy of efforts from Kelsey Mooney and Callum O’Hare.

Mooney opened the scoring inside of the opening 60 seconds as he capitalised on an assist from O’Hare, and Mr Callum went one better in the 81st minute as he doubled our advantage to register his name on the scoresheet.

Fair is fair though, a credited younger Blackburn side made a game of it and did see a goal ruled out at one nil and they had pressure of their own, as well as having the majority of the play but they didn’t do enough with it.

Maybe the headline from the game should be a certain Joe Grayson – son of Simon, a former Villa and Blackburn player, put in a good performance as he makes his own way in the game.

Full details credited to rovers.co.uk – Villa still to do better.

Aston Villa:

Sarkic, Walker, Clark, Finnerty, Bedeau, Clarke, O’Hare (c), Prosser, Mooney (Oduntayo, 80), Doyle-Hayes, Cox (Abdo, 68).

Unused substitutes:

Idemim, Bazeley-Graham, Brunt.

Goal: Mooney (1), O’Hare (81).

Yellows – Bedeau, Clark, O’Hare.

Blackburn:

Fisher, C. Doyle, Magloire (Barnes, 87), Grayson, Travis, Evans (Thompson, 89), Hardcastle (c), Buckley, Tomlinson, Chapman (Vale, 11) Simmonds.

Unused substitutes:

Byrne, Platt.

Yellows – Tomlinson, Magloire, Buckley.

Referee: Joe Hull.