After some disappointing draws in December as we closed out 2018, Aston Villa head coach Dean Smith was looking for some luck as we entered 2019 with a Villa Park clash against Queens Park Rangers.
We weren’t just going in search of all three points again, we were probably hoping to get through a game without picking up another injury.
Following their loan recalls, Tommy Elphick and goalkeeper Jed Steer came back into the starting XI.
The game started brightly enough with Tammy Abraham finding the net again in the 21st minute, but either side of the halftime break, QPR levelled and then took a 2-1 lead. Abraham completed his brace with 15 minutes left to play as he made it 2-2 and although we did have the ball in the back of the net a further time, it was ruled out and after 15 odd minutes of stoppage-time, that was where it came to an end.
It was probably a fair point in reality albeit another draw is disappointing, especially as we dominated chances on the day but we are still five points from the Play-Off spots so it’s not all doom and gloom.
Villa Park
Championship
1/01/2019 4:00 pm
Attendance: 37760
Referee: Linington
| Aston Villa | Queens Park Rangers | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abraham (21, 75) | Freeman (41), Eze (57) | ||||||
| Steer | Lumley | ||||||
| Bree | Furlong | ||||||
| Elphick | Leistner | ||||||
| Chester | Lynch | ||||||
| Hutton | Bidwell | ||||||
| Bjarnason | Wszolek | 77 | |||||
| Adomah | 61 | Cousins | |||||
| McGinn | Scowen | ||||||
| Hourihane | 91 | Freeman | |||||
| Kodjia | 61 | Eze | 97 | ||||
| Abraham | Wells | 71 | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Whelan | 91 | Ingram | |||||
| Hogan | Hall | 97 | |||||
| Bolasie | 61 | Manning | |||||
| Davis | Smith | 71 | |||||
| El Ghazi | 61 | Oteh | |||||
| Elmohamady | Chair | ||||||
| Bunn | Osayi-Samuel | 77 | |||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 22 | Goal attempts | 11 |
| 5 | On Target | 4 |
| 9 | Corners | 1 |
| 10 | Fouls | 21 |
| 2 | Yellow Cards | 5 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 60 | % | 40 |