Villa’s EFL Trophy Dream Comes To An End But The Lads Can Be Proud – Match Stats

Aston Villa’s Under 21 side were back in action this evening as we made the trip to The Valley to face Charlton Athletic in the next round of the EFL Trophy competition.

Having won all three games in the Group stage, confidence was high that the young lads would do us proud in what would be another tough tie for them given the relative experience on show.

That experience told as the hosts opened the scoring 15 minutes in, but heads didn’t drop and Mark Delaney’s side battled on, bringing themselves back on level terms with five minutes remaining in the half as Finley Thorndike found the back of the net with a calm finish.

The referee awarded an absolute homer of a decision three minutes later as the hosts restored their lead.

We were under the cosh at times which you’d expect, but we had a fabulous shout for a penalty of our own, and even though it was a far stronger call than theirs, the referee waved the appeals away. Good chances continued to come our way though and some of the play was again promising for the future.

Sadly though, the second equaliser never came and after a brave effort this year, we fell to a 2-1 defeat and now exit the competition.

It should’ve been a great experience for the kids though.