FA CupAston Villa 2-1 West Ham United
Friday, 10th January 2025
by Staff Writer
Graham Potter's reign as the new West Ham manger ended in disappointing fashion as the Hammers were sent tumbling out of the FA Cup at the first hurdle.
Yet despite having been in charge of the team for less than 48 hours, and with just one training session under their belts, there were clear signs of progress from the damaging Lopetegui era.Ironically perhaps both managers have now began their West Ham careers with a defeat again Aston Villa - both losing by two goals to one - with Lucas Paqueta scoring West Ham's consolation goal and Amadou Onana scoring for Villa on both occasions.
However bar those freak similarities there was very little to compare between the two, as Potter ripped up the Spanish Head Coach's rule book and sent out a team that, until injury and terrible officiating got in the way, had Villa's number for the most part.
Known to be willing to turn to the youth in order for a solution, teenager Ollie Scarles was the first beneficiary of Potters' fresh mindset as he replaced the injured Emerson at left back, as opposed to the far more experienced Aaron Cresswell who had to be content with a place on the bench.
And with Mo Kudus and Crysencio Summerville restored to their favoured positions at right and left wing respectively, West Ham looked far more threatening from the start - with Paqueta almost finding the net inside the opening 90 seconds with a long-rage effort that fizzed narrowly wide of its intended target.
Having found his range with that effort, Paqueta was on hand to convert Summerville's low cross from the right side of the Villa penalty area with just 10 minutes on the clock to give the Hammers a lead they fully deserved.
And the hosts, unusually quiet appeared to have little answer to West Ham who prevented Unami Emery's side from creating a single shot on target in the opening 45 minutes.
So far so good for the Hammers, despite having lost Niclas Fullkrug to a hamstring injury midway through the half as he attempted a sprint - an injury that will keep him out for between one to two months.
Yet the second half was to prove a different story entirely as once again the Hammers were undone by a dreadful call from rookie referee Tim Robinson, working without the VAR safety barrier on this occasion.
Having managed to navigate a tricky opening to the second half, the Hammers appeared to have navigated the Villa storm - until Robinson changed the game with an absurd decision, granting the hosts a corner after a mishit Onana effort ended up nearer the corner flag than its intended target, having touched nobody else.
And seconds later West Ham's hard-earned lead disintegrated as Onana prodded the ball over the line following some indecision inside the six-yard box, as West Ham failed to deal with the corner adequately.
The Hammers, by now without Summerville - who was seen clutching his left hamstring for several minutes prior to his replacement - too, had barely recovered from that disappointment before conceding a second.
Ollie Watkins, as quiet tonight as he has been for much of the season picked up the ball on the left before squaring for Morgan Rogers, who fired home from close range to win the tie for Villa.
From West Ham's perspective the goal was almost as disappointing as Villa's opener, for scorer Rogers could quite conceivably been dismissed for two bookable offences prior to being in a position to win the game.
His clear tug on Vladimir Coufal, as the Czech defender attempted to break forward would have resulted in a yellow card 99 times out of 100; that it was ignored by Robinson allowed Rogers to complete a similarly illegal offence some moments later for which he was finally booked - when it should've been a red card.
New manager Potter now has rather more time - a whole three days, in fact - to assess his opening match and try and put together a team capable of beating Fulham in what will be his first home game next week.
West Ham Utd: Fabianski, Wan-Bissaka, Mavropanos (Luis Guilherme 85), Kilman, Scarles (Cresswell 77), Alvarez (Soler 85), Soucek, Paqueta, Kudus, Summerville (Coufal 46), F? 1/4 llkrug (Ings 15)
Subs not used: Foderingham, Casey, Rodr?-guez, Irving
Goals: Paqueta (9)
Booked: Kudus
Aston Villa: Olsen, Cash (Nedeljkovic 72), Mings, Konsa, Maatsen, Tielemans, Barkley (Onana 23), Rogers, Bailey (Ramsey 72), Kamara (Buend?-a 72), Watkins
Subs not used: Gauci, Digne, Bogarde, Jimoh, Burrowes
Goals: Onana (71), Rogers (76)
Booked: Rogers
Possession: AVFC 59%-41% WHUFC
Shots/on target: AVFC 16/5-11/2 WHUFC
Referee: Tim Robinson
Attendance: 40,989
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Substitutes
Match Facts
West Ham United: , , , , , , , , , , .Goals: None.
Booked: None booked. .
Sent Off: None sent off. .
Aston Villa: .
Subs not used: .
Goals: .
Booked: None booked..
Sent off: None.
Referee: .
Attendance: 0.
Man of the Match: .