Scholes brace puts United into fourth round

Aston Villa 1 Man Utd 2

Paul Scholes struck a devastating double blow as Manchester United came from behind for the second time in three years against Aston Villa in the FA Cup to turf their hosts out of the competition.

Under the watchful eye of Sven-Goran Eriksson, the man who can no longer score for England found the net twice in four minutes to turn this tie around after Villa had threatened to run a Rio Ferdinand-less United side ragged.

Even without injury victim Ferdinand, Sir Alex Ferguson still felt able to leave Roy Keane and Ruud van Nistelrooy on the bench.

But his plan looked like backfiring until he called on his illustrious duo shortly after the interval, and Scholes quickly capitalised on their presence to send United into the fourth round.

Up to that point, the glimpse into the future Ferguson had been afforded by Ferdinand’s absence was not a pretty one.

Mikael Silvestre and Wes Brown – making his first appearance of the season after a second cruciate knee ligament operation – struggled to contain a rampant Villa strikeforce.

In fact, had it not been for goalkeeper Tim Howard the visitors would have been behind long before Gareth Barry opened their account.

Howard superbly turned away Juan Pablo Angel’s first-time effort with his feet, then denied Darius Vassell as in-form Villa looked to gain revenge for their 4-0 Barclaycard Premiership mauling at Old Trafford at the beginning of last month.

There was little the American could do about the shot which eventually beat him, though, as he suffered one of those agonising moments when he knew what was going to happen but found himself powerless to prevent it.

From his touchline vantage point, Villa assistant boss Roy Aitken had criticised many of Mike Riley’s decisions – but the home side could have had no complaints when the Leeds official intelligently waved play on after Nicky Butt had sent Peter Whittingham flying.

The loose ball broke to Barry, who advanced a few yards before unleashing a shot that flicked off Brown and ended up in the net.

The American was caught totally on the wrong foot – and although he desperately tried to claw the ball away, he never quite looked like managing it.

Given his earlier heroics, it was hard luck on the impressive American.

But United could hardly claim the goal was not deserved.

It took United 26 minutes to create their first decent opportunity, but John O’Shea was thwarted by a combination of Thomas Sorensen’s hand and the crossbar as his flicked near-post header from Ryan Giggs’ corner crashed back off the woodwork.

Villa were almost caught out in the melee that followed, but again Sorensen came to the rescue – keeping out Silvestre’s close-range shot with his feet.

United scrambled their way back into the game after that, although they clearly missed Van Nistelrooy’s ability to hold the ball up as many of their attacks came to an end at a disappointingly early stage.

The half-time interval allowed Villa the opportunity to regain some of their lost composure – and even though they lost Lee Hendrie, whose mouth was accidentally filled by Fortune’s boot in the final moments of the opening period, it was the midlanders who started best.

After 10 minutes of back-pedalling, during which time Howard almost gifted Villa a second with a ridiculously bad first touch which nearly let Angel in, Ferguson decided it was time to call on his captain and his most lethal finisher.

It took a further nine minutes for the move to be rewarded as Butt’s lobbed pass forward dropped in Keane’s direction.

The Irishman got only the faintest of touches. But it was enough to send Giggs careering into the box, and Van Nistelrooy would have tapped into an empty net if Scholes had not beaten him to it.

If Van Nistelrooy was grumbling at being denied a 98th Red Devils goal he would have had nothing but admiration for Scholes’ brilliant second.

The England international dismisses his unerring ability to end up in the penalty area in exactly the same place as one of his team-mates drops a cross as nothing more than good luck.

There is much more to it than that, of course – and after belting a pass to the left for Giggs, it was Villa’s misfortune that he breezed into the box just in time to smash the Welshman’s cross into the roof of Sorensen’s net.

From a position of control, Villa were suddenly behind.

Having failed to make their superiority tell before Keane and Van Nistelrooy were on the pitch, they were hardly likely to do so afterwards.