Stevenage pull off thrilling FA Cup shock at Villa with two late goals
GIANT KILLERS: Stevenage players celebrate the win at Villa Park. Picture: Nick Potts/PA Wire.
League Two Stevenage sealed one of the most dramatic FA Cup upsets as two late goals sparked by a late moment of madness from Aston Villa midfielder Leander Dendoncker clinched an incredible FA Cup giantkilling.
Substitute Jamie Reid’s 88th-minute penalty after Dendoncker pulled down Dean Campbell led to the Belgian’s dismissal, then Campbell thundered home the winner to send the 3,000 Stevenage fans into ecstasy.
Up until then, there was only a cheeky tweet from Stevenage about Philippe Coutinho to liven up this tie as Morgan Sanson’s first goal for a much-changed Villa looked like ending his side’s seven-year wait for a win in the competition.
French midfielder Sanson, 28, making only his eighth start in two years at Villa, netted in the 33rd minute with a moment of quality that exposed the 59-place, three division gulf between the teams.
Stevenage clinched a fourth round tie at Stoke City while Villa fans booed their team off the pitch.
A bit of spice was added by Stevenage’s official Twitter, which tweeted as Coutinho was replaced by Emiliano Buendia: “The substitution took longer than usual as they had to dig him out of Luther James-Wildin's back pocket.” It came after Stevenage’s Danny Rose had had an effort ruled out by VAR for offside.
Stevenage, who were in the third round for only the eighth time in their history and have never gone past the fifth round, gave Villa a mighty scare when they had the ball in the net.
Rose tapped home Luke Norris’s cross but VAR ruled the latter had strayed a whisker offside latching onto the pass.
But it was Villa who took the lead with some Premier League quality play.
Sanson slotted home past Ashby-Hammond after Danny Ings’s backheel found him unmarked following some wonderful one-touch play from Coutinho, Douglas Luiz and Leon Bailey to unlock Stevenage’s defence.
Luke Norris went close to what would have been the goal of the round in the 39th minute, cutting inside Matty Cash from just inside the corner flag before curling a tremendous shot that grazed the top of the crossbar and flew over.
Villa, who haven’t won a Cup tie since beating Wycombe away in the third round in 2016, threatened again at the start of the second half when Bailey’s angled goalbound shot should have won a corner.
But they had to be wary of a comeback as six-goal top scorer Jordan Roberts saw a shot deflected behind and Carl Piergianni headed wide from the resulting corner from Jake Reeves.
Calum Chambers missed the chance to double Villa’s lead when he stabbed wide at the far post after Coutinho’s cross evaded a crowded box.
Reeves was next to threaten for the visitors, swerving a shot wide of Robin Olsen’s far post.
Then came the incredible turnaround. Dendoncker pulled down Campbell outside the box but seemed to bring him down inside to spark the penalty and his own red card.
Reid sent Olsen the wrong way from the spot, then right at the end of the 90 minutes, Campbell punished awful marking from Reeves’s short corner to thunder home a shot inside the near post.
: Olsen 5; Cash 5 (A Young 72 minutes, 6), Chambers 5, Bednarek 5, Augustinsson 6 (Digne 81 minutes, 5); Sanson 7 (J Ramsey 66 minutes, 6), Dendoncker 6, Douglas Luiz 6; Bailey 7, Ings © 7 (Watkins 72 minutes, 6), Coutinho 6 (Buendía 67 minutes, 6).
Substitutes: E Martínez, Mings, Kamara, K Young.
Ashby-Hammond 8; Wildin 8, Sweeney 8, Vancooten 7, Piergianni © 7, Clark 7 (Campbell, 63 minutes, 8); Rose 7 (Reid 63 minutes, 8), Taylor 6 (Amoo 67 minutes, 7), Reeves 7, Roberts 7 (Bostwick 83 minutes, 7); Norris 7 (Smith 67 minutes, 7).
Substitute: Chapman.
: Graham Scott Attendance: 32,343.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
