Aston Villa 1-0 Southampton: Courtesy of a goal scored by Jacob Ramse
On Friday evening at Villa Park, Aston Villa prevailed over Southampton courtesy of a goal scored by Jacob Ramsey. The final score was 1-0 in favour of Aston Villa.
In what will be remembered as the poorest game of football played all season, the youthful central midfielder scored the game’s only goal in the 41st minute……..Continue Reading
The first half an hour of the match that took place at Villa Park was, in all honesty, an obscenity of the highest order. It was perhaps the worst half an hour of football that will ever be played anywhere in the globe throughout the whole 2022–2023 football season, and that’s putting it mildly.
In the final third, neither team appeared even remotely capable of creating anything, and one player in particular, Leon Bailey, squandered a number of opportunities to generate something for his team.
Philippe Coutinho turned on the style to pirouette past James Ward-Prowse in the 33rd minute before unleashing a long-range effort that barely missed the crossbar, which was thankfully good news for everyone who was watching.
Then, in the forty minute, Coutinho forced Gavin Bazunu into his first bit of action of the evening, as the Republic of Ireland international turned around the post on a strike coming from the left side of the penalty area that was taken by Coutinho.
Following the corner kick that was taken, Bazunu was called upon to make another save, this time preventing Ollie Watkins’ header from going over the line. However, it was unfortunate for the goalkeeper because Jacob Ramsey was the first player to react to the rebound. Ramsey then volleyed the ball in off the crossbar to give the home team a 1-0 lead.
It was so close to being 2-0 right before the half-time buzzer. After having a poor showing in the first half an hour of the game, Bailey came close to redeeming himself with a good strike across goal from the right side of the penalty area. Unfortunately, the shot was deflected and went just outside the post instead of in.
The unfortunate truth is that the opening exchanges of the second half were exactly the same as those of the first: they were terrible. Although Southampton made two substitutions at halftime, bringing on Joe Aribo and Juan Larrios, the away team did not appear even remotely capable of scoring a goal. On the other end of the field, Bailey had lost possession of the ball 23 times in the first half of the game.
It was not to my liking. At all.
After the seventieth minute mark, just when we believed the game couldn’t possibly get much worse, it actually did get that way.
Neither Aston Villa nor Southampton did anything that, even by the most generous use of the word, could be considered ‘good.’ The moment that perhaps stood out the most during the second half was when Mohammed Salisu called all of his teammates into the penalty area in preparation for a long throw. However, instead of making the long throw, he threw the ball directly out for a goal kick. And the reason that was such a highlight was simply that it was humorous.
The last whistle was the second thing that stood out.
