Aston Villa lost their captain and the match in stoppage time when Ron Vlaar was sent off for conceding the penalty that Victor Moses scored to leave Tim Sherwood “devastated” after his first game in charge of the club.
“No one feels as down as I am,” the new Villa manager said as Stoke City remained on course for another top-half finish after a match Sherwood reckoned neither side deserved to win.
That the feelgood factor around Sherwood’s arrival dissipated so rapidly is almost as concerning as Villa’s performance and the sixth straight league defeat that keeps them in the relegation zone with 12 games remaining.
The former Tottenham Hotspur manager has generated such positivity over the past week since he arrived as Paul Lambert’s successor that a win in reaction to the miserable months preceding it seemed an inevitability against a Stoke side who had lost their previous two games 4-1 and been besieged by injuries.
But while Villa at least started energetically and scored a fine goal through Scott Sinclair, they conceded in time added on at the end of each half, Mame Diouf equalising before Moses capitalised on Vlaar’s faux pas, leaving them with no time to recover in either instance. This was the ultimate party-pooping, Sherwood’s bonfire thoroughly doused. How he himself recovers on Sunday – his players are accustomed to losing – before taking training on Monday could be crucial.
“We have to put this behind us now and not dwell on it,” he said. “I can be devastated now but I won’t be devastated on Monday. Games come thick and fast and before you know it, if you’re dwelling on the last result, games are running out.” Villa travel to Newcastle United on Saturday then entertain West Bromwich Albion twice in four days. The Premier League derby that midweek is arguably more important than the FA Cup quarter-final.
At least Sherwood did not attempt to dress this performance up as something it was not. “It wasn’t great,” he admitted. “I thought it was going to be a work in progress and a lot of work needs to be done. I was encouraged with some performances: Scott Sinclair was very good, the two centre-backs, Kieran Richardson was very lively, Alan Hutton gave us a threat on the right side.
“We need to work on it and continue to get on the ball in [significant] areas in the field – we need to be brave and go and get the football and try and affect the football match. I am sure we have the quality in the squad. It is going to be about putting the right jigsaw together at certain times to win the games.”
In the build-up to the Villa goal, their 13th in 26 league games, Phil Bardsley and Sinclair had both fallen to the ground from an aerial collision after the initial corner. But with the Stoke full-back still injured, Sinclair bounced back up and, when Fabian Delph retrieved the ball on the far side and dispatched a delicious cross to the near post, the winger on loan from Manchester City glanced a delicate but decisive header on beyond Asmir Begovic into the corner of the net.
It was Sinclair’s first goal in the Premier League since August 2012 but, coming on the back of his effort in last week’s FA Cup victory over Leicester City, the former England Under-21 flier certainly looks determined to make his mark at Villa Park. With Carles Gil buzzing enthusiastically on the other wing, few would doubt the quality of Lambert’s final two Villa signings.
Villa lacked no energy during this lively opening but, as Stoke started to dominate midfield with their superior touch and movement off the ball, Gabriel Agbonlahor and Sinclair utilised their athleticism to drop back from the front line to track opponents. Villa may have switched to 4-4-2 but there was plenty of support for the central midfielders. That did sap Agbonlahor’s potency as an offensive threat, however, while Christian Benteke, apart from a late header from Delph’s cross that was deflected wide, is still to find his stride.
Stoke, with four of their walking wounded back from injury, dominated play in the second quarter and a minute before the interval Diouf headed in the equaliser, his seventh goal of the season, from Stephen Ireland’s cross after Jonathan Walters’ layoff. “We switched off just before half-time from a throw-in and conceded,” Sherwood said. “It knocks the stuffing out of you.”
All Villa’s efforts were focused on trying and running as hard as possible. But Stoke were able to play round them with ease at times, with Ireland springing from midfield with invention and a deft touch, and when Vlaar not only misplaced a pass straight to Moses but then tripped him up as he tried to make amends, he paid a double penalty. “We knew there would be an impact from the positivity of a new manager coming in but we never allowed Villa to get any momentum,” Mark Hughes, the Stoke manager, said. “This was a great away victory for us.”
