Ten-Man Aston Villa Defeat Rotherham After Dramatic Second-Half

Playing with ten men for the better part of 60 minutes, Aston Villa Football Club completed an epic comeback win away to Rotherham United.

7 on the bounce. Let’s get into it.

Lineups & First-Half:

With a midweek fixture and one additional injury, Dean Smith opted for some changes in the starting XI. Albert Adomah and Conor Hourihane entered for André Green and Glenn Whelan, respectively. Moreover, Lovre Kalinic was once again a no-show with a mysterious knee ailment. Kortney Hause, injured at the weekend against Sheffield Wednesday, missed out with Axel Tuanzebe taking his place.

Luckily, though, the knock for Hause is thought to be minor.

Rotherham started fast with a pair of chances through Jon Taylor, one of which required the attention of Villa ‘keeper Jed Steer. Not long after, the claret and blues (wearing their alternate kits) earned a penalty via Jack Grealish. Tammy Abraham took the spot-kick, but delivered a dud that Marek Rodák saved diving to his left.

From that moment – until the half-time whistle – it was ugly for the good guys.

Tyrone Mings was booked in the 18th-minute for an off-ball, retaliatory foul. Normally, this wouldn’t be noteworthy, but the powers-to-be in the EFL awarded him a second card ten minutes later for a handball in the Villa box.

And because they were separate bookings there is no appeal process. Tyrone Mings will miss Villa’s important weekend clash vs. Bristol City. Mile Jedinak filled in for Villa as Adomah was sacrificed (Hause, Chester, Elphick all out injured).

To his credit, the former Aussie skipper was great.

Second-Half:

Dean Smith couldn’t get to half-time any quicker. He made one change – bringing on Jonathan Kodjia for Anwar El Ghazi.

It worked.

Villa earned a second penalty via Semi Ajayi’s handball in the Rotherham box. Kodjia stepped up and fired home with pace for his 7th goal on the season. Soon thereafter Jack Grealish created and scored that goal. Closed down by three Rotherham players, Grealish cycled the ball wide left, collected the return pass, dribbled thirty yards past another Rotherham midfielder, found Elmohamady in the box, then ran into a pocket of space for a return pass and subsequent shot.

2-1 Aston Villa, and Smith’s men never looked back. John McGinn ran his socks off, Mile Jedinak won 9 aerial duels and Glenn Whelan helped kill the match. With that, came more breathing room in the league table.

On to Bristol City and our old friend Andreas Weimann at the weekend.