What a great game of football that was. Obviously helped with having the best possible start, followed by a swift Villa equalizer and it then looked like anyone's game for the remainder of the 70 minutes until Cahill ended the tie with 15 mins left on the clock. At that point it definitely looked like Villa gave up the ghost. Finally. Cahill, as we've become accustomed to, has this innate ability to become seemingly invisible to every centre-back in England, even the best ones. He did it repeatedly against the latest lumoxing oxen that O'Neill has filling in the central unit of their back four culminating in the goal that has Everton looking forward to a home tie against the winners of the Boro / West Ham replay next week (c'mon on Boro).
From the opening exchanges it was clear that to be remotely comfortable against this Villa team, Everton would need a 2-goal cushion. Although it is fair to say that Villa probably only had 5 or so concrete attempts on goal - all poorly taken aside from the brilliant Howard save from Carew - I wasn't relaxed until Cahill's strike. I got the impression that the players felt that on the pitch. It was noticeable for a period in the middle of the second half that Villa, gaining momentum, were pushing on. Lescott for the first time in weeks temporarily lost his cool and positional sense and the midfield didn't do enough to protect the back four. However, the terror twins of Young and Agbonlahor were slightly off-colour and Carew morphed into a performance similar to that of the visiting Drogba a few months ago; arms aloft, moaning to the ref, yelling at his team mates.
Yet again, Moyes and his backroom people came up with a formation to suit our resources and counteract the potent attacking threat of Villa. Aside from the excellent James Milner, the rest of the Villa front players and Petrov were not allowed their usual control. Villa definitely play the percentages and I get the impression they'll have to get a bit cleverer if they want to take on the big sides in England and Europe. Once Everton pushed back, Villa's main attacking threat came from cross-field passes or their standard high-speed crosses into the box. Everton made sure they didn't give away too many set pieces, a specialist theme for Villa's assault on any opponent. The only time Agbonlahor got a clear run at the Everton back line, guess what? Hibbert tripped him for the opening goal from the spot.
Aside from that mistake, the defence once again were tight. Yes we were under the cosh for a 15 minute period in the second half, but the resilience and strength of this Everton team is becoming unavoidable. Deprived of Fellaini, Pienaar and Osman (I'm not even going to mention the striking options), from the regular first team, the incoming Rodwell and Gosling were excellent and the returning Anichebe put in one of the most impressive shifts in his stuttering Everton career to date. Cahill and Jags were their predictable best.
Whoever comes out of the replay at the Riverside next week, we've got to fancy our chances of a trip to the all-new Wembley in mid April for a semi-final. The FA couldn't face another repeat of the Portsmouth-Cardiff final of 2008, and must be delighted that 'warm balls' ensured the big guns were kept apart in the quarter-final draw.
I've said this repeatedly to anyone for weeks now. I'd hate to think where we'd be with a couple of centre-forwards in this side.
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