Carling Cup: Aston Villa 0-0 vs. Burnley – First Half Report
The first half at Villa Park ended nil nil between Aston Villa and Burnley in the 5th round match of the Carling Cup. The home side had the better chances but there was a clear lack of quality when it came to finishing
off moves.
Aston Villa started the match short of 3 key players. Luke Young was missing in defence, while Gabby Agbonlahor was not able to line up in attack and captain Stiliyan Petrov was also still not able to shake off his knee problem.
Burnley made a bright start with Jack Cork - on loan from Chelsea - getting on the ball nicely in the early stages. The away team played keep ball in the first few minutes as both teams took some time to get into the match.
Aston Villa did get going shortly; their first chance came when Ashley Young played Steve Sidwell through following an excellent move from the left flank. Sidwell, though, miscued Villa's best early chance from inside the area.
Aston Villa manager Gerard Houllier had started with a relatively unusual formation of 4-4-1-1, where Ashley Young was the lone striker and Steve Sidwell was the only man in his support.
Stephen Ireland broke beyond Ashley Young, and tried his luck from outside the area – the shot did not have enough venom in it, however, and was easily saved by Burnley keeper Lee Grant.
Ashley Young then dashed on to Stephen Ireland's through-ball and squared for Nigel Reo-Coker, but the Villa captain aimed his tap-in straight at Burnley keeper Lee Grant who gracefully pushed the shot away.
Burnley had hardly had a look in since the first few minutes, but they were hanging on. The visitors finally got a sniff of a chance when Wallace latched onto a good pass from the midfield. He was through on goal but maybe took
a little too much time to think and was eventually crowded out by the Villa defence. That was the only decent chance they had the whole half, till just 2 minutes after that Paterson found himself in the box one-on-one with the keeper, following a great delivery
by Cork. Paterson, though, slashed hard and the shot went inches wide.
That was almost the final kick of the first half, and the scores remained level after the first 45 minutes. Aston Villa had the lion’s share of possession and chances, but failed to make use of them. However, they remain the favourites
to close out the game strongly.
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