To be a Villa fan

When the first-half goal that put Aston Villa firmly in charge of their Carling Cup semi-final tie with Blackburn nestled in the back of the net, four players embraced by the corner flag. James Milner, Stewart Downing, Ashley Young and Gabriel Agbonlahor are the scintillating young Englishmen who form the arrow in Martin O’Neill’s well-shaped bow.

The goal was typical Villa, a brilliant but brutal breakaway starting on the edge of their own area. Downing to Milner, Milner galloping over the halfway line, out to Downing, back to Milner, and into the net.

I’ll start with Gabby Agbonlahor though. The Villa Academy graduate has 8 league goals so far this term, including the winner at Old Trafford. He added a greater physical presence to blistering pace over the summer, and so was able to be deployed by O’Neill as a lone front-man early in the season. He’s normally up top with Heskey or Carew nowadays though.

Into the midfield, and Ashley Young, who moved from Watford in January 2007. ‘Is he really worth £9 million?’ many asked of O’Neill. The 2008-09 PFA Young Player of the Year can shape a cross like David Beckham, but has got pace to go with it.

Young now interchanges wings with Stewart Downing, who has finally got up and running after his signing from relegated Middlesbrough in the summer of 2009. ‘Why sign him when you’ve already got Young and Milner?’

O’Neill has given Milner his head in the centre of the park, and been rewarded by a series of fine goal-scoring displays from the tireless, intelligent former Leeds and Newcastle man. A one-time youngest ever Premier League player, he’s ready to fulfil great potential.

Rounding off a four-man midfield of some intent is captain Stiliyan Petrov, a manager’s favourite from his spell at Celtic. He’s hardly a holding man. Very few Premier League sides play with two in the middle anymore, let alone those two. But whilst ‘on their day’ they have shown they can overrun the best, being soft in the centre has resulted in defeats against lowlier sides Wigan, Blackburn and West Ham.

With Heskey and Stephen Warnock – part of O’Neill’s rebuilt defence – also pushing for places, it could be a Villa-dominated squad going to South Africa.

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So it turns out Fabio Capello is superstitious after all. The England boss has banned his players from making a World Cup song, the first time there will be no official supporters’ chant since 1966.

No, no, no. The Italian has stopped the players making a rival ‘Three Lions’ or ‘World in motion’, because putting together a song adds to the whole ‘isn’t this an exciting adventure?’ feeling around an England party at an international tournament. This summer, Capello’s boys have got a job to do.

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It’s not exactly the fashionable thing to say, but referees and their assistants are bloody excellent. Yes, we all like a good moan on a Saturday evening, but, for the vast majority of the time, in the vast majority of the millions of decisions made every weekend up and down the country, they get it spot on. And that’s despite refereeing officials, the media and fans scrutinising their every move, players conning them and, possibly worst of all, managers lambasting them in every press conference.

Two key decisions in the two FA Cup third-round games played between Liverpool and Reading highlight this. In the replay, won 2-1 after extra-time by the Championship side, Reading were awarded an injury-time penalty after Yossi Benayoun inexplicably fouled Shane Long. Contact was minimal, Long went down softly. In this instance, technology can be of no help. There was no right and wrong decision, and yet Phil Dowd still got it right in pointing to the spot. As Reading’s caretaker boss Brian McDermott said, it wasn’t a ‘brave’ decision – in the last minute, at Anfield – but just a good one.

In the first game, at the Madejski, Liverpool’s equaliser was scored by captain Steven Gerrard, whose 36th-minute cross went all the way in past Adam Federici, its intended target, Dirk Kuyt, cleverly letting the ball go under his foot. Kuyt was five yards clear of the defence by the time the ball arrived, and certainly interfering with play. The linesman had a decision to make, or, in fact, he’d already made it. When the ball was played, Kuyt was a body-width onside, and thus the linesman kept his flag down. The linesman’s job is actually an impossible one, as he is not able to look in two places at the same time, and so know what’s happening ‘along the line’ as the ball is played. But he gets it right anyway.

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First game of the season, Paul Lambert’s Colchester beat Norwich 7-1, at Carrow Road. Lambert made the switch from Essex to Suffolk soon afterwards, and when his Canaries returned to the Weston Homes Community Stadium this afternoon, they won 5-0. Not a bad turnaround.