Aston Villa 3 - 0 Crystal Palace

Villa went through to the Carling Cup quarter finals last night at the expense of Palace. Villa started the match by bombarding the Palace goal, and should have been at least 3 up before they actually scored. Angel, Hitzlsperger, Vassell and Moore all missed guilt edged chances before Angel's 25 yarder took a wicked deflection off Kit Symons' shoulder and looped into the net over the stranded Cedric Berthelin. Palace only showed towards the end of the half when Freedman was unlucky with a header which was well saved by Sorrensen and somehow Tommy Black blasted the loose ball over the bar from no more than three yards! Palace were much better after the break and took the fight to Villa. Shipperley's ability to hold up the long ball and bring others into play was beginning to pay off. Shipperley and Freedman both had chances and substitute Wayne Routledge was creating havoc every time he got the ball. It was not until Villa scored their second that Palace were out of it, and it was no real surprise that Angel scored a third after 77 minutes. Whilst Kit Symons says that he was extremely pleased with the performance and thought that we played some good stuff in places, there is no doubt that the better side won, and with cooler finishing would have been out of sight by half time. The fact that they were not was down to some appalling finishing and a splendid performance from Berthelin between the sticks.