10-man Aston Villa suffer late collapse in home defeat to League Two Stevenage in FA Cup third round

Aston Villa suffered a humiliating 2-1 home defeat to Stevenage in the third round of the FA Cup on Sunday night.

The Premier League side picked a relatively strong first 11 featuring Philippe Coutinho and Leon Bailey alongside Danny Ings up front, and it appeared that the result was going to go as expected when Morgan Sanson scored on 33 minutes for Unai Emery’s men,

With five minutes remaining, Villa looked set to secure their passage into the fourth round of the cup, where they had been drawn to take on Stoke City, but five wild minutes turned the game on its head, and it will be the League Two side who travel for the next knockout tie.

Belgian midfielder Leander Dendoncker saw red when he gave away a penalty for pulling back Dean Campbell in the penalty area, which Jamie Reid duly converted on 88 minutes, leaving the scores level but Villa trailing in numbers of men on the pitch.

Just two minutes later, Stevenage were ahead for the first time in the tie when Campbell featured again, this time finding the net to set up a nervy seven minutes of added time.

However, Villa were unable to find an equaliser and it was Stevenage who took the win. The game ended with Emi Buendia, Ollie Watkins and Ashley Young all on the pitch as Emery chased an equaliser.

With Premier League side Villa struggling under Steven Gerrard for much of the season it was perhaps no surprise that against an in-form Stevenage – second in League Two – were able to spring a surprise at Villa Park. Villa had started with players rested on the bench including World Cup winning goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez

Villa sit 11th in the Premier League having played 18 matches, with their next fixture against Leeds United next Friday.

Emery has called for reinforcements in the January transfer window and is believed to be targeting Real Betis left-back Alex Moreno, amongst others.