Late penalty robs Boro of a Cup hangover cure

2:02am Thursday 13th March 2008

Aston Villa 1 Middlesbrough 1

A CHANGE of strips, a few alterations to personnel and a totally different performance. An early FA Cup exit may still hurt supporters, but at least there was life back in Middlesbrough last night.

After the meek surrender to Cardiff City in the quarter-finals on Sunday, the players' passion and desire has been questioned.

And although many would suggest this arrived a few days too late, there can be no doubt about the commitment Gareth Southgate's men showed at Villa Park.

The problem, however, is that this point should have been a priceless three.

A terrific first-half strike from Stewart Downing, his sixth of the season, had given Middlesbrough the lead after he capitalised on a calamitous pass from Zat Knight.

But by the time Aston Villa had overcome almost an hour of ineptitude, Boro will know that they should have been out of sight of Martin O'Neill's sixth-placed Villans.

Chance after chance went begging in the first half, but the best opportunity fell to Mido seven minutes after half-time.

The unmarked £6m striker somehow completely missed the target from 12 yards.

And Middlesbrough are quite right to claim that Luke Young had little knowledge of the ball hitting his arm when he attempted to block Ashley Young's miss-hit, back post volley.

But, after Gareth Barry converted the dubious penalty, the truth is that Middlesbrough were good enough to have won this and they failed.

Nevertheless, Southgate will take his side to Arsenal on Saturday five points clear of the drop zone ahead of fixtures with Derby, Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham.

The fall-out from that depressing afternoon against Cardiff has continued all week and Southgate's selection for last night's outing was always going to be telling.

And while the omission of record signing Afonso Alves was officially down to sickness, there was no excuse associated with the non-appearance of captain Julio Arca and Fabio Rochemback.

The two South Americans, after being over-ran by the Bluebirds' Championship midfield, were the fall-guys from the humiliating Riverside FA Cup exit, despite the fact that Arca signed a new contract this week.

That opened the door for the more defensive-minded pairing of Mohamed Shawky and George Boateng, with the intention clearly to stifle the threat of a Villa team still with an outside chance of a top-four place.

After Villa's failure to deal properly with an early Gary O'Neil corner, Robert Huth outjumped Scott Carson and headed over the bar on to the roof of the net.

Strangely, with Sunday's horror show in mind, the Middlesbrough attacks just arrived one after the other against a Martin O'Neill line-up that was prevented from building any sort of momentum.

Before Downing had opened the scoring in the 23rd minute, Tuncay, Mido and Shawky all had decent opportunities to find the breakthrough, which offered encouragement to the small contingent of Boro fans.

The best fell to the two strikers. The first of Tuncay's many classy flicks of the evening edged him away from his marker and only Carson's quick-thinking thwarted his progress.

From the rebound Mido side-footed wide.

Southgate did not have long to wait for the goal which, understandably, brought relief to the visitors' bench.

Once again Tuncay was involved, although it was Knight who had the biggest contribution.

A routine long punt from David Wheater should have been dealt with but, under pressure from Tuncay, Knight's attempts to clear his lines fell straight to Downing.

The England winger ran straight at the former Boro target and, after a quick change of direction, he fired low into the bottom right-hand corner of Carson's net.

It was richly deserved. Aston Villa, whose passing was wayward for much of the night, finally created a couple of chances in the final third but there was still no save for Mark Schwarzer to make.

Even when they did beat the Aussie, Mido was the unlikely stopper on the line from Knight's low strike after Shaun Maloney had kept Ashley Young's deep free-kick in play.

And had Shawky's second long-range drive, this time with his right foot, curled a couple more inches earlier Middlesbrough would have been two goals up at the break.

A victory was essential for Villa last night in their push towards Europe now that there will only be one UEFA Cup spot available via the league come May. Something was required by O'Neill, whose side had suffered just one defeat in their previous seven outings, if they were to stand a chance of closing the eight-point gap which separates them from Everton and Liverpool.

Marlon Harewood and Olof Mellberg were introduced for the below-par pair Craig Gardner and Maloney, which immediately raised the noise levels around the ground.

Middlesbrough, however, retained their focus.

With Downing working the wing, Boateng and Shawky controlling the midfield and Tuncay probing the Villa defence, things were going well. That should have been reflected in the scoreline, too.

After Tuncay found Downing on the wing, the left-midfielder's square pass to the penalty shot was perfect for Mido.

The Egyptian, however, shot over when he opted for the outside of his left foot instead of the inside of his right. As the second half developed, the home side's attacks became more frequent, while Middlesbrough had to settle for counterattacks.

Neither keeper had many real saves to make but Schwarzer's decision making was good all night and that prevented Villa's front-men from meeting many balls into his area.

But the keeper was powerless to prevent Barry from side-footing in the equaliser from the spot, after Mr Bennett had harshly awarded a penalty.

From that moment on, Villa pressed, tempers frayed and the scoreline stayed the same.

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