Aston Villa had a miserable night on Tuesday as they were knocked out of the Carabao Cup thanks to a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Middlesbrough.
Bruce fielded a completely different starting XI to the one that dispatched Barnsley at the weekend for Villa’s second Championship win of the season. He obviously wanted to give his fringe players the chance to stake a claim for a regular spot in the side, but it was an opportunity that most of them failed to grasp with both hands.
Villa started off brightly and should have been ahead in the 7th minute, but Elphick’s header was wrongly ruled out for offside. Bamford went closest for Middlesbrough, but he saw his header strike the crossbar. Neither side could find the breakthrough and the teams went in level at the break.
The game changed in the 58th minute when Elphick brought down Bamford in the penalty box and was duly sent off. Villa had no chance of recovering from that setback, and the game was taken away from them in the 67th minute when Bamford doubled his tally.
Here are our player ratings for yesterday’s match:
Jed Steer - 5
Made one or two good saves to keep Middlesbrough out. Won’t blame him for not saving the penalty, but he was in no man’s land for Bamford’s second.
Ritchie De Laet - 6
Hasn’t had much game time recently, but he got stuck in and did his best going forward.
Tommy Elphick - 3.5
Gave away a penalty with a stupid challenge and got sent off, costing Villa any chance of winning the game. Had a goal wrongly disallowed for offside though.
Christopher Samba - 5.5
Had a solid enough game after coming back from injury.
Alan Hutton - 5
Played as a make-shift left-back and put a shift in as usual. However, he was caught out of position on a few occasions.
Jake Doyle-Hayes - 7
Did a great job at tracking back and cleaning up when needed. He also looked very good in possession of the ball. Looked a threat from set-pieces too.
Henri Lansbury - 4
Put in one or two teasing deliveries from set-pieces, but was otherwise poor. Was withdrawn with just 40 minutes gone because of a knee injury.
Josh Onomah - 4
Missed a decent opportunity at the back post early on and struggled to get going in this one. He was probably lucky to last 81 minutes.
Callum O'Hare - 8
Worked hard, showed of his silky skills, and caused Middlesbrough problems throughout the match. Was Villa’s best player on the night.
Birkir Bjarnason - 3
Hardly touched the ball and when he did he was extremely wasteful. Has barely had a decent game since he arrived at Villa Park.
Scott Hogan - 4
Struggled yet again and was subbed off just after the hour mark after picking up an injury.
Ross McCormack - 5
Gave it his all for the time he was on the field, and should have been awarded a penalty late on. Went close on one or two other occasions.