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We may not have health, we may not have wealth, but we sure do have our youth. Aston Villa Reserves squashed Arsenal Reserves 10-1 tonight, and the Arsenal Reserves aren't exactly something to sneeze at, leading the Southern Group.They may have been playing a man down from the 11th minute, but still. TEN goals!
Villa lineup: Parish, Herd, Baker, Lowry, Lichaj, Hogg, Osbourne, Gardner, Stieber, Delfouneso, Weimann
Villa subs: Forrester, Siegrist, Berry, Deeney, De La Cruz Vidal.
So who scored?
Chris Herd had a hat-trick. If Eric Lichaj was worried about Kyle Walker, he must be shaking thinking that Herd's coming up behind and scoring hat-tricks. I seem to remember a Scottish wonder getting his Premier League full debut after his hat-trick for the reserves. Perhaps we'll see Herd against Birmingham City. Or maybe he'll be in central mid.
Gary Gardner and Andreas Weimann each returned for the reserves. Each slotted two goals. Nathan Delfouneso also had a brace and Jonathan Hogg scored but one.
Why not start these guys at St. Andrews on Sunday? They're going to be riding high on this win. None of them played in the last derby but it's not like the older players propelled us through to a win against Birmingham City. Emile Heskey missed a chance, to everyone's shock. Nigel Reo-Coker tried to keep fighting after the whistle. Is this what the Villa will field come the weekend?
Ten goals! The goal scorers, save Gardner, have all seen first-team action this season. They're ready to prove themselves. If the first-team isn't gelling, why are we going back to tried and true? It's not true anymore. Something's broken. And there's only so many times you can apply super glue, get out the duct tape, force in a piece of paper to keep everything from wobbling. At some point, you gotta chuck it all out.
Aston Villa is in 18th. Why not here? Why not now?