Sinclair hat trick powers Villa past Notts County in crazy Capital One Cup tie

So, Tim Sherwood did this, which means we shouldn’t be shocked at what occurred tonight in Birmingham:

TEAM NEWS: Confirmed #AVFC side to face #NOTTS tonight in the #CapitalOneCup second round. pic.twitter.com/53RXxu49Ga

— Aston Villa FC (@AVFCOfficial) August 25, 2015

Scott Sinclair scored in the first half of extra time to bank his first competitive hat trick for Aston Villa, and Joe Bennett scored a brilliant insurance goal in the second half, as the Claret and Blues won a crazy 5-3 Capital One Cup second-round tie over Notts County at Villa Park on Tuesday.

The visitors took the lead in the 16th minute from outside the penalty area, when Genaro Snijders’s looping effort got past Mark Bunn and into the back of the Villa net.

Adama Traoré came to Villa’s rescue, however, properly burying his first goal in the Villa colours on a well-crafted assist from Jack Grealish. Grealish ran at the Notts County defence for a while, and eventually laid it off to the former Barcelona man, who calmly finished to bag the first equalizer of the night.

It looked as if the teams would get to halftime all square, but a ball over the top meant Mark Bunn was forced to give away a penalty, one Jon Stead converted to put the Magpies up 2-1 at half-time.

Aston Villa started brightly in the second half though, and five minutes after the re-start, the Claret and Blues equalized again, when Grealish showed his playmaking skills once more, setting up Sinclair for his first goal of the night.

Notts lead for a third time on 56 minutes, when former Villan Graham Burke scored a brilliant goal from 25-30 yards out, commencing a Twitter meltdown amongst the Villa faithful.

After scoring in his second game for the club, Adama went off with a slight knock in the 60th minute, which was really unfortunate. Hope he’s alright.

But Kieran Richardson would be fouled in the penalty area later in the half, with Sinclair stepping to the spot to complete his brace, knocking the penalty in off Notts keeper Roy Carroll, who played well, on 79 minutes.

That set the stage for the 30-minute extra time period.

My biggest lessons from tonight…

• A Villa defence that consisted of exactly zero first-choice players struggled a bit. That’s neat.
• Jack Grealish was very good. Granted, it was against a League Two side, but it’s still good to see. He was probably man of the match, and he didn’t even score.
• Carles Gil played 100 minutes, so that’s pretty much him back healthy.
• Joe Bennett came on, and scored a goal. No way. He lives!
• Keep Scott Sinclair on the bench Saturday, Tim. I dare you.