UK Edition
Andre Green rounds off rousing Aston Villa comeback after Billy Sharp hat-trick
- Aston Villa 3-3 Sheffield United
A Billy Sharp hat-trick looked to have taken Sheffield United to the top of the Championship until Villa mounted an unlikely comeback to deny Chris Wilder’s team, scoring twice in the last eight minutes of normal time and equalising in the fourth minute of five added.
Sharp became the first striker to 20 goals for the season in all four divisions when he put the Blades ahead after 11 minutes after the Goal Decision System confirmed his close-range effort crossed the line despite Tammy Abraham’s attempt to clear.
He reached the milestone of 100 goals for Sheffield United with his second eight minutes into the second half, although Villa argued he was offside in the build-up and then kicked the ball out of Lovre Kalinic’s hands.
They could have no complaints about his third, headed home from a Kieran Dowell cross. At that point, with 62 minutes gone, there looked only one winner.
Villa had started poorly and though they grew into the contest to a degree in the later stages of the first half, those two goals looked to have finished them off. The match had attracted almost 35,000 spectators but many in the home sections were already thinking about making an early departure.
Yet this has been an extraordinary season for goals at Villa Park, most notably that astonishing 5-5 draw with Nottingham Forest in November, so there were others who stayed put, wise enough not to discount anything.
Even so, the closing stages could hardly have been predicted. United had been immaculate at the back, their centre-backs Chris Basham, John Egan and Jack O’Connell three towers of strength, repelling a Villa forward line who have been among the most potent in the division.
But then goalkeeper Dean Henderson’s failure to deal with a Conor Hourihane cross allowed on-loan Bournemouth defender Tyrone Mings to head his first Villa goal and, with four minutes left, another Henderson error gifted Tammy Abraham a tap-in, his 20th goal of the season.
Now Villa had the wind in their sails and the crowd behind them and, with United fans desperate for the final whistle, O’Connell miscued an attempted clearance, John McGinn crossed to the far post and Andre Green, recalled from his loan at Portsmouth and on as a substitute, rose to head home.
Wilder could scarcely believe what he had seen. “I never saw that coming at all,” he said. “Sometimes you can, sometimes you have a feeling. But if there were more goals coming I thought it would be from us. We were really comfortable.
“But this game is historically mad, as we all know. When Dean makes a poor decision for the first goal you could see them get more spring in their step.
“We have dominated one of the best teams in the division in front of 35,000 in an iconic stadium, but you have got to see it through and three individual errors have cost us. For the vast majority of the game we pushed back some very good players and a decent team. People may look at Villa and think they didn’t play very well but that was because we didn’t let them.
“They never carved us open. It wasn’t wave after wave of attacks - all their goals came from our mistakes. If you look at the bigger picture, though, we were the better team. To have played like that we showed enormous belief. I thought all the best players on the field were wearing yellow and it is difficult when you don’t come away with the points when you think you should have.
“It was a really good performance from everybody.”
Villa head coach Dean Smith disputed the claim that his side had played poorly.
“We were poor on the ball at the start and we conceded from a set-piece but I felt for the last 20 minutes or so of the first half we were the better team,” he said.
“I thought we started the second half well too but then in the 52nd minute the officials didn’t do their job. Billy Sharp was offside for the initial cross and then the ball was in Kali’s hands and he has gone in with his studs up, too.
“That was a real momentum changer and they are a tough team to play against and when you concede a third you think the game is going to drift away.
“You have to give them [United] credit for the way they defended but when Tyrone scores you could feel it in the stadium. The players had a bit of a sniff and them you get a comeback like that.
“But I can’t say I’ve never known a game like it because there was the Nottingham Forest one!”
Match details
Aston Villa (4-1-4-1) Kalinic; Hutton, Elphick, Mings, Taylor; Jedinak (Whelan 65); El Ghazi, Hourihane, McGinn, Kodjia (Green 65); Abraham.
Substitutes Steer (g), Bjarnason, Elmohamady, Hause, Adomah. Booked Jedinak, Hutton, Whelan.
Sheffield United (3-4-1-2) Henderson; Basham, Egan, O'Connell; Baldock, Norwood, Fleck, Stevens; Dowell (Cranie 74); Madine (McGoldrick 68), Sharp (Washington 85).
Substitutes Moore (g), Stearman, Duffy, Johnson. Booked Basham, Egan, Baldock.
Referee Tony Harrington (Cleveland).
Attendance 34,892.