The Carling Cup semi-final first leg match between Blackburn Rovers and Aston Villa at Ewood Park on Thursday January 14, 2010.
James Milner edged Aston Villa to within touching distance of their first major final in 10 years with a stunning goal that compounded Sam Allardyce’s frustrations as Blackburn Rovers manager.
Milner’s seventh goal of the season was enough to hand Villa a crucial advantage ahead of next week’s second-leg at Villa Park, although Martin O’Neill’s team certainly rode their luck with Nikola Kalinic twice hitting the post for Blackburn in the second-half.
Blackburn, dismal in the first half but revitalised after the break, will need to perform for at least 90 minutes in the second-leg if they are to have any hope of overturning the deficit.
Pre-match speculation had suggested that Allardyce could become the next Premier League manager to lose his job should Blackburn’s winless run of nine games lengthen over the next week.
Although Allardyce cannot count on universal popularity among the Blackburn supporters - a reality typified by mutinous first-half chants of 'Big Sam, sort it out!’ - senior figures in the boardroom have made it clear that there is no desire for regime change, with chairman John Williams personally informing Allardyce that his position is not under review.
Although Lancashire rivals Burnley and Bolton have both appointed new managers within the last seven days, there is no stomach for similar upheaval at Ewood Park, especially with Allardyce just 13 months into the job.
But the fact that Allardyce’s future had even been placed in question was an unsavoury way to go into a major cup semi-final.
Despite reaching six domestic semi-finals in the last eight years, Blackburn were only able to progress to the final on one occasion — when they won the 2002 League Cup against Spurs — so Allardyce’s warning to his players that they could not allow this opportunity to pass by was founded on the club’s bitter experience.
At the same stage of this competition in 2004, Allardyce’s Bolton recorded a 5-2 first-leg victory against Villa before progressing to the final.
But despite David Dunn’s third-minute near miss, when he turned and shot wide from 20 yards, Blackburn rarely looked likely to emulate that Bolton victory.
Villa appeared more threatening from the start and Emile Heskey had a shot blocked by Rovers defender Chris Samba before Milner opened the scoring with a stunning goal on 22 minutes.
Picture Cristiano Ronaldo’s breakaway goal for Manchester United in last season’s Champions League semi-final victory at Arsenal and you will get a sense of Milner’s strike.
Having received the ball inside his own penalty courtesy of goalkeeper Brad Guzan’s punched clearance, Milner sprinted clear before off-loading the ball to Stewart Downing, who accelerated down the right flank.
Milner continued to power forward from the centre-circle and he was rewarded when, after picking up the return from Downing inside the Blackburn six-yard box, he guided the ball past Rovers goalkeeper, and former Leeds United team-mate, Paul Robinson.
Villa’s pace on the counter-attack stretched Blackburn to breaking point, with Ashley Young and Gabriel Agbonlahor both causing problems for the home side.
But Agbonlahor was booked for diving by referee Mark Clattenburg on 38 minutes although there appeared to be some contact from Blackburn defender Samba.
Villa were backed by a sold-out allocation of 5,000 noisy supporters in Ewood Park’s Darwen End and the Midlands contingent mercilessly taunted the home fans with chants of 'empty seats,’ a mocking reference to the disappointingly low turn-out of just 18,595 for a supposedly prestige fixture.
Having booed their team off at half-time, those Blackburn supporters who did turn up were clearly not in the mood to see their team blow their Wembley ambitions in the first-leg.
So it was unsurprising to witness a surge by the side in the early stages of the second-half and it almost brought an equaliser when Kalinic headed against the post on 54 minutes.
The Croatian has scored just three times since his £6m summer arrival and his confidence has barely been helped by the unforgiving crowd at Ewood Park, but he was unlucky not to score when his glancing header from Morten Gamst Pedersen’s cross struck the woodwork.
Ten minutes later, the former Hajduk Split forward rattled the post again with a low strike from Brett Emerton’s cross.
As Blackburn tired, Villa had opportunities to double their lead and all but confirm a clash against Manchester United or Manchester City at Wembley at Feb 28.
But Ashley Young shot wide when clean through and Robinson produced an exceptional save to keep out Agbonlahor’s 90th minute header.
Match details
Blackburn (4-4-1-1): Robinson; Jacobsen (Olsson h-t), Samba, Nelsen, Chimbonda; Salgado (Reid 71), Emerton, N’Zonzi, Pedersen (McCarthy 75); Dunn; Kalinic.
Subs: Brown (g), Hoilett, Di Santo, Jones.
Booked: McCarthy.
Aston Villa (4-4-2): Guzan; Cuellar, Collins, Dunne, Warnock; A Young, Milner, Petrov, Downing; Heskey (Sidwell 71), Agbonlahor.
Subs: Friedel (g), L Young, Carew, Delph, Reo-Coker, Beye.
Booked: Agbonlahor.
Referee: M. Clattenburg (Tyne & Wear).
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