Aston Villa vs Wycombe Wanderers match report: Villains' late show makes up for early frights in FA Cup replay

Aston Villa 2 Wycombe Wanderers 0: The hosts were insipid in the first half when their League Two visitors showed more desire

Ciaran Clark heads Aston Villa into the lead against Wycombe (Reuters)

It took them 75 minutes but Aston Villa finally shook off the spectre of a potential FA Cup humiliation here.

Ciaran Clark and Idrissa Gana struck the late goals which ended the spirited resistance of Wycombe Wanderers and carried last season’s runners-up into a fourth-round home tie against Manchester City.

Villa will have to perform considerably better than this if they are to ruffle City’s feathers, though. Rémi Garde’s side may have enjoyed a mini-revival in their league form but, in front of a crowd of just 20,706 at a chilly Villa Park, they were horribly insipid in the first half when the League Two side showed more desire and created the better chances.

They improved as the game went on and finally broke through as centre-back Clark rose to nod an Ashley Westwood cross past the Wycombe goalkeeper, Matt Ingram. Substitute Gana put a gloss on the scoreline in the 89th minute when he rolled a low shot into the corner from Rudi Gestede’s lay-off.

For Wycombe, tired legs had told, yet Gareth Ainsworth’s men did themselves proud and will benefit from the £400,000 that this third-round tie generated for their trust-owned club. Since the 1-1 draw between the teams in the original tie, Wycombe’s players had had a bonding trip to the north Yorkshire countryside, where they stayed in log cabins and took part in a MasterChef-style competition.

Villa, for their part, had finally tasted a home Premier League win yet Garde made nine changes from Saturday’s encouraging draw with Leicester – including a recall for goalkeeper Brad Guzan and a full debut for 19-year-old Australian midfielder Jordan Lyden – and for 45 minutes, the Premier League’s bottom team looked no better than a side that started the night sixth in League Two.

Wycombe were well organised defensively and quick to close Villa down higher up the pitch, allowing the home players no time on the ball.

They had the better chances of the first period too. When the ball bounced up invitingly to Sam Wood on the left side of the box, the midfielder caught it sweetly to force a flying save from Guzan.

Then, with half-time approaching, Guzan failed to reach a cross from left-back Joe Jacobson and Garry Thompson got there instead and skimmed the crossbar with a header.

Thompson was a member of the Bradford City side who won a Capital One Cup semi-final on this ground in 2013 and the boos that rang around Villa Park at half-time hinted at home fears of a similar embarrassment.

Villa had barely got behind the visitors’ defence, though Scott Sinclair did manage a low shot that was turned into the sidenetting by Matt Ingram after 41 minutes.

Idrissa Gana came on after the break in the Villa midfield in place of Carlos Sanchez, who had suffered a cut to his face, while Wycombe’s influential Matt Bloomfield went off with a knock soon afterwards.

For a while, Wycombe continued to match Villa and Thompson – working tirelessly in tandem with captain Paul Hayes – threatened with another header in the 61st minute, his effort looping over from a Wood cross.

Ainsworth was heading every ball but his team were pushed back as the half progressed. Jordan Ayew’s dangerous cross reached Sinclair beyond the far post but he blazed his shot off target.

Sinclair did rather better moments later as he skipped between two defenders only to be foiled by a brilliantly timed tackle by Aaron Pierre as he prepared to shoot.

Pierre was one of the night’s outstanding performers, yet it was the Premier League club who eventually claimed the victory as Clark marked his 150th appearance for the club with the breakthrough before Gana added a late second for a Villa side now unbeaten in four matches.

But afterwards Garde was not happy with his side’s performance in the first hour and singled out the anonymous Jack Grealish for criticism, saying: “I haven’t seen what I wanted to see from Jack tonight. It’s not just Jack.”

Man of the match Pierre.

Match rating 6/10.

Referee C Pawson (South Yorks).

Attendance 20,706.