If Villa’s 1-0 loss to Southampton ends up being telling at the end of the season, you can rank Mark Halsey’s terrible penalty decision as one of the cruelest injustices a football fan can be asked to bear.
The look in Rodriguez’s eyes said it all. There was no contact as numerous replays reveal. He pulled his leg back from Stephen’s challenge and simply went down. There was no foul. And there was certainly nothing there to justify giving a goal to Southampton. But that’s what happened.
Moreover, a poor performance all-round by the veteran official rewarded the Saints’ cynical determination to go down easily and often and did Villa no favors after essentially awarding the victory to Southampton, something they didn’t earn on the pitch, and didn’t deserve on the balance of play.
I don’t like “blaming” officials. Usually, it’s a cop-out. But in football, where a penalty award can essentially decide the game on a single call, officials have to get it right or let it go. And wherever Halsey was, whatever his sight-line, the result was far too important to both teams for it to be decided by what would obviously have been a good no-call. No one from Southampton was even asking for it as the ball rolled into touch.
The rest of it
Villa started brightly but to little effect, and it was Southampton who found themselves the more comfortable side. Yet they asked no questions of Brad Guzan, and Clark and Baker handled most everything without too much trouble.
And then some bungled defending, a failure to clear, a dive by Rodriguez, and it was over.
Villa came out and played a much better second half chasing the equalizer, and it was Southampton under the cosh at the end and exceedingly lucky not to get pegged back, never mind win.
Villa’s rally was spirited if futile.
Baker hitting crossbar in the 89th minute. Benteke turning and firing and missing just high, Boruc making game-saving saves off Enda Stephens and Benteke, and then Benteke missing a wide-open goal in the 91st minute after Boruc shut down Gabby Agbonhlahor and the ball unexpectedly fell to him. He’d earlier missed another rebound attempt that fell to him awkwardly after Stephen’s ferocious strike was palmed away by Boruc.
Say what you like about the side and other matches, but this result was gutting and undeserved, and I’m sitting here simply shaking my head that Villa did enough to win, never mind contain an attacking Southampton side to at least get an extremely important draw if nothing else, but instead walk away with yet another defeat.
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