Aston Villa 1-0 Fulham

Fulham were beaten by a solitary goal at Villa Park on Tuesday night.

In a game low on incident, Tyrone Mings’ first half header proved the difference.

The Aston Villa defender found the same net in the second period, but the equaliser was ruled out for an offside in the build-up.

There was initially just the one change from the side that defeated Leeds United, with the previously ineligible Dan James returning on merit following his fine performance at Everton, but an injury to Willian in the warm-up led to a late call-up to the starting XI for Manor Solomon.

The angle the travelling Fulham fans had led them to believe Andreas Pereira had bicycle kicked their side in front with just 20 seconds played, but sadly his effort had in fact gone the wrong side of the post and into the side-netting.

Our wingers weren’t enjoying much good fortune at Villa Park, with Harry Wilson withdrawn in the early stages – gutting news for the Welshman considering his recent form. Bobby De Cordova-Reid came on to replace him.

Villa had grown into the game without fashioning too much, but broke the deadlock in simple fashion in the 21st minute, with Mings running to meet a corner and sending a looping header inside the far post.

The Villans were playing with the confidence that nine-game unbeaten runs tend to generate, but Fulham were keeping in the match, with a couple of routine Bernd Leno saves from Ollie Watkins and John McGinn the only further threats to our goal in the first half.

Neither side settled particularly smoothly into the second, though we did rely on some strong defending from Antonee Robinson to prevent Watkins getting in on goal just before the hour mark.

Fulham’s resilience was causing agitation amongst the home fans, whose mood wasn’t helped when a terrific Tosin block to deflect Watkins’ shot over was given as a goal-kick.

At the other end, James looked set to sweep home an equaliser at the far post after De Cordova-Reid tried to pick him out, but a crucial touch from Ashley Young took it out of his path.

The Whites did have the ball in the net with eight minutes to play when Mings turned Harrison Reed’s cross into his own goal, but the Fulham midfielder had strayed offside in the build-up.

There were chances at either end in stoppage time, with McGinn dragging wide and Emi Martinez beating Carlos Vinicius to De Cordova-Reid’s cross, but a second goal of the game proved elusive on a peculiarly quiet evening in the Midlands.