Jacob Ramsey’s goal helped Aston Villa beat Southampton 1-0 at Villa Park on Friday evening.
The young midfielder scored in the 41st minute in what will go down as the worst football game of the season.
The opening half hour of the game at Villa Park was, in fact, an absolute abomination. It was probably the worst 30 minutes of football to be played in the world during 2022/23 – and that’s an understatement.
Neither team looked able to get anything going in the final third, with Leon Bailly in particular missing several chances to create something for his side.
Thankfully with everyone watching, business picked up a bit in the 33rd minute when Philippe Coutinho turned on the style to slot past James Ward-Prowse before firing a long-range effort just over the crossbar.
Coutinho then forced Gavin Bazono into his first action of the evening in the 40th minute, a strike from the left of the penalty area curled around the post by the Republic of Ireland international.
From the resulting corner, Bazono was forced into another save, keeping Ollie Watkins’ header from crossing the line. Unfortunately for the goalkeeper however, Jacob Ramsey was first to react to the rebound, volleying over the crossbar to make it 1-0 to the home side.
It was close to 2-0 on the stroke of half-time. Bailly, after a dreadful opening half-hour, almost redeemed himself with a fine strike across goal from the right of the penalty area – a strike that deflected just wide of the post.
Sadly, the opening exchanges of the second half were similar to those of the first: absolutely awful. Despite Southampton making two changes at half-time – bringing on Arrebo and Juan Larios – the visitors looked unable to score from distance, while at the other end Bailly scored 23 times in the first 60 minutes. The ball was lost. the game
It wasn’t good. over there.
And just when we thought the game couldn’t get any worse, after the 70th minute mark, it actually did.
Neither Aston Villa nor Southampton did anything that could be called ‘good’ in any way. One of the two highlights of the second half was probably Mohamed Salisu calling all his teammates into the penalty area before a long throw, only to then kick the ball straight out for a goal kick. And it was only a highlight because it was funny.
Another highlight was the final whistle.