In what might be seen as a bit of an upset, Aston Villa scored and won, all on the same day. Okay, Blackpool matched us for shots on target but one of our three went in and none of the shots Blackpool had did. That means a win and it means Aston Villa are in the fourth round of the FA Cup.
And there is some magic about the FA Cup. It's the only thing we can play for this season, so we might as well hope that this is the season the magic will happen for us. Why not? Okay, I know why not, we struggled against the bottom of the Championship side, but for a few minutes, can we not have some blind optimism?
And I have to admin, I didn't see the game. So I'm probably not best placed to comment on the football, but I will say we shouldn't be surprised that we had the majority of the ball. And not just because we were playing the side bottom of the Championship, we've started to play this way and it's the right way. You have to start with possession, then you can develop. It's the absolute core of a successful side. Without it, there is nowhere to go.
But it has taken Paul Lambert a long time to figure it out. It baffles me that it has, but that sort of doesn't matter now, because he has. But with 21,837 at Villa Park today, not many would have seen it. The result also isn't going to matter for those that didn't go, because those that didn't go are not not going just because of the results or the football, they're fed up with football in general. Why pay to go see a team that isn't going to challenge for anything or develop into a side that one day might?
But on that and because for the very good reason that I didn't see the game, I'm going to leave you. I'll leave you with Benteke scoring in the 89th minute - yes, that is how close it was. Up the Villa.