Matty Cash jokes team-mates can 'stump up' after late Aston Villa winner

Match-winner Matty Cash joked his Villa team-mates can pay for his holiday after his goal at Middlesbrough on Saturday saved their winter break.

Aston Villa's Matty Cash (left) celebrates scoring their side's first goal of the game during the Emirates FA Cup Third Round match at the Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough. Picture date: Saturday January 6, 2024. PA Photo. See PA story SOCCER Middlesbrough. Photo credit should read: Richard Sellers/PA Wire. RESTRICTIONS: EDITORIAL USE ONLY No use with unauthorised audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or "live" services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications.

Cash’s deflected 87th-minute strike earned Villa a 1-0 FA Cup victory at the Riverside and meant they avoided a third round replay which would have impacted on plans for the break which follows next Sunday’s Premier League match at Everton.

Villa will now get a fortnight off before their fourth round tie and Cash quipped: “To be honest, we didn’t want a replay. We wanted a few days off!

“The boys were buzzing with that. I said to them in the dressing room, they can pay for my holidays now! We want a break with all the games we have played in Europe. As I said, they can pay for my holidays!”

More importantly, Cash’s goal ended a rotten run which had seen Villa fail to advance past the third round of the Cup since 2016.

The right-back revealed how players had spoken about the pain of last season’s defeat to League Two Stevenage prior to kick-off and the belief they can seriously target glory in the competition.

Villa are already riding high in the Premier League and through the last-16 of the Europa Conference League.

Cash said: “We want to be competitive in every game we play, whether that is in Europe or in the Premier League or in the FA Cup.

“We have a good team, a great manager and feel we can go on and do things. Every game we want to play we want to win.

“We spoke before the game at the hotel about Stevenage. That was a tough time and not a good memory for us at all.

“We want to do things in cups. Obviously we have Europe, the Premier League, there are a few things we want to do as well as we can. The only way you are going to do that is by being serious and by being competitive in these sorts of games. That was the main objective on Saturday.”

Villa have now scored decisive goals in the 85th minute or later in four of their last five matches and Cash continued: “Sometimes it takes that, you know? To break teams down. Sometimes it happens in the first minute, sometimes in the 89th or 90th.

“We dominated the ball. Fair play to them, they made it hard for us and have some really good players. They made it difficult but we got there in the end.”