Morgan Rogers makes his intentions crystal clear after scoring Aston Villa winner
Morgan Rogers has reiterated that Aston Villa are 'in it to win it' when it comes to the FA Cup, after they progressed into the fourth round of the competition on Friday with a narrow victory over West Ham United. Rogers scored the winner as Villa fought back from a goal down to defeat their Premier League counterparts, a comeback sparked by Amadou Onana.
Playmaker Rogers, fresh from his break which was enforced by a suspension as Villa squeezed past Leicester City in the Premier League last weekend, has enjoyed a whirlwind 12 months at Villa having arrived from Middlesbrough last January. He is very much a key fixture in the side under Unai Emery and has time and again produced this season.
Villa, as a rule, don't tend to advance into the fourth round of the Cup which, for sides in the top two divisions, means often falling at the first hurdle having only just entered the competition; having beaten Rogers' Middlesbrough last January, they lost to Chelsea after a replay in the fourth round - that, though, was the first time they'd reached that round since the days of Remi Garde.
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Seven straight years of bowing out at the first instance have left many Villa fans - who saw their side reach the final in 2015 under Tim Sherwood, but who haven't won the thing since 1957 - the club's general approach to the competition, but Rogers sees no reason why the Lions can't venture deep this year and claim some silverware which has been harder to come by for this generation.
"Why can't we win it? We'll take it game by game, but anything can happen in a cup competition," he said. "You don't know who you'll draw against, who you might play so we'll take it game by game but we're in it to win it. We want to go on a run. It's a historic competition in this country, we all know what it means and we are going to try our best."
Reflecting on the victory on Friday night, Rogers assessed: "Going 1-0 down is not what we want, but it's about how we react and show our determination and courage within us to get back in the game. Thankfully we got the winner. I thought we played pretty well and controlled the game. When you keep pushing, you hope it goes in and luckily it did.
"We were more patient in the second half. We had a lot of the ball in the first half but probably weren't risking enough to go forward or make that difficult pass. In the second half we created chances, more mayhem in the attacking third and that's where the goals came from, so we're happy with that."
When it was put to Rogers that Villa have 12 points from losing positions in the Premier League this season, coupled with the comeback on Friday, and what it says about the character of the side, he smiled: "That we concede early every game! I suppose it's a good stat and a bad stat. It shows we have good belief and can come back against anyone. We will look to rectify the start of games but we are happy with how we end them.
"We're pretty much on the front foot and if you win the game, that's the most important thing. We had to stay patient, keep doing what you are doing, make the runs in behind, get crosses and just cause more of a goal threat. I think in the first half we played in front of them too much, but in the second half we were more dominant in their half and we created more chances."
