Game #4806
Saturday, 15 May 2004
Attendance: 42,573
Lost
Premier League
6th (-1)
Manchester United
Last 5: 🟨 🟩 🟩 🟨 🟥
Villa Park
Villa are beaten for the first time in nine games and as a result are pushed down to sixth place and outside the European places but given David O'Leary's side had been 18th in December, the recovery was remarkable.
Aston Villa
0-2
Manchester United
Assist(s) | None
KEY MAN
Juan Pablo Ángel, penalty appeals waved away by Styles.
PREVIOUS MATCH
NEXT MATCH
MATCH TIMELINE
🥅 | 4’ Goal, 0-1, (Manchester United), Cristiano Ronaldo
🥅 | 10’ Goal, 0-2, (Manchester United), Ruud van Nistelrooy
🕒 | HT Aston Villa 0-2 Manchester United
🔁 | 47’ Sub off, Peter Crouch, Sub on, Marcus Allbäck 🔴
🟨 | 52’ Booking, Juan Pablo Ángel
🟨 | 60’ Booking, Jlloyd Samuel
🟨 | 65’ Booking, Lee Hendrie
🟥 | 75’ Sending off, (Manchester United)
🔁 | 75’ Sub off, Lee Hendrie, Sub on, Peter Whittingham
🔁 | 82’ Sub off, Gareth Barry, Sub on, Dion Dublin 🔴
🟨 | 83’ Booking, Thomas Hitzlsperger
🟥 | 85’ Sending off, (Manchester United)
🕒 | FT Aston Villa 0-2 Manchester United
ON THIS DAY
Villa lose to Manchester United for the third time this season and as a result are beaten to a UEFA Cup spot by Newcastle. Nothing however could detract from the job that David O’Leary had done in taking a squad, largely that which had struggled so badly under Graham Taylor, and delivered rejuvenation across the pitch.
For an appointment that wasn’t universally popular, and after a difficult opening few months, David O’Leary had proven a lot of doubters wrong and the key test was now improving the squad and building on the unexpected gains seen in 2003-04.
Centre forward Dion Dublin made his final Villa appearance aged 35 before moving on to Leicester City on a free transfer in July 2004. Dublin had played for Villa between 1998-99 and 2003-04 making 190 appearances and scoring 58 goals.
Centre forward Peter Crouch made his final appearance for Villa aged just 23 before moving on to Southampton for a fee of £2,700,000 in July 2004.
Villa had paid Portsmouth £6,750,000 for Crouch’s services in March 2002 but despite showing the potential to be an influential player, he appeared to never have been truly trusted by manager David O’Leary and was sold on.
In total Crouch made 43 appearances scoring 6 goals in his 2 years with Villa and his subsequent career simply underlined the fact that he was sold far too early.
Forward Marcus Allbäck played his final game for Villa aged 30 before moving on to Hansa Rostock for a fee of £180,000 in July 2004. Villa had paid £2,700,000 to SC Heerenveen for Allbäck just 2 years earlier. In total Allbäck made 44 appearances, scoring 7 goals.
Aston Villa
European Cup / Champions League: 🏆
UEFA Cup Winners Cup: ❌
League Champions: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
FA Cup Winners: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
League Cup Winners: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
Last Trophy: 1995-96
Manchester United
European Cup / Champions League: 🏆🏆
UEFA Cup Winners Cup: 🏆
League Champions: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
FA Cup Winners: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
League Cup Winners: 🏆
Last Trophy: 2003-04
FIXTURE HISTORY
Manchester United
Previous 5 vs. United: 🟥 🟨 🟥 🟥 🟥
FIXTURE DETAILS
Season | 2003-04 |
Matchday | #45 |
League Game | #38 |
Manager Game | #45 |
Saturday, 15 May 2004
MATCH SUMMARY
Manager: David O’Leary | 🇮🇪 | Stoke Newington, 2003-2006
Referee: Rob Styles | 🏴 | Hampshire, 1996-2009
Kick off: 3.00pm
HT Score: 🟥 0-2
FT Score: 🟥 0-2
Last 5: 🟨 🟩 🟩 🟨 🟥
MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Rob Styles | 🏴 | Hampshire, 1996-2009
Previous 5: 🟩 🟥 🟩 🟩 🟨
Last Match: 🟨 5 Oct 03, Villa 1-1 Bolton (h)
Cards: 🟥 🟥 🟨 🟨 🟨 🟨 🟨 🟨 🟨
CARDS
TEAM NEWS
Peter Crouch and Olof Mellberg replace Darius Vassell and Ronny Johnsen.
TEAM STATS
Starting XI Average Age
| 25.27 |
Oldest Player |
RB Ulises de la Cruz | 🇪🇨 | 29.79 |
Youngest Player |
CB Liam Ridgewell | 🏴 | 19.83 |
MANAGER
MANAGER
David O'Leary | 🇮🇪 |
Alex Ferguson | 🏴 |
Aston Villa
GK Thomas Sörensen | 🇩🇰 |
CB Liam Ridgewell | 🏴 |
CB Olof Mellberg | 🇸🇪 |
RB Ulises de la Cruz | 🇪🇨 |
RB Jlloyd Samuel | 🏴 | 🟨 |
M Gareth Barry | 🏴 | 🔁 |
M Gavin McCann | 🏴 |
M Lee Hendrie | 🏴 | 🟨 | 🔁 |
M Thomas Hitzlsperger | 🇩🇪 | 🟨 |
CF Juan Pablo Ángel | 🇨🇴 | 🟨 |
CF Peter Crouch | 🏴 | 🔴 | 🔁 |
Manchester United
GK Tim Howard | 🇺🇸 |
LB Mikaël Silvestre | 🇫🇷 |
CB Wes Brown | 🏴 |
CB John O’Shea | 🇮🇪 | 🔁 |
RB Gary Neville | 🏴 |
RB Phil Neville | 🏴 |
M Darren Fletcher | 🏴 | 🟥 |
M Paul Scholes | 🏴 | 🟨 |
W Ryan Giggs | 🏴 |
W Cristiano Ronaldo | 🇵🇹 | ⚽ | 🟨 | 🟥 |
CF Ruud van Nistelrooy | 🇳🇱 | ⚽ | 🔁 |
SUBSTITUTES
🔁 F Marcus Allbäck | 🇸🇪 | 🔴 | for CF Peter Crouch | 🏴 | 47’ |
🔁 W Peter Whittingham | 🏴 | for M Lee Hendrie | 🏴 | 75’ |
🔁 CF Dion Dublin | 🏴 | 🔴 | for M Gareth Barry | 🏴 | 82’ |
SUBSTITUTES
🔁 | CB John O’Shea | 🇮🇪 | (M Eric Djemba-Djemba | 🇨🇲 |)
🔁 | CF Ruud van Nistelrooy | 🇳🇱 | (CF Louis Saha | 🇫🇷 |)
UNUSED SUBSTITUTES
GK Stefan Postma | 🇳🇱 |
RB Mark Delaney | 🏴 |
UNUSED SUBSTITUTES
GK Roy Carroll | 🇬🇧 |
M Kléberson | 🇧🇷 |
CF Ole-Gunnar Solskjaer | 🇳🇴 |
SQUAD STATS
1st XI:
Home Nation 🏴 🏴 🏴 🇬🇧 : 6/11
Homegrown: 5/11
Squad:
Home Nation 🏴 🏴 🏴 🇬🇧 : 9/16
Homegrown: 6/16
MATCHDAY SQUAD
SQUAD STATS
1st XI:
Home Nation 🏴 🏴 🏴 🇬🇧 : 6/11
Squad:
Home Nation 🏴 🏴 🏴 🇬🇧 : 7/16
MATCHDAY SQUAD
UNAVAILABLE
Not recorded
UNAVAILABLE
Not Recorded
Player Abbreviations:
GK : Goalkeeper
LB, RB, FB : Left Back, Right Back, Full Back
CB, D : Centre Back, Defender
M, W : Midfielder. Winger
F, CF : Forward, Centre Forward
🟢 : Debut 🔴 : Final Game
Symbols:
⚽ | Goal
🔥 | Assist
🔁 | Substitution
🟨 | Booking
🟥 | Sending off
🆘 | Poor refereeing performance
DEBUT APPEARANCES
FINAL APPEARANCES
CF Peter Crouch | 🏴 |
F Marcus Allbäck | 🇸🇪 |
CF Dion Dublin | 🏴 |
MATCH STATS
Not recorded
TABLE

PROGRAMME



MATCHDAY QUOTES
"We gave away goals that we normally don't concede, but the defeat hasn't taken the gloss off of the season.
"I am so proud of my players and to finish sixth is a fantastic achievement for this club."
"The top five are the top five and they sort themselves out.
"And we have finished the best of the rest."
*BBC Sport*
Saturday, 15 May 2004
Manchester United dashed Aston Villa’s Uefa Cup hopes with a dominant display which was spoiled by the dismissals of Darren Fletcher and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Villa’s European quest was derailed in the fourth minute when Ronaldo fired in a 20-yard opener after poor defending.
Ruud van Nistelrooy made it two soon after when he picked up Paul Scholes’ pass and converted from a tight angle.
Villa had two efforts disallowed late on, but luck was not on their side as Newcastle finished fifth.
With a place in Europe at stake for Villa, the onus was firmly on the home side to attack United from the start.
Yet David O’Leary’s men failed to gain any kind of forward momentum and they were put firmly on the back foot by a marauding Manchester United.
Villa’s defence was in tatters and the first to exploit their unease was Ronaldo.
Ulises de la Cruz’s wayward header fell into the path of Fletcher, who picked out the Portugal winger.
Ronaldo burst forward and, with no-one closing him down, unleashed a thumping shot which flew past the poorly-positioned Thomas Sorensen at the near post.
Instead of regrouping, Villa’s defence was caught out again, this time Liam Ridgewell failing to cut out Scholes’ crossfield pass.
The ball dropped at the feet of Van Nistelrooy, who surged past a sprawling Sorensen and poked in United’s second from a tight angle.
The visitors limited Villa to a couple of half-chances before the break, the best of which Juan Pablo Angel blasted over from close range.
After the interval, Villa upped the tempo and Angel was unlucky not to be awarded at least one penalty with Wes Brown unfairly impeding the Colombian striker in the area.
However, referee Rob Styles waved away the appeals and United almost snatched a third on the counter-attack.
Van Nistelrooy wriggled past the Villa defence and picked out Giggs, who somehow contrived to balloon the ball over the crossbar from four yards out.
Villa’s Gareth Barry wasted a chance by firing straight at Tim Howard, who otherwise had one of his quieter afternoons in the United goal.
United were reduced to 10 men with 15 minutes remaining when Fletcher was sent off for a second bookable offence, and Ronaldo followed him soon after, also for a second yellow card.
Other than the two dismissals, Sir Alex Ferguson will be pleased that his team produced a solid display ahead of next Saturday’s FA Cup Final with Millwall.
And while Villa boss O’Leary will be disappointed to have missed out on a Uefa Cup spot, the progress made during this season should mean the Midlands club will be challenging for Europe next May.