Concentrating on the league as injuries mount

Aston Villa 2 West Ham 1 (FA Cup)

Its over to Matt's gaff for this one where we're joined by another north London Iron in DC and offered beer, tea, crisps and fudge. The Hammers start off excellently under Potter's new reign. Wan-Bissaka and Summerville feed Paqueta who fires a great long distance shot just wide of the post. Nine minutes in and Fullkrug and Kudus set free Summerville on the right. His low cross is tucked away by Paqueta. Lucas does a guitar strumming celebration for some reason.

Villa look disjointed and West Ham seem to be holding on quite comfortably. Interestingly Potter is playing Summerville as a kind of right wing-back and has given Ollie Scarles a game at left back in the absence of Emerson. Scarles gets in some fine tackles and combines well with Paqueta. But then Fullkrug goes down with a tweaked hamstring as DC tells us that Fullkrug had missed more than 100 games with injury in his career before we signed him. It gets worse as Summerville also has to go off injured at the interval.

Villa step it up in the second half and are helped by subs Onana, Buendia and Ramsey. Fabianski has to make a fine low save from Maatsen. But the equaliser cones from a corner that should never have been given after Villa shoot wide without touching any West Ham players. From the corner the ball ricochets around the box and although Fabianski saves one effort but the ball rebounds off Soucek and Onana taps home.

Four minutes later Villa score again. Wan-Bissaka is too far upfield and Mavropanos can't close down Watkins as the Villa man crosse for Rogers to get across Kilman and fire home.

Rogers hits the angle but West Ham do show some spirit to threaten at the end. Cresswell has a shot blocked and sub Danny Ings has one scuffed shot blocked and then shoots wide when he fails to wrap his foot around the ball in a good position.

Still the evening hasn't been entirely wasted, Matt has been reading Inside The Academy: The Hopes Highs and Heartbreaks of West Ham's Youth and his discovered that the son of Culture Club's Mikey Craig once played for the Academy. DC then produces a picture of himself with Mikey Craig and Boy George at an exhibition of Boy George's paintings in Manchester in a pop trivia overload.

So it's concentrating on the league as another cup final breakfast at Nigel's gaff in Kew Gardens is postponed. And at the latest count we now have injuries to Bowen, Antonio, Fullkrug, Summerville, Areola, Emerson, Todibo and Mavropanos. Still, there was some evidence of a new manager bounce and the side seemed to put in more of a shift and show more tactical discipline than under Loppy. Though it's now going to be a struggle to field a decent side against Fulham on Tuesday.