Steve Evans accused Aston Villa of running scared after his Stevenage side produced one of the great FA Cup upsets to embarrass the Premier League club.
Morgan Sanson’s first-half goal looked to have sent Villa into the fourth round before Stevenage, who are second in League Two, scored twice in the final two minutes through substitutes Jamie Reid – from the penalty spot – and Dean Campbell. Leander Dendoncker was shown the red card when he fouled Campbell for the spot-kick.
Evans also hinted Villa – who made eight changes – had been reluctant to put in the hard yards against a club 59 places below them in the league system.
‘We wanted to make Villa work as hard as they would against Arsenal, Manchester City or Manchester United and maybe some of them forgot to do that late on, though some of them haven’t played 90 minutes very often,’ said Evans.
‘There was probably a bit of fear. We equalised with 88 minutes on the clock. We went to three up front and had a couple of attacks that didn’t come to anything.
‘When you watch back the corner that led to the goal, you see nearly all the Villa players are inside the six-yard box. It’s that fear factor, players thinking they might go out of the FA Cup to a League Two side, which is not what this club is about.’
Evans managed Villa’s World Cup-winning goalkeeper Emi Martinez, who was rested, when the Argentine was on loan at Rotherham from Arsenal in 2015.
‘He (Martinez) came over afterwards and gave me a big hug and said ‘Typical Evans – the underdog wins’ and he had a big smile,’ added Evans. ‘He was hurting – I could tell on his face.
‘If you’re Emi Martinez, you want to play for whoever your team is playing against. I looked at Ashley Young and you could see the hurt on his face. Was it hurt or embarrassment? Maybe a combination of both.’
Villa boss Unai Emery admitted his side were struggling to grasp what had happened. ‘We are in shock,’ he said. ‘I am sorry for our supporters as we had the opportunity to do something in the FA Cup.
'I will continue to be very demanding – maybe even more so now.’