FA Cup Round-up: Ireland’s Ciaran Clark helps Villa away from humiliation

Jordan Ayew represented Villa’s greatest threat, with two first-half shots into the side netting, yet their attempts to utilise the height of Rudy Gestede frequently came to nothing.

Simmering discord seems to be the background music to Villa’s season.

The decision to swap so many players made picking up that momentum hard and Villa, with teenage midfielder Jordan Lyden making his full debut, were largely kept at arm’s length by Wycombe until late on. The club led 1-0 at half-time but two goals in the final 16 minutes put the Robins on the brink of a shock before Morrison rescued the situation.

Grealish has rarely featured under Garde after being pictured in a nightclub following a 4-0 Premier League loss to Everton in November.

Villa had taken four points from their two Premier League matches since their scare at Adams Park but there was little last night to suggest that Remi Garde’s side are capable of staging the mother of all jail-breaks to escape relegation.

Aston Villa welcome Wycombe Wanderers to Villa Park tonight for their FA Cup third round replay.

Asked if he was relieved, Garde said: “Yes, you can say that”. We could have been more accurate with the passing, the runs, everything.

“He’s not the only one but I know he has played in the part of the game when we were not good collectively”.

“We were disappointing for the first hour or so, technically poor”.

Prior to Villa’s goals, Wycombe created the better chances.

Seven minutes later it was the away side’s turn and Michael Harriman went close with a powerful drive from the edge of the Villa box but it, too, went narrowly over. Wood read the overlapping run of Joe Jacobson and the defender’s cross caught out Guzan to find striker Garry Thompson who headed inches over the unguarded net. With the ball bouncing around in the area, the target man brought it down and tee’d up Gueye, who curled the ball into the bottom right-hand corner, ensuring that Villa made it four games unbeaten.

That game is against West Bromwich Albion in the Premier League on Saturday, away from home in what will surely prove to be a tough test against the Baggies.

When the unmarked Thompson headed Wood’s cross wide in the 61st minute it was followed by a chorus of boos from some disgruntled home supporters.