Marcus Rashford dreamed a dream at Manchester United, only to end up miserable. But in his exile at Aston Villa, he is remembering who he is.
As far as FA Cup fixtures go, you won’t get many more traditional than this. The first-ever meeting between these sides came in the fifth round of the FA Cup came some 137 years ago, back in 1888. When the Football League launched later that same year, it ended with Preston North End as champions, Aston Villa as runners up.
We dare say football has changed a bit since then, but the pattern of top-flight sides against second-tier opposition in the FA Cup has been long established. The bigger team dominate, their slightly more lowly opponents put up a brave fight. That’s exactly what we got here.
For all their territory and danger, Villa struggled to land the killer blow for close to an hour. The best chance in fact fell Preston’s way, Stefan Thordarson unable to get his header on target with Emi Martinez stranded after coming out to punch away a Robbie Brady cross.
Those are the kinds of opportunities a side like North End has to make the most of in games like this to overcome higher-quality sides – and once Villa finally got going, they kept going like a runaway cart.
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Marcus Rashford, playing as a centre-forward, should have made more of a one-on-one with Preston keeper David Cornell, but made no mistake when Lucas Digne squared it across the box for him to finish for his first Aston Villa goal shortly afterwards.
The Manchester United loanee did not have long to wait for his second, confidently stepping up to convert from the spot as a panicked Preston gave away a clumsy penalty.
A fully-fledged England international with well over 100 goals loads of credit for scoring a brace against lower-league opposition would not normally be headline news. It should be so routine as to be entirely unnoteworthy.
But this is Marcus Rashford we’re talking about, a player whose struggles at Old Trafford are so long-standing and well-documented as to be barely worth repeating.
Unwanted. Accused of not wanting it enough – a charge he always denied. Sent away. A player on course to squander the brilliant potential he showed after his teenage explosion into household name status.
In that context – and coming just after starting both of Thomas Tuchel’s first games in charge as England manager following a year’s banishment from the international setup – those first goals for his new club take on a far greater significance even than setting Villa on their way to Wembley for an FA Cup semi-final, aided by a supplementary strike from Jacob Ramsey.
Rashford has already had one false start at a renaissance this season, scoring three goals across Ruben Amorim’s first two games in charge at United to provoke hope that the forward might be able to revive his career at the club. That soon gave way to yet more confrontation as he clashed with the Portuguese, just as he had with Erik ten Hag.
So he will be keenly aware of the need to keep it going now having finally confessed to himself that he would be better off striking out on his own.
Unai Emery initially opted to take it slow with Rashford’s introduction to the Villa side, but his bright performances and some very useful assists had already made him an important player before his double at Deepdale.
What he has done already in his two months in claret has allowed him to hear the people sing his name once again.
The huge grin on his face after the game made clear Rashford is no longer living in misery. His revolution may have only just begun.