Aston Villa's FA Cup dreams are over for another season, as Newcastle United ran out convincing 3-1 victors over Unai Emery's men at Villa Park on Saturday night.
On another occasion, the Villans might well have been able to seal their progression through to the next round of the esteemed competition, with their chances looking rosy when Tammy Abraham tapped home his first goal since returning to the West Midlands, to break the first-half deadlock.
Tammy-Abraham-1
But, after just about getting away with Abraham's goal looking offside, Emery and Co's luck ran out, as a reckless red card from Marco Bizot, which was branded a "moment of madness" by BBC Sport pundit Danny Murphy, swung the tie heavily in the Magpies' favour.
The second half then saw Newcastle confidently swat their ten-man hosts aside, as several first-teamers contributed to the dire FA Cup defeat, away from Bizot, wiping out former Villa prodigy Jacob Ramsey.
The main Villa underperformers vs Newcastle
It was, of course, a night to forget for the stand-in goalkeeper, with the Dutch stopper very deserving of his early bath, after clattering into his former teammate.
Yet, he isn't alone in standing out as a poor performer in Villa's leaky defence, as Pau Torres failed to assert himself in the contest, winning zero tackles in the heart of the home side's backline.
Pau-Torres
Having sat out his side's last two games in the Premier League, he hasn't done much to demand a start when his team return to top-flight action next.
Lamare Bogarde will also be fearful of being axed after he put in an equally dismal display against Eddie Howe's pumped-up visitors, with this horror pass, which was intercepted by Newcastle attackers right at the end, resulting in Nick Woltemade firing home the Magpies' game-clinching third.
In attack, too, Ross Barkley failed to spark into life with zero key passes amassed, while Morgan Rogers also lacked a cutting edge, minus some nice, neat exchanges of play, to take Villa to the next round.
But, when moving back to the defence, there is one dud who now looks completely finished under Emery, with a poor display against Newcastle, unfortunately following on from a ropey performance in the bread and butter of the Premier League.
Unai-Emery
The Aston Villa star who looks finished under Emery
Villa collapsed in the second half to the dismay of their supporters watching on, as two Sandro Tonali strikes ended up sealing a deserved win for the away team.
Credit should go to Howe's men for collecting a victory, first and foremost, considering the intense pressure the Englishman has been under recently in the St James' Park dug-out, but the Tyneside giants were certainly helped on their way to a win by Lucas Digne's disastrous display.
Lucas-Digne
Off the back of a lethargic showing away at AFC Bournemouth, which saw the Frenchman be run ragged by an electric Rayan on the South Coast, it might well have been a surprise to see him line up for the FA Cup showdown with Newcastle.
Emery must have wished, shortly into the tie, that he had opted for someone fresher in the left-back spot, with Digne extremely fortunate not to be given his marching orders - like Bizot - when rashly colliding with Jacob Murphy late into the first 45 minutes.
He also somehow didn't give away a penalty when a second-half handball was amazingly deemed to be outside of the penalty area by the referee.
Away from cutting a shaky figure in defence, Digne did at least come away from the game with four key passes next to his name.
Yet, come the close of the 3-1 defeat, none of those creative flashes ended with the stern visitors being opened up, with the ex-Everton man actually struggling in an attacking capacity, at points, when giving away possession a costly 16 times.
Digne's performance in numbers
Stat
Minutes played
Goals scored
Assists
Touches
Accurate passes
Key passes
Accurate crosses
Successful dribbles
Possession lost
Tackles won
Total duels won
In games to come in the Premier League, Emery might well be better placed to start Ian Maatsen instead, with the 32-year-old clearly not at the required standard anymore to be playing games week in week out.
Villa's trophy hopes aren't entirely in tatters for the season, as they still stand a chance at Europa League glory, but this loss will sting, with Digne now looking to be finished as a claret and blue regular.
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