Rogers salutes Villa character

Morgan Rogers hailed Aston Villa’s determination and courage as they fought back to see off West Ham United and seal FA Cup progress.

The hosts fell behind to Lucas Paqueta’s ninth-minute strike at Villa Park and had to be patient before breaking down a well-organised Hammers side and secure victory courtesy of two goals in five second-half minutes.

Amadou Onana poked home from close range to level matters before Morgan Rogers applied a well-taken near-post finish to Ollie Watkins’ low cross.

The quickfire goals completed a dramatic turnaround and clinched a 2-1 third-round victory for the Villans.

“To go one-nil down is not what we want but it’s about how we react, how we show our determination and courage within us to come back in the game,” said Rogers.

“Thankfully we got the win and I thought we played pretty well.

“We controlled the game and when you keep pushing and keep pushing, you hope it goes in. And luckily it did.”

Asked what changed in the second half, Rogers replied: “A bit of belief, a bit more patience, a bit more forward thinking – I think we had a lot of the ball in the first half, but probably not risking enough or trying to go forward and make that difficult pass.

“In the second half we did. I know we didn’t always get it right, but we create more chances, create more mayhem in our attacking third and that’s where our goals came from.

“So, we’re just happy we won.”

In-form Rogers’ seventh goal of the season and third in his last four matches sealed the success and booked Villa’s place in the next stage the FA Cup.

Focus will now turn to Sunday’s fourth-round draw as Villa discover their opponents.

Midfielder Rogers admits Villa are taking it one match at a time, but have their sights set a potential run in the cup.

“Why can’t we win it? That’s how we’re looking at it,” he said.

“But we’ll take it game by game, anything can happen in a cup competition, you don’t know who you’ll draw, where you’ll play.

“We’ll just take it game by game and try to win – but we want to go on a run, we’re in this competition to win it.

“It’s an historic competition in England, we all know how much it means and we’re going to try our best to win it.”