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LONDON. — It was a great day — for Aston Villa, for Tim Sherwood and, in its own way, for English football, too. As Aston Villa beat Liverpool 1-2. Here was another match that demonstrated young English players are good enough, if given the chance. The worry is that they all seem to be given a chance by the same man.

After Harry Kane at Tottenham, Sherwood has now introduced the world to Jack Grealish. He was arguably the man of the match here — certainly on a par with Fabian Delph and the mighty Christian Benteke — just 12 days after starting his first Premier League game.

Had Nottingham Forest not been subject to a transfer embargo Grealish might have been playing in the Championship this weekend, loaned out to gain experience. Instead, under Sherwood, he has been promoted — and could now play at Wembley twice in as many months. Arsenal await, and it is no more than Villa deserve. They were the better team here, winning with a goal by another Englishman — Delph, who struck nine minutes into the second half as Brendan Rodgers switched gameplans in search of victory.

Packing the midfield, instead it was Villa who sensed an opening, in a move started and finished by Delph. He collected the ball in the centre, fed Benteke who passed it on to Grealish.

Here, the 19-year-old was particularly impressive. When many his age would have elected to shoot, Grealish instead saw the bigger picture. He slipped it to Delph who cut inside two Liverpool men and finished sharply past Simon Mignolet.

Liverpool fought gamely for an equaliser — Steven Gerrard having a header cleared off the line by Kieran Richardson and a terribly poor decision ruled a Mario Balotelli goal offside when he was half a yard on — but, ultimately, the better team won.

As for Grealish, the FA Cup final is a family affair. His great-great-grandfather Billy Garraty was man of the match when Villa beat Newcastle United to the trophy in 1905.

Jack grew up with Garraty’s photograph on the wall, and has played Under 21 football for the Republic of Ireland, the country of his grandparents. From here, however, he is believed to wish to play for his country of birth. At least he will be very familiar with their home ground.

The big news pre-match was that Steven Gerrard was in the Liverpool side; the bad news by half-time was that he had negligible influence on the game.

To be fair, he was not alone. Liverpool’s opening goal was smartly worked and taken, but they have played much better than this under Rodgers.

That he changed to four at the back midway through the first half, and introduced Mario Balotelli at half-time, suggested he knew that, too.

Liverpool’s goal, after 30 minutes, if not against the run of play, was certainly a decent return on their investment. It started and finished with Philippe Coutinho. Again, this was not one of the Brazilian’s greatest games — his pass completion rate in the first half stood at 71 per cent — but he did well for the opener.

It was his pass into Jordan Henderson that forced Villa into a hurried rearguard action, first Jores Okore and then Delph failing to adequately clear.

The ball came out to Gerrard who moved it on to Raheem Sterling, who just as quickly fed it to Coutinho now arriving in the box with a late run. His shot may have been going just wide, but clipped Okore and defeated Shay Given in the Villa goal

One feared for Villa if Liverpool were allowed to relax and settle, but Tim Sherwood’s team bit back within six minutes and it was game on. Delph did the work, bursting through a group of three Liverpool players, and exchanging a one-two with Grealish before crossing for Benteke.

The striker has been a man revived by Sherwood, and here was the manager’s reward — a well-taken finish that silenced the red half of Wembley. They looked worried as well they should have been; Villa were the more enterprising side. They had the first chance of the game — a shot by Charles N’Zogbia that was tipped over by Simon Mignolet — and didn’t look in the least intimidated by the occasion. — Mailonline.