Former Hibs’ Scottish Cup winning midfielder ‘Super’ John McGinn’s ‘assist’ six-minutes from the end of Aston Villa’s game against West Ham United yesterday helped secure Premier League football for the Midlands club next season.
With survival on a knife edge, McGinn collected the ball just outside the area and found team-mate Jack Grealish unmarked on the edge of the box.
Grealish controlled the pass, beat a defender and fired the ball past Lukasz Fabianski in the Hammers’ goal, sparking mayhem on the Villa bench.
Moments later however Andriy Yarmolenko’s strike deflected off the Villa captain and looped over the Pepe Reina to level the scores.
At that time, fellow relegation strugglers Watford were 3-2 down to Arsenal and Bournemouth with 3-1 up at Everton which meant that a draw would guarantee safety.
In the dying minutes McGinn used his strength to keep the ball in the corner and Dean Smith’s side held on to complete their escape from trouble on the final day of the season.
McGinn became a massive favourite amongst the Villa fans after his moved from Hibs, scoring the goal which took them up the EPL via the play-offs last season and many believe that his injury earlier in the campaign was the reason that the club were in the bottom three when the league was suspended.
There has recently been speculation linking him to a big money move to Newcastle United however Aston Villa’s survival may see him stay at Villa Park
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
