Has Ross McCormack potentially salvaged Aston Villa career while Tommy Elphick has thrown his away?

Follow us on Google Discover

Aston Villa crashed out of the Carabao Cup at the hands of Championship rivals Middlesbrough on Tuesday night.

Based on how their Aston Villa spells and summer windows played out, both Ross McCormack and Tommy Elphick must have felt that their inclusions in Steve Bruce’s squad for their League Cup tie with Middlesbrough were huge opportunities to either make a move towards salvaging their Villa careers or to put themselves in the shop window for potentially interested sides.

But on a night when Boro put themselves in the hat for the next round with a 2-0 win, only one of the fringe players seemed to provide a hint that he could be ready to fight his way back into Bruce’s plans.

McCormack’s only other appearance this season came as a late substitute in a previous round of the same competition, so he would have known how great an opportunity it was when he was brought on after 41 minutes with Henri Lansbury having to be taken off.

Though the former Fulham man failed to score, he showed some desire to make an impact, and with Bruce’s other strikers struggling for goals in the Championship, that performance may have just given McCormack the slightest chance of being used more often in future.

Meanwhile, it appeared – albeit for nothing more than a split second – that Elphick’s night may be exactly what the former Bournemouth captain needed as he found the back of the net during the first-half.

However, the offside flag saw the goal chalked off, and Elphick’s evening would be over before the hour-mark as a rash challenge on Patrick Bamford saw Boro awarded the penalty that would lead to the deadlock being broken and the centre-back being sent off.

Elphick needed to prove that he could be a reliable option for Bruce to consider following his disappointing first season, and Middlesbrough were arguably the perfect opposition given their status as one of the favourites for promotion out of the second tier.

However, the centre-back probably knew that he had wasted his chance to impress a split second earlier than everyone else as his challenge was arguably one of a player who, having let an opponent get away, was resigned to there being just one outcome – both for his challenge and probably for his prospects of salvaging his Villa career.