Courtesy of Gregor Robertson in The Times today…..
“But it was McGinn, signed for less than £3million in 2018 by Steve Bruce — bargain of the decade? — who scored what turned out to be the winning goal against Derby County in the 2019 Championship play-off final at Wembley. It was McGinn who scored Villa’s first goal upon their Premier League return.
It was McGinn who scored the goal that rocked Paris Saint-Germain on their heels in last season’s pulsating Champions League quarter-final. It was McGinn who scored Villa’s first winning goal of this season against Bologna, ending a six-game winless start in September, when the notion of lifting this trophy felt so remote as to be laughable.
It was McGinn who scored the goals against Nottingham Forest that sent Villa Park into raptures a fortnight
ago, and put beyond doubt the club’s place in their first European final for 44 years. And it was McGinn whose strike against Liverpool on Friday quashed any lingering fears about Villa taking their place in next season’s Champions League — a goal that brought his season’s tally into double figures for the first time in his career, at its highest peak, aged 31, meeting a challenge set by the uber-demanding Emery”
