Chapter 43: A Comprehensive Win

Three minutes into the second half, and Whitby hadn’t sat down once.

By the fifty-fifth minute, he’d made his first substitution of the match, sending on a fresh attacking option. It didn’t change much. Derby’s attack looked no more threatening after the change than before it; still incapable of forcing a genuine chance against Villa’s shape.

Sixtieth minute, and Saint finally stirred on the touchline, making his own first change of the day: Lavelle came on.

"Ha... looks like Villa are content to see this one out," Curtis noted, watching the substitution.

Outsiders wouldn’t have much of a read on Lavelle yet. He hadn’t featured with the first team before this, and unless you followed the academy closely, his U21 form wouldn’t have registered at all.

"Villa bringing on a kid, are they," Derby’s own commentator said, not bothering to hide the condescension.

That tone didn’t survive long. Lavelle, barely settled on the pitch, went straight to work; a string of clever touches leaving multiple Derby defenders grasping at nothing.

He didn’t have Rocher’s raw pace, but technically he wasn’t far behind him, and his low centre of gravity made him a genuine nightmare for Derby’s back line to handle. If not for a heavy touch from Okoro moments later, Villa might already have been 4–0 up off Lavelle’s introduction alone.

Okoro remained a player of clear extremes; blistering pace and genuine technical quality, undercut by weaker positional sense and decision-making. Whether he ever properly closed that gap would decide whether he became a genuinely elite forward or simply faded as his legs slowed with age.

Villa had spent most of this half comfortably controlling possession, and Lavelle’s introduction gave that control an extra edge; a genuine spark of unpredictability layered on top of the patient approach Saint had built the whole half around.

This was Lavelle’s first competitive first-team appearance for the club, and given the stakes and the stage, it was easy to understand why he looked so visibly thrilled to be out there.

As the clock ticked on, the scoreline held at 3–0, and Derby’s exhaustion from that furious first-half press was becoming impossible to hide. Their legs, understandably, were starting to demand payment.

By the sixty-fifth minute, Derby’s fitness had dropped off noticeably, and whatever threat remained in their attacking play had all but disappeared.

There’s an old football cruelty in exactly this kind of situation; punish a tired side exactly when they’re at their most vulnerable. For Derby, that cruelty was about to repeat itself. For Villa, it was simply the final nail in a genuinely emphatic result.

Lavelle didn’t get himself on the scoresheet directly, but his introduction had earned him an assist regardless, and his overall contribution was impossible to ignore.

Sixty-seventh minute: Pentland’s goal kick found Whitfield, who used his height to win the header, knocking it down into Conlan’s path.

Conlan took the ball and didn’t look to pass immediately; instead, he drove forward himself, deep into Derby’s half, dragging two defenders toward him before finally releasing it.

Rocher took possession, controlled it, and turned;, and just as everyone assumed he was going alone again, the ball went sideways instead. The turn had been the decoy. The pass was always the intention.

Whitfield, reading it perfectly, was already sprinting into the space Rocher had created, arriving just outside Derby’s box.

Derby’s centre-backs reacted well, credit where due; a well-organised double team, cutting off the passing lane to Whitfield directly, while both full-backs dropped in to cover the box behind them.

With that lane closed, Whitfield laid it off instead; and a smaller figure appeared on the right side of the pitch, exactly where the space had opened up.

One touch, and Lavelle burst past his marker with ease on the outside, driving straight into Derby’s box.

Derby’s remaining full-back rushed across to close him down, while the two centre-backs who’d originally marked Whitfield were forced to scramble back into position.

"Pass! Lavelle... not going for it himself—"

"GOOOOOOOOOOOOAL! Fourth goal! Villa make it four!"

"Whitfield with the finish from just outside the box; Lavelle’s pass completely wrong-footed Derby’s back line, and Whitfield found himself with an entire yard of space nobody accounted for."

"4–0! Villa extend the lead again, completely putting this game beyond doubt."

"Whitfield! No chance for Derby’s keeper on that one; his second goal of the season, and what a moment for him personally, given everything that’s happened this week."

"There he goes... straight to the touchline, straight to a manager three years his junior."

Genuinely, even Saint looked briefly surprised watching Whitfield sprint toward him. A second later, though, he understood exactly why.

The first three goalscorers had all made straight for Saint after finding the net. If Whitfield hadn’t done the same, it would have said something uncomfortable to the rest of the dressing room; and Whitfield, whatever else you said about him, clearly understood exactly what message this moment needed to send.

"Genuinely curious how a man this young has managed to win over a dressing room full of players older than him, this quickly," Curtis said, echoing what half the country was probably wondering by now.

Villa Park was in full celebration. Elsewhere in Birmingham, though, one man was watching this same match unfold with a very different reaction.

Terry Ventham, barely a week removed from losing this exact job, was watching from home, quietly, unable to stay away from it.

There’s a familiar, slightly pathetic instinct in exactly this situation; like an ex unable to stop checking up on a former partner after a breakup, not out of lingering affection, but out of some grim hope that things are going worse for them now.

Ventham hadn’t found what he was hoping for. Quite the opposite; and Whitfield’s turnaround, specifically, stung more than anything else on that scoreline.

Watching Whitfield sprint toward Saint in celebration, Ventham hurled the remote control across the room, straight into the television.

A genuinely expensive set, reduced to scrap in an instant; though clearly, in that moment, cost was the last thing on his mind.

"Terry?" His wife’s voice carried in from the next room, considerably less indifferent to the broken television than he was.