Gabby Agbonlahor’s late header clinched derby victory for Villa in a pulsating game at St Andrew’s.
The Erdington-born striker was the Villa hero when he glanced Ashley Young’s header past Maik Taylor in the 87th minute.
Just a minute earlier Agbonlahor produced an incredible goal line clearance to deny Liam Ridgewell.
Earlier former Villa star Ridgewell, who moved across the city in the summer, had a nightmare start - deflecting Stiliyan Petrov’s cross past his own keeper.
Villa had the better of the first half with John Carew and Agbonlahor testing Taylor. Although Blues had two good penalty shots turned down by referee Steve Bennett.
Steve Bruce’s men came back strongly in a full throttle second half, equalising through substitute Mikael Forssell on the hour mark and going close to taking the lead when Cameron Jerome forced a brilliant save from Scott Carson.
In the end it was Agbonlahor who proved the hero as Villa moved up to eighth in the table - and completed their third successive derby win.
Villa and Blues fans have your say below
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10 Comments
Still the best team in the midlands by a clear mile on this account. The noses visit to VP next year will only serve to improve the Villa’s goal difference!
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Excellent game and result for Aston Villa taking 3 points. The game could have gone either way but Villa did have more realistic chances and more goal mouth possession. Blues never gave up and deserved to come back, and what a great goal it was. The next goal was almost surely going to decide the game and in the end it went to Villa with Agbonlahor’s efforts making it finally count. Ashely Young was deserved man of the match and the blues struggled all afternoon to hold him off. He is an asset to Villa. I think Maloney should played instead of carew or atleast been on the pitch at some point. And Reo Coker needs something to get him to play at the speed the game plays. He is so slow at reading the run of the game and looks like he is out of place. All in all a great derby. One last point. I dont think it was a penalty with larson, forwards should stand up and not fall over so easy. Ashley young was man handled off the ball on many occasions and nothing has been said bout that.
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as a blues fan for 55 years I still believe that we at b’ham city are still waiting to see a totally unbiased referee at st andrews.today steve bennett has completly missed TWO penelties which the blues should have had.I am honest enough to see both sides of the equation but the decisions that didnt go our way in this local derby were totally unbelievable.I hope that Steve Bennett has no trouble sleeping.
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guessed it would be the refs fault age,dont bruce ever stop whinging in the paper most the team got 4 or 5 out of 10 thats the problem not the ref,:-)boing boing
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Typical blues….can’t even fill there ground for the derby!!
‘My garden shed…..’
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blues are the best villa are rubbish!!the ground was packed and we all had our blues top on and gold chain out bluesss
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yes the blues are the best we got the bestest fans we all wear our tops to games and show how much we love our club
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What a shame, We definately deserved one penalty for the hand ball incident.
Villa were typically nice people (NOT)
We are not always whinging about ref’s but we do get bad decisions made about us.
Blues are a young team, We will conquer the Vile once more!!!!
Keep Right on Blues.
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We are not always whinging about ref’s but we do get bad decisions made about us.
Blues are a young team, We will conquer the Vile once more!!!!
Keep Right on Blues.
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Small Heath equals…..
Small Minded, Small Ground (usually,not full) small club. I’m a Villa Fan looking forward to getting proper teams like the Wolves and the Baggies to take The pub teams place in the top flight. Well done to Steve Bruce for leaving for a Bigger club in Wigan. Good career move.
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