Villa reserves held by Sunderland
Tuesday 28th September 2010, 9:01AM BST.
Villa Reserves 1 Sunderland Reserves 1
Former caretaker boss Kevin MacDonald was forced to settle for a draw on his reserves return after seeing his Villa team pegged back by Sunderland.
Durrell Berry’s fiercely-struck first-half effort was cancelled out by Jordan Cook in what was the claret and blue second string’s first outing of the season at Villa Park.
MacDonald, who handed the reins over to new boss Gerard Houllier at the start of last week, was forced into a change within five minutes after Nathan Baker was forced off with an injury.
But Baker’s replacement Berry soon made an impact, sweeping home James Collins Jr’s left-wing cross beyond the helpless Craig Gordon.
It was almost two when Isaiah Osbourne saw a 25-yard drive come back off the post and the home side eventually came to rue their near miss, when Cook cut in from the left and beat Villa keeper Elliot Parish at his near post with the aid of a deflection off Daniel Devine.
UK Sport
Latest Blog — A week is a long time in football
This time last week we were staring down the barrel, third from bottom with a worse record than at the same stage last year, writes Saddlers blogger Mark Jones.
Saddlers Blog
Business Awards
Book a Business Awards table
Join our celebrations of the region's best in business on Thursday March 22 - book your table now
Lifestyle
Interactive Dining Out map
Hundreds of reviews by the Express & Star and Shropshire Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.
entertainment
All the film reviews
Before you plan a trip to the pictures, get our critics' verdicts on all the latest movie releases
OUR NEW APP
Get the new E&S app
Download the Express & Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.
expressandstar.com
Popular sections
Useful links
