O’Leary counts cost of derby mistakes

Birmingham 2 Aston Villa 0

The Villa keeper had gifted Blues the opening goal in their 2-1 victory in December and another terrible blunder yesterday resulted in the opening goal for Emile Heskey as the home side triumphed 2-0.

Then a mix-up between Martin Laursen and Olof Mellberg resulted in Julian Gray wrapping up proceedings in the closing stages.

It means Villa have still to win in six Premiership meetings with their rivals, and errors by previous keeper Peter Enckelman had also played a large part in the dominance of Steve Bruce’s side in this fixture.

O’Leary said: “I’m disappointed because over the last two years we have proved we are a better team than Birmingham league table-wise. But they must love playing us because we are just gifting them goals and you can’t legislate for mistakes.

“I thought this was a poor game, in which neither keeper had much to do, that was going to fizzle out into a draw, but everything seems to be going for Birmingham at the moment in these derbies.

“We hit the inside of a post with a free-kick and it stays out and then in the second half we give a shocking first goal away and then another stupid one. We have contributed to our own downfall again.”

Sorensen refused to comment after his error, and O’Leary added: “You just hope when a keeper makes a mistake that it is not punished. The ones he has made have been punished big style. The ball comes back to him, he spills it and they are in front. It was the same last season when we were 2-0 up at Villa Park, were outplaying them and then conceded two stupid individual goals.

“My players are absolutely gutted in the dressing room but they have got the three points and good luck to them.”

Bruce was delighted with the response of his side after the disappointing 2-0 defeat at West Brom a fortnight ago. He said: “During the last couple of weeks a lot of questions have been asked but I detected on Tuesday and Wednesday that my players were ready for this game.

“They had taken all the criticism, worked extremely hard and they got their reward today. They responded to the West Brom game and I was delighted with that because in my three-and-a-half years here I have not often had to say what I did after that game.”

Bruce admitted Sorensen’s blunder had been a bonus to his side but he praised another fine performance from Heskey, who caused problems to the Villa defence.

“People like Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen are different sort of players but they would all love to play alongside Emile,” he said.

Heskey broke the deadlock early in the second half courtesy of Sorensen’s error after Walter Pandiani had slipped the ball into his path. Then in the closing minutes the mix-up between Laursen and Mellberg gave substitute Gray a clear run on goal and he made no mistake from 10 yards.

Nolberto Solano came closest for Villa with his first-half free kick which was tipped onto the post by Maik Taylor. Villa midfielder Lee Hendrie and Blues defender Mario Melchiot appeared to clash at the final whistle, but Bruce played down reports of a scuffle in the tunnel.

BIRMINGHAM: Maik Taylor, Melchiot, Cunningham, Upson, Clapham, Johnson, Carter, Clemence (Nafti 76), Lazaridis (Gray 80), Pandiani (Morrison 88), Heskey.

ASTON VILLA: Sorensen, De la Cruz, Mellberg, Laursen, Samuel, Solano (Hitzlsperger 71), Hendrie, Berson (Vassell 60), Davis, Barry, Moore (Cole 60).

Referee: M Riley (W Yorkshire).