Vassell the villian as City end dismal run

Aston Villa 0 Manchester City 1

Vassell took his goal tally to four in four games against Villa since his £2 million (2.9m) switch to Eastlands last summer.

It ended a run of six successive defeats for City who also knocked lacklustre Villa out of the FA Cup in a fifth round replay last month.

The euphoria of Villa’s derby win over Birmingham nine days ago was forgotten and a dissatisfied Holte End greeted the final whistle with a crescendo of boos.

After a fairly even opening 45 minutes, City dominated the second period with Joey Barton running the show in midfield, Albert Riera impressive on the flank and Sylvain Distin a commanding figure at left-back.

The first opening fell to Distin, who would have been disappointed to send his header wide of Thomas Sorensen’s goal.

James was called into meaningful action for the first time after 16 minutes and he did well to beat out a close-range header from Olof Mellberg from Barry’s inswinging cross.

Gary Cahill has made a promising start to his Villa first-team career and he produced a vital tackle to deny Albert Riera after he had sped into the box and brushed aside two challenges.

Pearce made a half-time substitution, bringing on Antoine Sibierski in place of Georgios Samaras and he quickly made his mark on proceedings.

A reverse pass from Sibierski allowed Vassell to run unchallenged into the Villa box but he seemed to lack the confidence to shoot and instead opted to try and find Barton whose shot flew high and wide.

Vassell again proved to be the thorn in Villa’s side with a clinical piece of finishing after 71 minutes.

Claudio Reyna played the ball into Vassell’s feet and he was able to turn past the challenge of Mellberg and send a low drive past the dive of Sorensen.

Villa substitute Kevin Phillips had the ball in the net in injury time but was adjudged offside after referee Foy consulted with one of his assistants.

ASTON VILLA: Sorensen, Mellberg, Cahill, Ridgewell (Phillips 76), Hughes, McCann, Barry, Samuel, Milner, Angel, Baros (Agbonlahor 58).

MAN CITY: James, Sommeil, Richards, Dunne, Distin, Sinclair, Reyna, Barton, Riera (Musampa 90), Samaras (Sibierski 45), Vassell (Jihai 87).

Referee: C Foy (Merseyside).

Last night’s results: Coca-Cola Football League Two: Rochdale 1 Barnet 1, Torquay 4 Stockport 0.