Barry keeps Villa’s top four push on track
Rovers had stunned Martin O’Neill’s side by taking a first half lead through Stephen Warnock, as Villa struggled to fire on all cylinders.
Luke Young’s first goal for the club levelled matters on the stroke of the interval, before Barry scored the decisive second in the 65th minute.
Gabriel Agbonlahor put the icing on the cake for Villa with three minutes remaining, before Brett Emerton snatched an injury-time consolation.
England midfielder Barry had also struck the winning goal against Ajax in the UEFA Cup and set Villa on their way to a resounding 4-0 win at Wigan at the weekend.
O’Neill hailed the win as “our best win of the season” as the Midlands club moved into fourth spot.
Villa were well below their best and trailed to a first half goal from Stephen Warnock as their recent heavy schedule appeared to take its toll.
“I thought it was our best win of the season because we were a million miles away from being at our best,” he said.
“I thought we played second fiddle throughout the first half and just couldn’t get to grips with things. We had no great energy and maybe playing our third game in just six days caught up with us.
“Maybe John Carew coming on in the second half gave us a bit more focus or maybe it was the equaliser just before half-time.
“But I was delighted with the win because for most of the game we were second best. That’s the reason why I think it was our best win.
“Blackburn caused us problems and they were unlucky but I can’t fault the effort of the players even though it was misguided tonight.”
O’Neill added: “Our passing was poor, there was also some clumsy defending at times but they somehow conjured a result from somewhere.
“James Milner worked miracles to set up our second goal and then Gabby breaks away and scores a great third goal.”
O’Neill added: “It is very pleasing to go fourth in the table and if we had put on a show, I would have been ecstatic.
“I am just very pleased to have got a result. The players have conjured a win from somewhere.”
Blackburn number two Ray Mathias felt his team paid the penalty for sloppy defending which overshadowed their overall performance.
“Not many teams will come to Villa and play as well as we did. We started off a little bit sloppy but, once we got going, we deserved to be ahead.
“The disappointing thing for us is the way we conceded the first and second goals. For the first goal, we were in command of the situation and paid for some sloppy defending. Then the second goal killed us.
“We were still in the game though and could have got back into it at 2-1 but another sloppy pass in the middle of the park cost us the third goal.”
ASTON VILLA: Friedel, Cuellar, L Young, Laursen, Shorey, Barry, Reo-Coker (Sidwell 83), Petrov (Carew 46) , Milner, A Young, Agbonlahor (Harewood 90).
BLACKBURN: Robinson, Samba, Nelsen, Warnock (Tugay 68), Ooijer, Simpson, Gamst Pedersen (Olsson 79), Emerton, Andrews, Villanueva, McCarthy (Derbyshire 79).
Referee: K Stroud.
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