Ugly win has Villa sitting pretty
Villa were nothing like their usual fluent selves at the Stadium of Light and played the last 20 minutes without Ashley Young, sent off for a clumsy tackle. But still they won, for the fifth time in succession.
Martin O’Neill’s side look determined to hold on to their three-point advantage over Arsenal in the race for Champions League qualification and those who had predicted an implosion look more misguided by the week.
“You see it year after year,” Gareth Barry, the Villa captain and their inspiration here, said. “The top teams, you look for their results after you have played and you just see them winning and winning.
“That’s the mentality we have at the moment, and we are trying to keep it and, even when, like Saturday, it is really tough, come away with three points.”
Trailing 1-0, and deservedly so, to Danny Collins’ 11th-minute header at the break, they rallied in the second half and dragged themselves back into the contest with a disputed equaliser on the hour.
Barry and Gabriel Agbonlahor combined to play Young into space down the right and James Milner bundled his cross over the line after having his heels clipped by the chasing Pascal Chimbonda.
The winger later admitted there had been more than a hint of handball, but insisted referee Mike Dean might have had to take further action against Chimbonda had he ruled out the strike.
“I went for it with my head and there might have been a bit of hand in there as well,” he said. “But I think it would have been a penalty anyway if I had missed.
“The ref obviously made it a bit easier because he might have had to send the guy off as well.”
Dean was to find himself the central figure again before the final whistle, first sending off Young for an ill-judged two-footed tackle on Dean Whitehead and then infuriating the home fans with the decision that ultimately led to their side’s demise.
Agbonlahor set off in pursuit of keeper Brad Friedel’s clearance with 10 minutes remaining and went to ground under Paul McShane’s challenge on the edge of the box.
TV replays suggested initial contact had been made outside the area, but Dean pointed to the spot and Barry duly dispatched the winner.
O’Neill, who had no complaints about Young’s dismissal, could not speak highly enough of his players.
“We are doing okay,” O’Neill said. “We have come here to Sunderland, who are in good form and with the crowd behind them because their recent form has been good. I thought it was a tough game. We’ve come and won, and deserved it in the end.”
Opposite number Ricky Sbragia, who saw defender Nyron Nosworthy limp off with a hamstring injury that will sideline him for several weeks, was left looking anxiously over his shoulder.
The Wearsiders have now taken eight of the 21 points they have contested since Roy Keane left the club, and only one from nine following the Scot’s appointment as his permanent replacement.
But for all the controversy on the day, Sbragia admitted his side had only themselves to blame.
He said: “From our point of view, they were two bad goals to concede. In some ways, they could be schoolboy errors and that’s a couple of times we have conceded goals like that.
“We have to get it out of our make-up.”
SUNDERLAND (4-4-2): Fulop 7, Chimbonda 6, Nosworthy 5 (McShane 62, 5), Ferdinand 6, Collins 7 (Bardsley 62, 5), Edwards 7, Tainio 7, Whitehead 7, Diouf 6 (Reid 81, 5), Cisse 6, Jones 6.
Subs Not Used: Colgan, Chopra, Leadbitter, Healy.
ASTON VILLA (4-5-1): Friedel 6, Reo-Coker 6, Davies 7, Cuellar 6, L Young 6, Milner 7, Sidwell 6 (Gardner 73, 5), Petrov 6, Barry 8, A Young 7, Agbonlahor 7.
Subs Not Used: Guzan, Harewood, Delfouneso, Knight, Salifou, Shorey.
REFEREE: Mike Dean (Wirral) 5: Young’s red card was probably correct but there were too many yellow cards in a feisty, but never dirty, game.
MATCH RATING: *** Breathless stuff and more proof that Villa are here to stay in the race for a top-four finish.
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