Villa rally to rout Rovers in 10-goal thriller

ASTON VILLA are through to their first major final for 10 years after recovering from an opening half hour horror show to overcome 10-man Blackburn in last night’s dramatic Carling Cup semi-final, second leg clash.

Villa looked shambolic and jittery as Rovers over-turned their first leg deficit with a double strike from Nikola Kalinic, after which, according to defender Richard Dunne, Villa’s gameplan went out of the window.

Dunne said: “It was a good game to watch, I suppose, but we came into it trying to keep it tight and make sure they didn’t score.

“It certainly wasn’t the plan but we never started playing so we deserved it. Thankfully after that we picked up, kept the ball a bit and in the end we went on to win comfortably, without really killing them off.”

A controversial goal from former Blackburn defender Stephen Warnock sparked the comeback and the writing was on the wall for the visitors after the dismissal of defender Christopher Samba, who brought down Gabriel Agbonlahor inside the box.

James Milner scored the penalty and Villa never looked back after that with Agbonlahor, Emile Heskey and an own goal from Steven Nzonzi confirming their superiority.

Blackburn regained their pride with goals from Martin Olsson and Brett Emerton before Ashley Young put the icing on the cake for Villa.

“I’m absolutely delighted for the players,” said Martin O’Neill. “We started very nervously indeed and conceded a couple of really soft goals but came roaring back into the game.

“It was on a knife-edge, when they scored the second goal Wembley seemed a fair distance away.

“We thought if we could get one, maybe two, goals in the game it might be enough. As it was we scored six and still weren’t sure!”

Kalinic powered home an early header to level the aggregate scores.

After 26 minutes, Morten Gamst Pedersen crossed to Olsson whose close-range header was saved allowing Kalinic to convert the rebound.

Villa were given a lifeline four minutes later. Agbonlahor clearly pushed Rovers skipper Ryan Nelsen to the ground as Young’s right wing cross found its way through a ruck of players to former Blackburn player Warnock – who powered the ball home.

Five minutes before half-time Agbonlahor was brought down in the box by Samba who was given a straight red card by Atkinson.

Milner ensured Villa regained the aggregate lead by hammering the penalty past Paul Robinson.

After 53 minutes an own goal from Steven Nzonzi put Villa ahead on the night and 4-2 on aggregate.

Three minutes later Villa struck again with a shot from Milner deflected by the chest of Agbonlahor and after 62 minutes Blackburn cracked again as Heskey beat the offside trap.

Olsson made it 5-3 with a spectacular scissor-kick and with six minutes remaining Emerton’s volley crept under the body of a partially unsighted Guzan to further eat into Villa’s lead – but Young had the final say in injury-time as he curled the ball wide of Robinson into the corner of the net.

ASTON VILLA: Guzan, Cuellar, Dunne, Collins, Warnock, Petrov, Milner, Downing (Sidwell 86), Ashley Young, Agbonlahor, Heskey.

BLACKBURN: Robinson, Chimbonda, Samba, Nelsen, Givet, Emerton, Nzonzi (Reid 61), Pedersen, Olsson, Dunn (McCarthy 56), Kalinic (Di Santo 72).

Referee: M Atkinson.