Rovers finish on high but Villa steal sixth

THIS was not the ending Aston Villa had hoped for but it was still sufficient to earn the net result manager Martin O’Neill really wanted – sixth place.

Richard Dunne scored an own-goal in the 84th minute to give a battling Blackburn a 1-0 win and revenge for being on the wrong end of a 6-4 thriller that sent Villa to the League Cup final earlier in the season.

Dunne was trying to prevent Junior Hoilett heading into goal but inadvertently saved him the job.

But Villa still finished in sixth place because Hull held Liverpool to a 0-0 draw. As a result, Villa have avoided playing an extra round of the Europa Cup in July.

“Disappointed with the result today,” a reflective Villa manager Martin O’Neill said. “Delighted we finished sixth. Our position today, even if we’d won, we wouldn’t have finished fifth in the league and that’s the consolation I get.”

James Milner was a key player for Villa, chasing down chances and taking his own. James Collins forced Paul Robinson to save after six minutes, Milner then had a chance before setting up John Carew to sidefoot wide.

Collins had a stunning chance when his long-range bullet forced Robinson to dive and parry away.

Robinson was again called into action to save from Milner’s curling free kick in the dying moments of the first half. And soon after, Milner just failed to get on the end of a John Carew cross.

Villa may have missed out on fourth with a loss to Manchester City last Saturday, but the Villains made two trips to Wembley this season, losing in the League Cup final to Manchester United and FA Cup semi-final to Chelsea.

Their 64 points is their highest points return since the switch to a 20-team league in 1995-96. But O’Neill knows he needs to improve the team – with Tottenham set to splash the cash with Champions League football looming and Man City with seemingly unlimited pockets.

As well as players, O’Neill wants a better home record.

“That’s something we should look at for next season, to improve the home form,” O’Neill said. “The fans deserve that, we will try to do that. We could win one or two more at home then who’s to say that we could not have improved our position? Our away record is up there with the very, very best.”

Undoubtedly O’Neill will be examining ways to emulate Tottenham’s fourth-place finish this season as he is not planning to go anywhere else, calling Villa “a remarkable club”.

“Could you tell me where you’re going to be in three, four months times?” asked O’Neill to a reporter who asked if he would be at Villa next season. “I hope to be here.”

Blackburn have played impressively at home – they were unbeaten at Ewood Park against Chelsea, United, Liverpool and Arsenal but have struggled away.

“Arsenal 2-1 and Aston Villa 1-0 is a fantastic finish to the season for us and shows the difference what a couple of wins makes,” Blackburn manager Sam Allardyce said. “Instead of perhaps 14th – and we would have been quite satisfied with that – we beat two big guns and finished 10th.

“Four places times 800 grand makes a big difference to the budget in the summer.”

MATCH RATING: *** – A decent end of season game with Blackburn a touch fortunate to emerge victorious.

Referee: Steve Bennett (Kent) 5 – Booked Dunn for diving when he was tackled then later failed to award him a penalty after a tackle from Emile Heskey.