Lambert: The stress levels were ridiculous

Aston Villa 2 West Ham 1

Even Paul Lambert, the Villa manager, was as animated as he has ever been in football on the touchline, anxiously awaiting the final whistle.

But in the end two last-gasp saves from Brad Guzan ensured a priceless three points would be heading to Lambert’s men and the relief was palpable after Christian Benteke’s 74th-minute penalty and Charles N’Zogbia’s 25-yard free-kick four minutes later had set up this first victory in nine league matches to take Villa out of the bottom three.

“It’s only great when you hear that whistle,” said Lambert. “The stress levels were ridiculous.

“It’s hard to explain what it is like in the last few minutes but it’s great when it’s finished and you’ve won.

“It’s a massive win, a huge win, especially after results this weekend.

“I think it was a huge thing keeping them out late on.”

This was an old-fashioned English game of football, with few chances for either side until the late finale, but plenty of bruising challenges.

Home captain Ron Vlaar along with fellow defenders Ciaran Clark and Nathan Baker put their bodies on the line for the cause in arguably their best performance at the back this season.

Andreas Weimann should have given Villa the perfect start, but inexplicably missed what can only be described as a sitter from six yards after Benteke’s piledriver had only been parried by Jussi Jaaskelainen.

The miss knocked Villa, who opted to leave out Stephen Ireland from their squad completely, and it took the introduction of Darren Bent to bring the game to life.

The outstanding N’Zogbia curled within a whisker of the post seconds after Bent’s arrival while the Villa number nine then cleared off the line at the other end to keep out Andy Carroll’s shot following Matthew Taylor’s corner.

Lambert’s side bravely saw off West Ham’s splurge of attacking threat before taking a pivotal lead on 74 minutes.

N’Zogbia was brought down by Mark Noble after receiving a pass from Benteke and the Belgian almost effortlessly stroked the ball calmly, without power, into the bottom corner past Jaaskelainen.

Lambert’s delight was clear but he was jumping for joy four minutes later thanks to a wonder goal from N’Zogbia. Jaaskelainen did not even move as he was presumably watching and admiring the sensational left footed free-kick of the Frenchman.

It just would not have been fitting of Villa if they had comfortably seen out the victory though, even if their defensive display was encouraging.

A seemingly innocuous cross from Joe Cole caught the head of Ashley Westwood and beat a back-peddling Guzan. It was cruel luck for Villa and the proverbial throwing of the kitchen sink came late on.

But Guzan saved brilliantly to push Kevin Nolan’s shot from sub Carlton Cole’s pass around the post and then made another wonder stop to thwart Carlton Cole with the last kick of the game from Joe Cole’s centre as Villa Park breathed again.

“I thought we had saved it,” said West Ham manager Sam Alardyce. “But we should never have been in that position. We can’t play any better than we played. We dominated and need to put the ball in the back of the net when we get a chance. ”