Columbus Crew 1 Aston Villa 3

Columbus Crew 1 Aston Villa 3

Two early goals helped Aston Villa to a hard-fought victory over Columbus Crew.

Ashley Young opened the scoring after only eight minutes, and Gareth Barry made it 2-0 to Martin O’Neill’s men just three minutes later.

If anyone expected a wide-margin win, however, no romp materialised as the hosts made Villa work – just as Toronto FC had earlier this week at the start of the Barclays Premier League tourists’ US trip.

After substitute forward Jason Garey reduced the arrears with just under quarter-of-an-hour to go, Villa were in danger of letting their advantage slip - but they dug in for the win, and added a last-gasp third goal into the bargain.

O’Neill made several changes from the 4-2 win over Toronto – with only Barry, Gary Cahill, Olof Mellberg and Young remaining from the starting line-up in Canada.

Young’s opening goal was a right-footer from the edge of the box, and Gabriel Agbonlahor almost doubled the lead immediately – with a left-foot shot pushed wide by goalkeeper Will Hesmer.

Barry soon did make it 2-0, playing a one-two with John Carew and putting a low left-foot shot into the bottom corner.

Villa dominated the first half but could not add to their lead.

They made six changes at half-time – with Stephen O’Halloran, Liam Ridgewell, Craig Gardner, Stiliyan Petrov, Patrik Berger and Luke Moore on for Wilfred Bouma, Martin Laursen, Barry, Nigel Reo-Coker, Young and Carew.

Crew were much improved after the break, with midfielder Duncan Oughton going close and another substitute Kei Kamara wasting a good chance.

But it was Garey who strode into the Villa box on 76 and pulled a goal back with a low shot past Stuart Taylor.

Garey might have made it 2-2 with 11 minutes to go when he headed wide from a promising position.

Moore almost restored Villa’s two-goal advantage moments later, but Hesmer did well to palm a low drive past the post.

Then after Marlon Harewood had a shot blocked on the line in stoppage time, Luke Moore got Villa’s third with a header from a Berger cross.