Villa's away run delighting O'Neill
Aston Villa boss Martin O’Neill expressed his delight at his side’s fantastic away form, after their thumping 4-0 win at Blackburn lifted them to sixth in the Barclays Premier League table.
The win was Villa’s third in succession on their travels, and the way in which they polished off 10-man Rovers after recovering from a shaky start suggests a top-four finish is not out of the question.
John Carew opened the scoring with a 29th-minute header, and Gareth Barry added the second from the spot following the incident in which Rovers captain Ryan Nelsen was sent off.
The superb Ashley Young fired a goal of his own 10 minutes from time, and late substitute Marlon Harewood completed the rout with a counter-attacking winner.
O’Neill said: “I’m delighted with a win of any sort. But I’m especially delighted to have got four on the spot, and three of those away from home.
“It’s great for us, and confidence is very high at the moment. I thought for the first half-hour we were second-best. But our big goals are turning games, and I thought our second-half performance was excellent.”
Rovers boss Mark Hughes admitted he felt a little hard done by, not least because his side dominated the opening stages – with David Dunn, Nelsen and David Bentley all coming close.
Villa went ahead against the run of play when the Rovers defence were caught napping at Young’s free-kick from the left, and Carew leapt highest to head past the advancing Brad Friedel.
However, the game truly turned in the 53rd minute when Nelsen tugged Young’s shirt in the box – and, as well as pointing to the spot, referee Phil Dowd also issued the defender with a straight red card.
Hughes said: “I think he’s given it for a shirt pull, and it was probably the right decision. But I don’t think it warranted a sending-off, in fairness.
“From that point on, we were trying to get back into the game at 2-0 down. But they got a couple of breakaways, both of which I had my doubts about – because I thought they might be offside.”
Villa stepped up the pace against Rovers’ stretched resources, and Young grabbed a third with a superb finish past Friedel after a cut-back from fellow striker Gabriel Agbonlahor.
Harewood’s late strike added a lopsided look to the final scoreline, and Hughes insisted that – despite the apparent hammering – his side would lose little sleep over the final result.
“It was just one of those nights we’ve got to draw a line under and move on,” he said.
“We know Villa aren’t four goals better than us – and so do they. This is not going to dent our confidence.”
