Villa accelerate into the big boys' league

Sunderland 1  Aston Villa 2: BLISTERING ACCELERATION is football's answer to the airbrush. Its irresistible force can make otherwise flawed players extremely rich, while teams suffused with pace often punch well above their technical weight.

Throw in supreme confidence and resolve, allied to sheer luck, and Aston Villa’s Champions League candidacy suddenly becomes understandable after all.

Infinitely more direct and indisputably less inventive passers than Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal, Martin O’Neill’s side – who finished with 10 men following Ashley Young’s second-half dismissal – will surely be found out in Europe next season, but they demand considerable plaudits for maximising their counter-attacking assets.

“Villa do play it long – there’s no ifs or buts about that,” said Ricky Sbragia after seeing his hitherto struggling Sunderland ensemble out-play the visitors for protracted periods only to be undone by an amalgam of poor refereeing and dozy defending.

If Mike Dean failed to spot James Milner handballing Villa’s equaliser, or that an arguably offside Gabriel Agbonlahor was outside the box when he fell under Paul McShane’s rash, penalty-conceding challenge, Sbragia preferred to apportion blame elsewhere. Having expressed irritation that the leveller came at the end of a hallmark Villa break which saw Young zooming clear and supplying Milner with a superb cross after Sunderland fluffed a short corner routine, Sbragia could not hide his anger about the preamble to Gareth Barry’s winning penalty.

Agbonlahor had been nullified by Anton Ferdinand’s marking but, as the striker raced towards Brad Friedel’s long, booted clearance, Ferdinand’s concentration short-circuited, leaving the horribly exposed McShane to lunge at the striker with his foot at head level.

Newly on as a substitute after returning from a loan stint at Hull, McShane took the brunt of the boos, but his manager refused to absolve Ferdinand. “Anton was lazy,” said Sbragia. “He’s not covered Agbonlahor. I’m disappointed.”

Yet Roy Keane’s successor, whose side assumed a deserved lead when Danny Collins headed Carlos Edwards’ free-kick home, should not necessarily be exempt from criticism. Sbragia was so obsessed about Villa’s counter-attacking speed that he left the midfielder boasting Sunderland’s brightest football brain and most incisive passing range warming the bench for 81 minutes.

Andy Reid came on much too late to have a proper say.

But the erstwhile Ireland midfielder lacks pace and was consequently, if misguidedly, deemed a potential defensive liability here.

Young’s wonderfully quick feet represented the afternoon’s highlight before his uncharacteristic sending off for a dangerously high, two-footed tackle on Dean Whitehead, which will trigger club sanctions.

Insisting he did not cheat, Milner explained: “The lad caught me and I was on my way to the floor. I tried to get any contact I could on the ball and it hit my head and hands at the same time. If I hadn’t made contact it was a penalty.”

Guardian Service