Blackburn Rovers 0 Aston Villa 1:moved a step closer to Wembley last night by defeating Blackburn 1-0 in the first leg of their Carling Cup semi-final.
James Milner scored the only goal of the game in the first half and after Blackburn threatened a fightback after the break, it was the visitors who could easily have ended up with a wider advantage to take back to Villa Park next week.
Villa were on top in the first half and they took the lead with a fine breakaway goal. They launched an attack from their own box, the ball being played to Milner who carried it deep into Rovers territory. He then fed it wide to Stewart Downing before sweeping the return ball past keeper Paul Robinson. It could easily have been 2-0 before the break. Gabriel Agbonlahor thought he had won a penalty but was instead booked for diving by ref Mark Clattenburg, while Villa had another call for a spot-kick turned down when Pascal Chimbonda appeared to handle when jumping for a ball; Robinson made a good save in the same move after the whistle failed to sound. However, after the interval, the hosts looked a different team. Nikola Kalinic headed against the post from seven yards out and then David Dunn wasted a good chance by screwing a shot wide. As the fightback continued, Kalinic curled an excellent shot against the upright. But at the other end, Ashley Young almost put the game beyond Blackburn's reach but he sent a left-foot drive just wide and then Agbonlahor was denied by a good stop from Robinson. Instead Villa will have to settle for a one-goal lead going into next Wednesday's second leg. Afterwards, Villa boss Martin O'Neill was angry at Clattenburg for his decision to book Agbonlahor. The Northern Irishman said: "It looks a penalty to me, the referee would have to make that decision. "We've had an incident before where Ashley Young was upended against Arsenal, he ends up getting booked and misses the next match when he has been put into the air three times, falls almost on his head and the referee decides that's a dive. "I'm getting just a bit annoyed about it, because that's two players here who referees have decided are cheating and I think that's grossly unfair, I'm not best pleased with it to be honest." Opposite number Sam Allardyce was pleased with his side's response in the second half but was left to reflect on what might have been. "We got caught by a sucker-punch on the break, which we'd worked on not letting them do," he said. "That's their strength, with the pace in their team, but we allowed them a very soft goal. "We gave a spirited performance in the second half. What more can we do? Not a lot, but hopefully next time it will turn in our favour when we get a chance in front of goal."