Wolves 2 Aston Villa 3IF YOU will forgive the bastardising of one of Muhammad Ali's finest bon mots, Robbie Keane flits like a butterfly but still stings like a bee. The Irish rover never stays with one club long enough to lay claim to a permanent peg in the dressingroom, but after the 10th transfer of his nomadic career he remains a class act, as Wolverhampton Wanderers found to their cost.
Going back to his alma mater with his latest employers, Republic of Ireland international Keane scored two spectacular goals, both from outside the penalty area, to prise victory from the maw of defeat. It was a remarkable performance from a player who, at 31, is in his prime, inviting the question why he was allowed to drift out of the Premier League and away to Tinseltown, from where he has returned only on loan.
Keane ought to have another three years among the elite in Britain before joining David Beckham and Thierry Henry in the elephants’ graveyard that is Major League Soccer.
Alex McLeish is not universally popular among Villa supporters, but he deserves full credit for acting decisively and signing Saturday’s match-winner while others dithered. McLeish will now move heaven and earth to make the move permanent.
The plight of the old gold thoroughbreds with whom Keane learned his trade is increasingly precarious, and he was wise not to rejoin them when Mick McCarthy offered him the chance. Wolves have dropped into the bottom three for the first time this season with a result that leaves them without a win in eight Premier League matches.
In the first half they were much the better team after falling behind to Darren Bent’s early penalty. McLeish had erred by dropping Stephen Warnock, a left-back, in favour of a midfielder, Ciaran Clark, who was embarrassed by Michael Kightly’s pacy, incisive wing play.
Kightly, 26 tomorrow, was being tracked by Manchester United three years ago before twice suffering the same injury that terminated Owen Hargreaves’s time at Old Trafford.
Now back to something like his best, he tormented poor Clark, who was left for dead as Kightly equalised with his first goal in the Premier League.
Wolves took a deserved lead with a close-range header by Dave Edwards, but spurned chances to settle the issue by half-time, and at the interval McLeish rectified his selection error by sending on Warnock, who nullified Kightly in the second half.
McCarthy claimed his team would not have lost but for the dismissal of Karl Henry, for stupidly kicking Marc Albrighton, and the facial injury that resulted in Emmanuel Frimpong being carried off on a stretcher.
Be that as it may, the stage was set for the star of the show, who restored equality with a classy half-volley on the turn from 20 yards, then surpassed that gem with a screamer from further out that went in via the underside of the crossbar.
The boos directed at Keane by some Wolves fans did not tempt him to show any disrespect towards the club where he started his career. “I had wonderful times at Wolves and they are a club that looked after me as a kid. I’ll never forget, they did so much for me. I’ve got a lot of friends at the club still and it’s always great to come back,” he said.
“I’ll never celebrate if I score against them. I never celebrate when I score against any of my former clubs out of respect. But you have to be professional, do the job for the team that you are with, and that’s Aston Villa.”
Keane looked sharp in his first start since the conclusion of the Major League Soccer campaign.
“I feel good, I feel sharp, this was my first game since December 7th,” he said. “I’ve felt good the last few weeks in training. I’m feeling sharper and sharper and you saw that against Wolves.”
He added: “I’m only here for a short time so if I can help in any way possible, then great.”
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