Aston Villa 1-0 Charlton

[andy villa]

Steve Davis' winner sealed a hard-earned win for Aston Villa and consigned Charlton to a fourth successive Premiership defeat.

Davis kept a cool head to drill home his shot after a frenetic scramble which saw Milan Baros' shot rebound to him off the bar.

Charlton armed themselves with a defensive plan to frustrate Villa in an attempt to end their winless streak.

The visitors' best effort saw Darren Bent's first-half shot drift just wide.

Villa made a bright start, with Gavin McCann's shot finger-tipped round the post by Charlton keeper Stephan Andersen, following good approach play by Baros.

But Villa's early enterprise evaporated as Charlton, with Matt Holland restored in favour of Danny Murphy, strangled them in midfield.

Charlton hoped to draw Villa on and use their pace on the break, and the ploy almost paid off on a rare raid when Darren Ambrose's cross from the right was met by Olof Mellberg, who was relieved to see a sliced clearance fizz over his own crossbar.

Chances were at a premium as Charlton defended in depth and Gareth Barry was surprised when Wilfred Bouma's cross came through to him and he was unable to react in front of goal.

Charlton grew in confidence and Alexei Smertin's mazy dribble unsettled the Villa defence and when the ball broke for Bent he fired his shot across Thomas Sorensen and inches wide of the far post.

At the other end, Sorensen's fellow Danish keeper Andersen spread himself bravely to block Baros' point-blank effort.

Villa strikers Kevin Phillips and Baros were struggling to make any headway against Hermann Hreidarsson and Talal El Karkouri.

Villa's woes in the attacking last third were summed up when Barry blasted a 20-yard free-kick high into the Holte End.

Bouma's free-kick from a similar range was even worse as he spooned his shot like a rugby conversion and, as the fans' frustrations grew, Villa's attacking efforts became increasingly desperate.

When it came, Villa's goal had a fitting touch of controversy and farce.

Andersen appeared to be blocked off by Phillips, and the keeper's flap at a cross landed at the feet of Baros.

He crashed his shot against the bar from four yards out, but the rebound fell to Northern Ireland international Davis, who showed a cool head in drilling his shot into the top corner.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aston Villa: Sorensen, Hughes, Mellberg, Ridgewell, Bouma, Milner, McCann, Davis, Barry, Phillips, Baros (Moore 90).
Subs Not Used: Samuel, Hendrie, Taylor, Bakke.

Booked: Baros, Milner.

Goals: Davis 69.

Charlton: Andersen, Young, Hreidarsson, El Karkouri, Powell (Perry 83), Holland, Kishishev (Murphy 67), Smertin, Ambrose (Lisbie 45), Bent, Thomas.
Subs Not Used: Spector, Myhre.

Booked: Kishishev, Powell.

Att: 30,023

Referee: M Clattenburg (Co Durham).

[hanuma]

was this enocuraging?

how big a part did mccann play in this win?

[andy villa]

mccann was quietly effective...

he was close to mom due to his work rate...

personally, im pleased that we won without playing to great, yet we still managed to have three times the chances charlton had...

not forgetting charltons excellent away form and our pretty sh!t home form of late, this is an excellent result for us...

i said a while back though, that when we got a few players back fit, we could start to play a bit better...

wasnt classic brazil style football, but it was better than it has been and was very respectable...

not that skumsports would give us any credit... that jock kunt charlie nicholson was practically crying over the fact that he had to admit we were the better side.. and even then, he said it was marginal...

w@nker...

14-5 chances in our favour suggests otherwise...

i also found it amusing that they didnt show any interview our management team after the game, like they did with EVERYONE else...

i fcuking hate skumsports...

still....

gotta be happy with the result... just hope we can push on from this...

doncaster next and id like a decent win to help confidence..

[hanuma]

whilst charlie nicholas is a **** and incredibly partisan he normally does say a lot of correct things.

skumsports is the new religion....opium of the masses.

glad to see dol has a chance to prove he isn't a whining fool....to the majority of talksport listeners and the like...now that he has his players back.

[andy villa]

we had a definate penalty not given again too...

yet ANOTHER ****ing **** refs decision thats gone against us...

[mufcmyreligion]

is angel injured?

[andy villa]

no...

out of form...

[mufcmyreligion]

wow ****te enough not to even make the bench? ahaha this is worse than i thought

[andy villa]

there are rumours flying around that hes fell out with dol and is possibly off in jan...

but at the end of the day, hes not performing, so shouldnt be in the team....

its why we have four strikers...

[hanuma]

it doesnt seem likely that he will recapture his good form of a few seasons ago again and with moore and baros looking likely to form an exciting partnership for the future, it could be good to get rid of him in january for a few quid while you still can.

[andy villa]

i agree...

i like angel as he has a touch of class, but his confidence is shot to sh!t and he lost a lot of pace after his knee injury...

if we could get a few mil for him, i would accept that, and hopefully we can put that to use on someone like ashton or fryatt...

good young players...

[mufcmyreligion]

i've always liked angel as well, sumthing bout him... i remember a while back when he was fairly new to ur side when he was being rumored with real betis... hes already like 30 or sumthing right? might as well sell him, i think he could revive his career though, in Spain in a villareal type situation, he probably just needs motivation.

[andy villa]

hes just turned 30 i think....

been an excellent servent to the club and amazingly loyal considering how he and his family were treated by the club when they first arrived...

i hope he rediscovers his form at villa tbh, but if not, i simply hope he rediscovers his form..