The Premier League match report between Blackburn Rovers and Aston Villa at Ewood Park on Saturday Sept 26, 2009.
Blackburn Rovers shrugged off an Aston Villa goal scored after just three minutes by Gabby Agbonlahor, and the fact that they were forced to play much of the second half with just ten men, to defeat Martin O'Neill's side 2-1, goals from Christopher Samba and David Dunn – a penalty two minutes from normal time – giving Sam Allardyce's side their second Premier League win of the season.
The Villa defence have been in ! good shape of late, with four successive clean sheets, but the warning signs were flickering within five minutes, when Stephen Warnock was called to block on a Franco Di Santo shot inside the area. But James Collins was displaying a disquieting tendency to allow his man to drift off him on set pieces and Carlos Cuellar, well, the less said about him, the better.
It was Richard Dunne, so sturdy in his first three games for Villa, who dropped the real clangers, though, first supplying Samba with the ball only yards out from the Villa goal, and then wafting an arm inside his own area in the 88th minute, asking for a penalty which Dunn happily converted.
What a waste, after Agbonlahor, following a headed flick on from John Carew, had cruised through the middle of Ryan Nelson and Christopher Samba and scored so soon. He hopelessly miss-hit his shot, but the forces of physics are on this one's side at the moment, and as Paul Rob! inson outstretched, the ball bumbled, misbehaved and someho! w spun i n off the post for the striker's fifth goal in five.
Blackburn responded with some punctuality. Nelson dispatched a looping ball into the Villa area, which Dunne left in favour of a muscle match with Samba. Worse was not only committing the cardinal sin of letting the ball bounce in the danger area, but actually nodding it into Samba's path just a few yards from goal.
By the half hour mark a match that Villa had begun undisputed favourites was an even-odds affair, and but for Friedel, Blackburn would have claimed the lead, when David Dunn attempted an overhead kick from five yards. Friedel, however, shot out an arm like a lizard's tongue and swished the ball over the bar: an exceptional save.
Increasingly this was a physical battle. Vince Grella clattered James Milner from behind, receiving his second yellow and his marching orders with it, more evidence that this was no game for the fainthearted. Then, as the mi! nutes drained, Dunne left a hand flailing in the area and conceded a penalty. Dunn, denied by Friedel once, would not be foiled again.
