By Dave Woodhall.
A wise old man once told me that in the first two or three games of the season performances are more important than results, as you don’t know how good your opponents will turn out to be. It might be true, but you can already tell how Blackburn’s season is likely to pan out.
New manager Alex McLeish got a good reception from a disappointing crowd of 32,319, which shows that he, and Villa, still have some work to do to win over the doubters. Saturday’s result will go a good way towards that, even if the opposition was poor.
But, as just about everyone, whether wise and old or stupid and young will say, you can only beat the team you’re up against and Villa managed to do that with a minimum of fuss. Two early goals, a corker from Gabby Agbonlahor and another from Emile Heskey (who’s scored more league goals this season than Arsenal), meant the points were wrapped up well before half-time.
Villa looked in a bit of trouble for the first few minutes after the break when Blackburn pulled a goal back either side of Gabby and Luke Young having to go off injured, but a third substitution, Barry Bannan on for Heskey, paid off immediately with Darren Bent scoring Villa’s third within seconds. It was the only real chance Bent had all game, almost his only touch, but a player with such ability is what we’ve been missing for years. After that Villa sat back – no use flogging yourselves to death so early in the season.
We went top of the league as well, for what that’s worth after two games. More importantly we scored goals and were able to change things round when the game wasn’t going our way. Fabian Delph shone, while Bannan looked impressive when he came on. With Ciaran Clark also doing well, the kids certainly are alright.
We should see a few more of them on Tuesday evening, when Villa Park welcomes Hereford United for what I think is the first time. They’re reckoned to be bringing 3,000-odd supporters so there should be a good atmosphere for what is traditionally the lowest-attended, yet in its way one of the most interesting, games of the season. I’d like to see Gary Gardner making his debut and possibly the highly-rated Daniel Johnson playing as well. It would also be good to see Stephen Ireland and Jean Makoun getting a run-out. Villa should be able to make straightforward progress into the next round, Hereford will get a welcome boost to their coffers and with prices starting at a realistic £10 we should get a decent gate.
And then after that comes the top of the table clash with Wolves. I’ve no idea why this game is kicking off at 12.05 – presumably it’s down to the police although there’s no history of problems at this fixture. This one won’t be easy although it’s the sort of game Villa should be winning without too many problems. One thing’s for certain though – Villa can’t play as badly as they did against Wolves last season. Another three points there and Alex McLeish can be satisfied with the start of his Villa career.
