Aston Villa 1 Wigan 1: Sunday Mercury Big Match Report

May 8 2011 by Brian Dick, Sunday Mercury

A DELICIOUSLY curled first-half free-kick from their Crown Jewel demonstrated once more that while there are question marks about other parts of their anatomy Villa remain Young at heart.

While all around him struggled to rise above the mediocre, Ashley Young provided the one moment of quality to cancel out Charles N’Zogbia’s tenth-minute goal.

The result all but ended any lingering doubts about Villa’s Premier League status but, Young’s strike apart, this was a fitful performance that will comfort no-one.

What it will do, though, is make the England forward an even more attractive prospect to what is sure to be a queue of summer suitors.

While his superb set-piece hauled Villa back into the game, a sumptuously weighted 83rd minute throughball might have won it.

Unfortunately, Darren Bent couldn’t match the accuracy and spurned the chance.

The only really contentious moment of a drab encounter came when Emile Heskey was booked by Mike Jones for his reaction to being shoved in the back by Wigan’s Antolin Alcaraz ten minutes before half-time.

The red mist descended over the usually placid striker, in for a sick Gabby Agbonlahor, whose protest to referee Mike Jones was so physical he could consider himself fortunate not to have been shown more than a yellow card.

McAlllister relieved Heskey of his frustration by replacing him with Marc Albrighton at half-time but conceded after the game that the big striker was possibly fortunate to escape a red card.

“If Emile did barge into the referee he is obviously lucky,” McAllister said. “It is very uncharacteristic of Emile. He is obviously worried he was not getting protection from the referee.