Aston Villa 2, Portsmouth 0: Mat Kendrick's big match verdict

Sep 21 2009 by Mathew Kendrick, Birmingham Mail

YOU would have thought Nigel Reo-Coker would be encouraged that ‘forgive and forget’ seems to be the motto at Villa Park so far this season.

After all, Villa have settled their differences with their public by following the opening-day debacle against Wigan with four successive Premier League wins.

Gabby Agbonlahor and the Holte End have kissed and made up after the Brummie striker’s stunning return to scoring form with three goals in three games.

And wing workhorse James Milner has been excused his off-day at Blues after his penalty put Villa on the way to victory against pitiful Portsmouth.

But worryingly for Reo-Coker, on this evidence, Martin O’Neill’s nemesis is in danger of being forgotten rather than forgiven because, in truth, Villa did not miss him.

Of course, it’s only one game and there’s no reason to suggest that the former West Ham midfielder’s battling qualities won’t be required at a later stage.

Today is Reo-Coker’s day of reckoning, but whether it also becomes a day of reconciliation remains to be seen. Because winning over Villa’s fans as the team have done is a darn sight easier than winning over the manager, as Nicky Shorey will testify.

Once O’Neill’s mind is made up it tends to stay that way, which is why the in-form full-back was again stuck on the bench against the team he snubbed on deadline day.

Had Shorey been playing left-back for Pompey rather than Nadir Belhadj then Villa might not have been awarded the contentious penalty that finally kicked them into action.

Referee Stuart Attwell – the young Nuneaton official notorious for the ‘ghost goal’ at Watford – had the spectre of controversy hanging over him once more after imagining things that go bump in the box.

In fairness to Attwell, on first viewing, Belhadj’s tackle on Stiliyan Petrov, after the skipper did well to retrieve the ball and burst to the byline, looked like a foul, but closer scrutiny revealed the makeshift left-back seemed to get the slightest of touches on the ball.

Milner left poor old Pompey to debate the injustice of the decision by compounding their misery with a 34th-minute spot-kick, which powered past former Villa keeper David James en route to the bottom left corner of the net.