Portsmouth 1, Aston Villa 2: Mat Kendrick's big match verdict

Apr 19 2010

COMING soon to a football stadium near you... ‘The Sixth Sense’, starring Aston Villa and Nathan Delfouneso.

Villa’s habit of homing in on sixth place and The Fonz’s goalscoring instincts means the claret and blues are back in their default position in the Premier League table.

After being stuck in seventh for two and a half months Villa are now back in the familiar territory of sixth – at least until tonight’s Liverpool v West Ham clash.

And, never mind a Champions League challenge which is still flickering with four games left, Martin O’Neill’s European contenders might still need the sixth place they have finished in for the past two seasons to clinch their return to the continent.

With Portsmouth appealing for a Europa League reprieve following their FA Cup exploits, anything less than the top half-dozen could force Villa to put their passports in safekeeping for next season.

So, while the Pompey fans were belting out Que Sera Sera with the Wembley words yesterday afternoon, O’Neill and Co might be better off adopting the ‘Whatever will be, will be’ lyrics when it comes to their top four ambitions and rely on the Europa League safety net.

At least the first objective in the club’s season has now been achieved – finishing above Birmingham – after a three-point haul which makes it impossible for their fierce rivals to catch them.

That attaining the 58-point total, which leaves Birmingham 11 points behind with three to play, was achieved by a Brummie will give Villa a sense of satisfaction ahead of Sunday’s Second City showdown. But local bragging rights, like European football, are now a minimum requirement in B6. And the manager will be desperate to maintain that by winning at Hull and Man City and beating Blues and Blackburn at home.

Villa will need to battle to the bitter end like they did yesterday. Bowing to popular demand and injecting the fresh legs of their match-winner a few more times might just help the boss to achieve that.

Before Delfouneso’s clinical intervention it seemed that the top flight’s draw specialists were destined to share the spoils for a 14th time this season. Even the jokey suggestion that Villa should settle stalemates with penalties had to be discarded when they missed one and were denied two more.