Fulham 1 Aston Villa 1: Mat Kendrick's big match verdict

Nov 8 2010 by Mat Kendrick, Birmingham Mail

IT TOOK Aston Villa’s littlest player to prove to their largest that being “bigger than me and you” doesn’t make you bigger than the football club.

While the Big John Carew controversy was raging following his furious war of words with Gerard Houllier, wee Barry Bannan let his feet do the talking.

And as Villa’s 6ft 4ins targetman sunk to a new low having possibly played his last game for the club, their-five-and-a-half-feet playmaker hit new heights on his full Premier League debut.

Now, I’m loathe to enter into any Carew-bashing. The fallen fans’ favourite can be a charming, engaging, humorous gentleman off the field and a devastating, destructive force on it.

Sadly, he seems to have his roles reversed recently because he risks doing more damage to the club he professes to love than their rivals with his strong words and weak performances.

It is a dangerous game trying to play the “fans who sing my name week in, week out” off against a manager who has already got rid of him once when he transferred him from Lyon to Villa in early 2006.

He’s right that Houllier still has plenty to prove at Villa Park, as the stretched squad’s agonising 1-1 draw at Fulham showed.

The claret and blues have gleaned six points from the 18 available, although the frustrating results don’t do justice to many of the displays.

But the previously popular targetman is no longer untouchable, either. Just because the Villa fans still belt out his “bigger than me and you” signature tune with gusto doesn’t mean the inconsistencies in his endeavour and end product haven’t finally been rumbled.

If Carew’s outburst was a pointer to a past that Houllier is keen to banish, then the impact of Bannan and Co was a symbol of the future he seems excited to embrace.

And if a picture paints a thousand words, then the sheer heart-break etched on Bannan’s babyface as he trudged off the pitch following Fulham’s late, late leveller should mean more to Villa fans than the insults Carew and Houllier are slinging at each other.

Bannan looked inconsolable that his midfield masterclass and the impressive parts played by the rest of the Fab Four – Marc Albrighton, Nathan Delfouneso and Ciaran Clark – weren’t enough to secure the first league victory for Houllier since his debut win at Wolves.

There’s not many players who can get Villa’s first-team coach Gordon Cowans drooling over the quality of a ball, but even the legendary ‘Sid’ must have been happy to hand over his crown to the new pass master following Bannan’s audacious assist.