Blackburn 2, Aston Villa 0: Mat Kendrick's big match verdict
RATHER than Gerard celebrating with an à la carte menu washed down with a vintage French red called Pires, Big Sam was probably joyously tucking into a chicken balti and a pint of Thwaites.
Houllier hopes the presence of France’s World Cup-winning veteran Robert Pires amid the claret and blue ranks will be the missing mature ingredient that inexperienced Villa have been lacking.
But, instead, it was Allardyce who must have been happy to feast on both the post-match dining table and the Premier League table after Blackburn jumped above below-par Villa with yesterday’s victory at Ewood Park.
Rovers chose the day new Indian owners Venky’s – the chicken giants – were unveiled to record their biggest win of the season, but in truth the result owed just as much to a ‘poultry’ performance from the visitors.
Ewood old boys Stephen Warnock and Brad Friedel have had better Rovers returns with the duo culpable for the crucial opening goal as Villa went to pieces in the box like a fried chicken takeaway.
As if Warnock’s unnecessary retaliatory foul on El Hadji Diouf for an earlier aerial challenge wasn’t unappetising enough, then Friedel’s unfamiliar flapping from the ensuing free-kick was finger-flicking bad.
In fairness to Friedel, the goalkeeper saves Villa more points than he loses, but there were already worrying signs of his susceptibility to high balls even before Morten Gamst Pedersen’s opener on the stroke of half-time.
Having already made a meal of Rovers’ route one deliveries into the box, under pressure from attackers and his own defenders, Friedel was caught in no man’s land when Pedersen swung over a carbon copy of his Norway cross-shot goal in midweek.
Friedel got his hand to the ball but, stranded yards off his line, was unable to keep it out as it swirled into the top left corner from near the right touchline.
The timing of the concession, as much as the manner of it, will infuriate Houllier, who conceded that his topsy turvy team are failing to learn from their mistakes.
