WELL, at least it should give Derby County confidence ahead of their Championship kick-off against Villa’s fierce rivals Blues on Saturday!
The 3,000 travelling fans looking for positives from last night’s friendly defeat to the Rams will have found them in short supply.
But the claret and blue army will be hoping Villa can restore the pride lost at Pride Park in their final practice match at Braga on Saturday.
It is likely to be a completely different team in Portugal with Alex McLeish planning to rotate his squad and give a debut to Charles N’Zogbia.
Having started with his preferred back four of Luke Young, James Collins, Richard Dunne and Stephen Warnock during both Hong Kong games, it was no surprise to see McLeish shuffle his defensive pack
Chris Herd, Ciaran Clark and Shane Lowry were their replacements in a young-looking rearguard, with the experienced Habib Beye bumping up the average age.
There was also a first start of pre-season for Brad Guzan in place of new No.1 Shay Given and the goalkeeping understudy made Villa’s most telling contributions of the first half.
The American international came to the rescue in the 13th minute as the hosts posed as many threats as they faced before the break, racing off his line to deny Nathan Tyson as he escaped behind the visitors’ defence.
Guzan also got down well to scramble away a strike from James Bailey during a penalty box scramble just before the interval.
It took Villa until midway through the first half to register their first shot when Barry Bannan’s rising drive packed power but lacked precision as it whizzed over the bar.
Former Rams loanee Bannan then released Darren Bent whose cutback to Marc Albrighton was intercepted when the star striker might have been better advised to shoot from an acute angle.
The second half was played in much the same low-key vein and it took a goal from Derby to momentarily spark Villa’s players and their dedicated fans into life on 56 minutes.
Lowry stuck his hand in the way of Craig Bryson’s strike and when referee Dean Mohareb pointed to the spot, not even penalty-saving specialist Guzan could keep out Steven Davies’ powerful strike.
Albrighton responded by forcing Rams keeper Frank Fielding into a routine save, while Bent was marginally offside on a series of occasions as he led the line with little support from Stephen Ireland in the hole.
And it was Derby who deservedly doubled their advantage in the 77th minute when Ben Davies smashed a cracker into the top right-hand corner of Guzan’s goal after Theo Robinson’s run had opened up the Villa defence.
VILLA (4-4-1-1): Guzan, Herd, Beye, Clark, Lowry; Albrighton, Delph (Delfouneso, 58), Makoun (Gardner, 67), Bannan; Ireland; Bent (Hogg, 67). Subs: Marshall, Williams, Johnson, Carruthers.
