Blackburn Rovers fired up for Villa Park return

Jan 25 2008 By Bill Howell, Birmingham Mail

BLACKBURN will not be out for revenge at Villa Park tomorrow, but Martin O'Neill is fully expecting a "fired-up" Rovers to make life difficult in tomorrow's Premier League clash.

A win will lift Villa into the top four, but Rovers still have a scent of Europe themselves.

And they will still be smarting from their 4-0 home hammering in November.

Mark Hughes will also no doubt recall the controversial manner of Villa's 2-0 home win last season when Gareth Barry slotted home a penalty after Stiliyan Petrov fell rather too easily on the edge of the box, and the manager will also need no reminding of Villa's 2-1 win at Blackburn in April.

"People might argue about goals and revenge, but Blackburn would want to win the game anyway, regardless of any perceived injustice,'' said the Villa boss.

"But the overall viewpoint from our angle is that we deserved to win those games."

Villa were under the cosh for the opening 25 minutes at Blackburn in November and should have fallen behind when Benni McCarthy, quite wrongly, had a goal chalked off for offside.

Villa were then able to take the game by the scruff of the neck when Ryan Nelsen was sent off, again in controversial fashion according to Hughes, for a pull on Gabby Agbonlahor.

"Games last longer than 20-25 minutes and once John Carew headed us in front, we never looked back,'' said O'Neill. "Having said that, Blackburn have as good a record as anyone at fighting back. Make no mistake, they will be fired up.''