Aston Villa: Gabriel Agbonlahor draws inspiration from cruel chants about his mum

Oct 26 2009 by Mathew Kendrick, Birmingham Mail

GABBY Agbonlahor revealed that cruel chants were again his derby day inspiration after Wolves fans repeated Blues’ mistake of winding him up.

The Villa striker took his phenomenal scoring record in local matches to six in six after also finding the net three times against Blues and twice against Albion.

And Agbonlahor insists his latest strike, in Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Molineux, was motivated by more offensive taunts from rival fans about his estranged mother.

“I’ve said before maybe it’s the song they keep singing,” said Agbonlahor, who celebrated his 79th-minute goal by placing his finger to his lips to silence the Wolves fans.

“It was going again. I had to show them what I thought of them when I scored the goal.

“I’m going to have the same celebration for the local fans.

“The stick doesn’t really bother me. Every player gets stick.

“It makes no difference to any of the players. It is not really a big deal.

“The more they keep singing, the more I keep scoring. Let’s wait for the next derby.”

Agbonlahor’s goal, which was soon cancelled out by a Sylvan Ebanks-Blake penalty, took his tally for the season to five in the Premier League and one in the Carling Cup.

And the England World Cup hopeful admitted the hallmark of great goalscorers is to still find the net even on days when they put in below par performances.

“Everyone knows as a striker you might not be having your best game, but you always have a chance of scoring and we showed that today,” he said.

“The best strikers don’t always have the best games but they get on the scoresheet.”

Agbonlahor accepted that Villa’s display at Molineux was disappointing after coming hot on the heels of Martin O’Neill’s men taking four points off Manchester City and Chelsea.

And the 23-year-old forward believes that Villa must learn to produce the goods against the Premier League’s lesser lights as well the top flight’s big boys.

“We didn’t go for it as much as we did against the top sides,” said Agbonlahor.

“We’ve got to try and work on that and put in 100 per cent against any side. That is what you are going to need to win any game.

“We know in ourselves we will go and put it right at Sunderland.

“Going by our high standards, it is two points we missed out on. There are going to be setbacks over the season. We beat Chelsea and that’s a setback for them.

“It is going to be one of those leagues this season and it is always hard away from home.”