Aston Villa: Goal-hero Bannan says gamble worked brilliantly
GOALSCORING hero Barry Bannan reckons Kevin MacDonald’s young guns justified his faith in them by avoiding a ‘Moscow’ and doing Villa proud in Vienna last night.
MacDonald’s calculated gamble to leave ten senior first-teamers at home paid off when his claret and blue cast of understudies earned an impressive 1-1 draw with Rapid Vienna.
Villa’s starting line-up included four youngsters with star duo Bannan and Marc Albrighton joined by Eric Lichaj and Jonathan Hogg, who both shone on their competitive debuts.
And Bannan, who opened his Villa account with a vital away goal, believes the result at the hostile Gerhard Hanappi Stadium vindicated MacDonald’s controversial selection.
“To be fair, Kev’s shown great confidence in the boys that have helped him win rezzie leagues and stuff,” said Bannan, whose own debut and last senior start came in the infamous UEFA Cup defeat at CSKA Moscow in February last year.
“To be fair, the boys have repaid him. He knows what he’s going to get from the boys.
“We’re going to work hard and he knows how good we are.
“It was a gamble, but Kev knows that we’re all good enough to come here and get the team a result otherwise he wouldn’t have brought us here.
“You can see it’s paid off. If Ashley Young, Luke Young and Stiliyan Petrov are fresher because of it thwen it’s worked out brilliantly for us.”
Bannan was delighted with his 12th minute tap-in after great work from Albrighton even though Vienna striker Atdhe Nuhiu grabbed a 32nd minute equaliser.
“I couldn’t miss!” he added. “That’s my first competitive goal for Villa. It’s a great feeling.”
