Aston Villa 1, Birmingham City 0: Colin Tattum analysis

Apr 26 2010 by Colin Tattum, Birmingham Mail

BLUES left Villa Park with their heads held high and, given half a chance, would have liked to have hanged him high – referee Martin Atkinson.

Last time, there were no complaints. Blues were comprehensively dismantled 5-1. They were never in it.

This time, on their return two years later, they were the better team on the balance of overall play and chances, but got nothing to show for it.

Unquestionably, Atkinson’s decision to award Villa their match-winning penalty for Roger Johnson’s tackle on Gabriel Agbonlahor was the cruellest, most decisive wound of all in a derby game of absorbing cut and thrust.

You could tell from the reaction of Blues players who swarmed round Atkinson to protest. You could tell from the rather hopeful way Agbonlahor looked back to plead after he had been felled by a tackle that got the ball.

You could tell by the way Stephen Carr scuffed the penalty spot in an act of aggravated gamesmanship just before James Milner slammed the 83rd minute kick right down the middle.

At the end, Blues fans applauded their team’s sterling efforts. Most of them hadn’t bothered to hang around that long, such was their disgust, in 2008.

Alex McLeish, not a man given to emotional histrionics, walked purposely over to Atkinson as the officials waited for the pitch to clear.

He patted him on the shoulder and shook his hand. McLeish’s response had more than a hint of sarcasm about it. You could imagine him saying ‘‘Yes, well done, big ‘un. Great decision there’’.

That would be his normal way but, then again - seeing the television pictures afterwards - not so. McLeish was raging and seemed to deliver a couple of choice swear words that left Atkinson in no doubt of his mood.

Carr also failed to keep his emotions in check and made regretable gestures to Villa fans in the North Stand. The manner of defeat bit that hard for Blues.

For Villa, the momentum keeps rolling towards Champions League qualification. You have to hand it to them. Since the 7-1 humiliation at Chelsea, they keep finding a way to win, and this despite a pretty clueless 25 minutes just after half-time yesterday.

For Villa, the momentum keeps rolling towards Champions League qualification. You have to hand it to them. They keep finding a way to win, and this despite a pretty clueless 25 minutes just after half-time.

Justifiably, Villa and Martin O’Neill can argue that they have deserved a break on penalties when considering the Carling Cup and FA Cup semi-finals.

True. Yet it is here where referees have to be accountable and make sure they get the big decisions right in the big games. Especially when you have given your all. That’s why Johnson, Carr and James McFadden were so forthright in their views afterwards.

McLeish talked beforehand about the huge disparity between the Second City rivals in terms of quality, resources and depth. But there was nothing to choose between them in the 108th league meeting during the first-half, and Blues played the better and more cohesive football on the whole.

McLeish opted to set up 4-5-1, using James McFadden and the recalled Sebastian Larsson out wide while the blow in losing Scott Dann to injury in training was softened by Liam Ridgewell’s strong performance at centre-half.