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Reading 1-2 ASTON VILLA, Sun Feb 24 |
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Written by Administrator
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Sunday, 24 February 2008 |
The Villa secured another away victory and the three precious points that go with it at The Madejski Stadium in today's early kick-off.
Petrov's poor form saw him out of the squad, replaced by Maloney. Mellberg was missing after suffering a twisted ankle in training yesterday and Gardner stepped in at right-back. Salifou and Osbourne were on the bench with Knight and an unfortunate Harewood, who might have deserved a starting place.
The home side forced Carson into a save inside thirty seconds when Harper fired a shot goalward.
The Villans might have scored as early as the second minute when Agbonlahor, now recovered from his hamstring injury, zipped a cross in front of the Reading goal but no Villa player was on hand to score.
Carew might have done better when he shot wide a couple of minutes later.
The visitor's were having the better of the exchanges but clear cut openings were at a premium despite both sides showing defensive weaknesses.
Carew, Agbonlahor and Young were giving the home defense a torrid time and the central defender's looked lost in the face of the speed and bustle the Villa front line offered.
Villa were gifted a gilt edge chance to oepn the scoring on 33 minutes when referee Atkinson harshly judged Cisseto have hand-balled a scuffed Gardner shot.
Incredibly, Barry sliced the resulting spot-kick well wide of Hahneman's goal.
Just when it looked like being all-square at the break the visitor's found an opening. Cisse was again involved when he lost the ball on the right to Agbonlahor who raced towards goal. Unselfishly he squared to Young in the box who had time to take a touch to steady himself before firing a shot beyond the Reading goalie and a defender on the line.
Early in the second half Gardner was cautioned for a body-check as the Villa pressed, looking to extend their lead.
The industrious Agbonlahor should have put the game away but fired over from close range. Despite having the majority of the possession it was not all one-way and at the other end Carson had to be smart to save from Kitson with 20 minutes left.
O'Neill replaced the anonymous Maloney with Harewood and the Villa's counter-attacking threat, which was in full flow, continued. Both Carew and Harewood brought good blocks from Hahnemann in the home goal before Harewood shot well, well wide with his next effort.
However, the former West Ham man was not going to be denied and with 7 minute remaining he sealed the game for the claret and blues with a fine finish after another foraging run by Ashley Young.
The home side were looking for something from the game and well into injury time the Villa, troublingly, gave up another late goal from a set-piece. Carson's positioning looked suspect as he could only get a hand to Shorey's free-kick and help the ball into the net.
The goal was only a consolation as there was not time to look for an equaliser which would have been more than a little unjust
This was a strange game where we could have scored a hatful of goals and conceded almost as many but the result consigned the Royals to an eighth straight defeat.
The Euro dream is alive and well, Villa remain in 6th place, but will be put to the test with another away game next week as the Villa visit the Emirates.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 24 February 2008 )
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