Despite Sky Sports telling us that McShane was playing right back for us, it was Noz who kept his place after Saturday’s barnstorming performance in Saturday’s disappointment. While many of my fellow travellers insisted that they had a good feeling about tonight’s game I didn’t, despite Villa Dave and his claret and blue mates insisting that we were better than the Portsmouth result. To be honest, with our record of allowing a succession of goal-shy forwards to score against us, if I’d found a tenner on the floor I’d have backed Heskey to score first.

The only change was Richardson in for Campbell, and Henderson moving wider to allow Keiran his preferred central midfield berth. We began fairly brightly, with Cana finding Bent, then Henderson but the ball in was cleared. Hendo managed another shot over, Noz carried on where he left off on Saturday with some purposeful forward play and resolute defending, and it looked brighter than I’d hoped. The Cana fell foul of a very fussy (towards us) referee and was booked when trying to recover a lost ball. He’s an intelligent man, and should have worked out by now that refs don’t like some of his tackles, and, while the yellow card was a tad harsh, he should have known better. Twelve minutes is all it took, just like Saturday. McCartney followed him into the book when he looked to have won the ball, but Bent looked to have been held when off the pitch immediately before this. Downing’s free hit the bar and the rebound was slashed well wide. Reid produced a great turn to set Richardson free, but the cross was cleared.

Then it went all wrong. George passed square, we missed it, and the ball was poked through to Heskey, who, despite looking offside, slotted home from acres of space on 24 minutes. We’d had the majority of the play, but it’s goals that mean points, not unfulfilled chances. Despite Hendo repeating his nutmeg trick to get in another cross, the rest of the half was a story of Sunderland pressure and Villa calmness. We produced numerous pieces of nice interplay, but clear cut chances were not forthcoming until Reid got on the end of a knock-down to whack in a shot that was saved well by Friedel. So we were a bit unlucky to go into the break a goal behind, but you need to take your chances to get anywhere in this league.

Half time saw Monty and Reuben doing the draw to decent applause, which was more than the ref got, and then it was back to the action with no changes on the field.

More of the same, as we forced corner after corner, many of which didn’t get past the front post. Reid seems to be able to bang in free-kicks and crosses to the back post, but corners are more of a problem. One such dead-ball evaded all in the middle of the box to find Da Silva at the back, but by the time he’d sorted his feet out he was blocked. Again, we passed it well into the box but kept passing when a shot was needed. A good break saw Bent head on to Reid but he fired wide from a great position and the crowd rising to celebrate. Ashley Young hit the post/side netting (when not falling over), then when we stood off Milner, he showed one of the differences between the side by thumping a beaut into the top corner with an hour gone.

No way back from two down, despite lots of pressure. Lots of huff and puff, but no killer ball and no killer touch. Cana flew into another challenge that upended his opponent, and it was no surprise when the second yellow came out. Cattermole replaced Hendo, and looked as if he’d never been away, which was one of the positives to come out of the game. Jones and Turner made way for Mensah and Bardsley as the rain teemed down, and the last few minutes seemed to be used just to give these two a run out. Mensah did what was expected at the back, and Bardsley, in a right sided midfield role, did reasonably and even flashed a header wide, but it was a token gesture really.

After Villa ran the game down with periods of keep-ball, we’d dominated the bulk of the possession without really scaring the visitors, and the corner count (I don’t think Villa got one) was way in our favour. We’re very obviously a short distance down the road that O’Niell has been driving Villa down for a few years – we’ve a long way to go. When we made mistakes, they punished them. When they made mistakes, we didn’t punish them. Efficiency won the day – we were all over them for long periods, but were inefficient in what we did.

Man of the Match? I was expecting better things of Richardson, but he was caught in possession too often, and didn’t seem to have the brawn for a central midfield role. Hendo showed his shooting prowess again without hitting the target. Cana – enough said already. Jones and Bent tried to get into the game, and show some signs, but there was no deadly pass to help them. Reid was up and down, lots of crosses, but missed a glorious chance early in the second half. Defensively, we were caught out for the first and stood little chance for the second. George had a decent game spoilt by that poor pass before the first goal, so I’ll give it to Da Silva for using guile and a deceptive turn of pace to deal with Agbonlahor.

Keep the faith. At least we’re still in the top half.

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