People say they look forward to the local 'cup final' as the peak of the season, but yesterday's match had all the marks of a battlefield rather than a sporting arena.
There was certainly nothing sporting about the early scything down of Grealish by a Blues player, followed not long after by the atrocious attack on Grealish by a Blues fan who some described as being a steward at the match. The man's punch was into Grealish's neck near the jaw, so it had plenty of lethality about it.
The way Jack got up - unshaken and unstirred - was to be admired. And after that the game settled down into being a tough encounter but won (of course) by Grealish's 20-yarder. The final justice was done when ex-Villa player Craig Gardner twice missed good chances to equalise.
After it's all said and done, the Villa continue to carry their head high as being the club of quality in the city. But how sad it is that the city's pedestal has fallen so low from the pair of Manchester clubs, and also the Liverpool clubs for that matter.
Still, Villa have gained back-to-back wins for the first time since November, and on Wednesday we travel to Forest to try to get closer to the play-off positions. The return of McGinn as a second-half sub seemed to add lustre to Villa's game yesterday, so if we can get all points at Forest and win the home game against Boro then Villa's recovery would be well under way.
But let's not get our hopes too high! Yet.
UTV
There was certainly nothing sporting about the early scything down of Grealish by a Blues player, followed not long after by the atrocious attack on Grealish by a Blues fan who some described as being a steward at the match. The man's punch was into Grealish's neck near the jaw, so it had plenty of lethality about it.
The way Jack got up - unshaken and unstirred - was to be admired. And after that the game settled down into being a tough encounter but won (of course) by Grealish's 20-yarder. The final justice was done when ex-Villa player Craig Gardner twice missed good chances to equalise.
After it's all said and done, the Villa continue to carry their head high as being the club of quality in the city. But how sad it is that the city's pedestal has fallen so low from the pair of Manchester clubs, and also the Liverpool clubs for that matter.
Still, Villa have gained back-to-back wins for the first time since November, and on Wednesday we travel to Forest to try to get closer to the play-off positions. The return of McGinn as a second-half sub seemed to add lustre to Villa's game yesterday, so if we can get all points at Forest and win the home game against Boro then Villa's recovery would be well under way.
But let's not get our hopes too high! Yet.
UTV
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