West Ham United 2 Aston Villa 2 |
Attendance 34,969
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Aston Villa settled with a draw at West Ham today in what was an entertaining game
Villa fans turned up in numbers to see Olof Mellberg’s last game and were rewarded with a parting gift from the long serving player, a Villa shirt for each of the 3,200 travelling fans, emblazoned "Mellberg - Thanks 4 Your Support" - while some away fans donned Swedish colours in his honour, and others basked, shirtless, in the heat.
Villa made their intentions clear early on when Ashley Young struck the West Ham post but it was the Hammers who opened the scoring when on 8 minutes former Villa man Nolberto Solano's Free kick getting the best of Scott Carson
Villa soon levelled when on 14 minutes former West Ham man Nigel Reo-Coker feeding Ashley Young to slot past Green in the West Ham goal
Villa from then on very much dominated the rest of the half and the outstanding Young, named on Friday as the top flight's player of the month for April, looked the most likely player on either side to create something special, especially when he cut in from the left flank.
Villa pressed and pressed and were rewarded on 58 minutes when Gareth Barry burst through the middle and carved open the defence to play Reo-Coker through. Although Reo-Coker's shot was parried by Green, Barry made no mistake from the rebound
Mellberg almost enjoyed a fairytale finale to his Villa career when he stormed forward from right-back, only to fire into the side netting
The game looked as though Villa were going to hold out for the win but up popped Dean Ashton to fire in from just outside the box to level on 88 minutes
Villa almost won it at the death when substitute Carlton Cole, trying to clear, chested Young's shot towards his own goal-line before it was hacked clear
Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill:
"I'm very pleased with the team because we've taken big strides since last season.
"It's disappointing we've missed out on the Uefa Cup but with Everton beating Newcastle it doesn't seem so bad.
"We're in the Intertoto Cup for definite now, which means we have to play 17 games in the middle of June!
"What it really means is that we have to be back a week earlier and be competitive sooner than expected because the ties are mid to late July."
Teams
West Ham: Green, Neill, Tomkins, Ferdinand, McCartney (Pantsil 46), Solano (Sears 80), Noble, Parker, Boa Morte, Zamora (Cole 73), Ashton.
Subs Not Used: Wright, Mullins.
Booked: Neill, Parker.
Aston Villa: Carson, Mellberg, Laursen, Knight, Bouma, Petrov, Reo-Coker, Barry, Young, Carew (Harewood 87), Agbonlahor.
Subs Not Used: Taylor, Salifou, Routledge, Maloney.
Booked: Mellberg, Petrov.
Report By darryl Marshall
