ASTON VILLA 4 CITY 2

16th August 2008

Attendance 39,955

Scorers
City Elano(64 pen), Corluka(89)
Aston Villa Carew(47), Agbonlahor(69, 74 & 76)

City Hart, Corluka, Richards, Ben Haim, Garrido, Elano, Johnson, Fernandes, Petrov, Etuhu, Evans – subs Schmeichel(unused), Sturridge(81), Ireland(81), Caicedo(unused), Ball(unused), Onuoha(unused), Hamann(unused)

Aston Villa Friedel, L Young, Laursen, Davies, Shorey, Reo-Coker, Petrov, Barry, A Young, Agbonlahor, Carew – subs all unused Taylor, Harewood, Knight, Salifou, Routledge, Gardner, Osbourne

EXTRACT FROM MARK HUGHES PROGRAMME NOTES 24TH AUGUST

…I had called for a big improvement from our performance against FC Midtjylland and I think we got that, but we gave away some sloppy goals after battling our way back into the match. Villa, and in particular Gabriel Agbonlahor, showed that if you allow teams even a half-chance in this league you can get punished very quickly and the game rapidly went away from us. Despite that, I felt that there were some positives last Sunday (not least the support of our travelling fans, which was incredible), but we have to improve today and get three points on the board.
Unfortunately, as you are probably aware, we had some bad news just before kick-off at Villa Park when Valeri Bojinov ruptured his Achilles tendon in the pre-match warm-up. He is going to be out for around six months, and it is difficult to believe that one player can be so unlucky with injuries. It’s a huge blow to Valeri after the way he has battled back from the cruciate ligament damage he sustained in the derby a year ago. He did really well to come back and he deserved his place in the side at Villa Park. He is a bubbly character who the fans have taken to, and what was encouraging to see was how positive he was last Sunday even just after the injury had happened. His operation this week went well, and if anyone can bounce back from a blow like this, it’s Valeri…