Keane confirms more away day despair for Villa
By James
November 24 2003
Another away day, another loss – this is a saying which has been common to the Villa fans, players and staff since January and it will continue to be told after another disappointing away performance saw Villa suffer their 14th away loss on the trot.

This is a statistic not to be proud of and after Villa had the lead mid-way through the second half their fortunes looked to be going in the right direction. However two goals in two minutes for Spurs sentenced Villa to yet another afternoon of wondering – when?

The first half lacked chances and should the match of happened a day earlier then ‘The Premiership’ Television screening would have probably bypassed the first half for the lack of efforts.

Helder Postiga, yet to score a goal for Tottenham, had the first chance of the game on the fourth minute as a ball was flicked through by Keane from Anderton’s pass forward. Postiga took his time which allowed JLloyd Samuel to get back and put him off and he shot wide.

A few minutes later Villa’s Swedish player of the year - Olof Mellberg - miss-kicked the ball and it fell to Paul Konchesky on the edge of the 18-yard box, though he hurried a cross and it was subsequently over hit.

Konchesky did get a decent cross in 10 minutes later; however Darren Anderton could not quite get to the height of the ball and headed over despite the ex-England man being unchallenged.

The best chance of the first half fell to Thomas Hitzlsperger as Allback held it up well and played it off to the young German who put an inch too much swerve on the ball and it just missed the post with Keller stranded.

On the stroke of half-time Mauricio Taricco had a 30 yard pile driver tipped around the post by the athletic Thomas Sorensen in the Villa goal to ensure that both teams went into the second half goal-less.

HALFTIME- Spurs 0 Villa 0

The second half took a while to get going and the first real chance fell to Darius Vassell just after the hour. Mark Delaney did well on the right to get to the by-line and cut the ball back, however Vassell’s attempt at a nice side footed finish resulted in the ball nearly going out for a throw.

Two minutes later Villa had the lead, Peter Whittingham floated a lovely ball into the 18 yard box towards Marcus Allbäck – who did well to stay onside – and he perfectly placed a header into the far corner of the net out of Kasey Keller’s reach in the Spurs goal.

Spurs nearly replied five minutes later; however Robbie Keane was unable to get on the end of Mauricio Taricco’s low fired cross after good work by Ledley King. Tottenham, nevertheless, did reply to Villa’s opener on the 78th minute thanks to second-half substitute Rohan Ricketts.

The chance stemmed from when Marcus Allback turned from Hero to Villain by giving the ball away. It was played to Ricketts and the ex-gunner placed a shot in the bottom corner from the edge of the 18 yard box straight through Ronny Johnsen’s legs. To make matters worse for Villa Mark Delaney was injured during the move and he had to be replaced by Dion Dublin who went into centre-back and Olof Mellberg slotted in at right-back.

It all left Villa in a bit of a confused state as all it took to find the winner was another two minutes, poor marking on Robbie Keane left the ex-Inter Milan man free and he was able to fire into the corner of the goal to give Spurs the lead. Villa’s excuse could have been that they were still adjusting after their substitution but in the Premiership there is no time to react and this was clearly true here.

Villa nearly replied instantly with Marcus Allback coming close with an overhead kick and minutes later Steven Carr nearly deflected the ball into his own net, however Keller was equal to it and managed to tip it wide.

Villa sent on Stefan Moore with four minutes to go however he didn’t get make much of an impact, which leaves the question why he wasn’t thrown on earlier with what he has to offer had to be better than an un-interested Darius Vassell.

All in all it was another major blip for Villa and they are becoming far too frequent this season. With the next stop on the road a trip to Old Trafford the match against Southampton on Saturday leaves Villa desperately in need of 3 points.

FULLTIME – Spurs 2 Villa 1

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