Henry: Costly mistake

Share this article:

Wolves 2-3 Aston Villa

A collector’s item from Robbie Keane sealed the points for Aston Villa as they edged Wolves 3-2 in their West Midlands derby at Molineux on Saturday.

The away side started the brighter of the two and could have been ahead inside the first minute when an unmarked Craig Gardner headed wide.

Wolves struggled to settle and were behind after 11 minutes when Bent stepped up to score from the spot after Christopher Berra was caught in possession by the striker and responded by needlessly bringing him down.

That triggered Wolves’ best spell of the game and they grabbed a deserved equaliser 10 minutes later when Emmanuel Frimpong found Michael Kightly on the edge of the area. He took one touch before bending the ball inside Shay Given’s far post.

Kightly then went on the rampage as Villa struggled to cope with a Wolves side who just kept pushing forward and 10 minutes after the home side drew level they were ahead.

Kightly’s corner was headed goalwards by Roger Johnson and David Edwards was there to deflect it in from just two yards out.

The visitors looked like they might be overwhelmed, but their hosts could not grab another before half-time and after the break Villa were much more organised.

Villa were back level on 51 minutes when Matt Jarvis’ poor clearance fell for Keane who steered it home from just outside the box.

The game then turned on one piece of misfortune and one piece of stupidity. Just moments after Villa scored, the influential Frimpong bravely got his head to the cross and Stiliyan Petrov accidentally caught him with his boot.

The Wolves man was stretchered off and the home side did not look the same without him. That was unfortunate, but when Karl Henry stamped on Albrighton on 75 minutes Michael Oliver had no choice but to send him off and the midfielder’s thoughtlessness ended up costing his side a point.

Villa took the game by the scruff of the neck and got their reward on 84 minutes when Keane pounced on Roger Johnson’s clearance to blast home off the underside of the bar from 30 yards.

Wolves pushed on but even with eight minutes of added time there was no way to salvage the point they were heading for before Henry wrecked their chances.