Craig Bellamy came back to haunt former manager Martin O’Neil to secure a point for Manchester City as they drew 1-1 with Aston Villa
Richard Dunne had given the home side the lead after 15 minutes, scoring against his former club in the process but Bellamy upset the former Celtic boss by assuring the points were shared with a quality finish.
The match had been preceded with plenty of talk about Gareth Barry’s return to Villa Park, but in truth the mid-fielder escaped in comparison to that which his adversary Emmanuel Adebayor received during his recent meeting with Arsenal.
The Togo international was returning from a three-match ban after his much-talked about reaction to his mistreatment by Gunners fans last month and he lined up in a three pronged attack for the visitors.
The former Arsenal striker could have learnt a lot from Dunne, who himself was playing against a former club, as he rose above Barry of all people to head home brilliantly after a quarter of an hour.
Dunne showed the sort of professionalism that had been neglected by his opponent as he chose not to celebrate the opening goal in-front of his former employees, despite it’s great important and quality.
The game had given us the expected early goal, but the remainder of the half seemed to display both side’s defensive qualities in a game blessed with nine English players for the on-looking Fabio Capello to access.
The midfield duo’s on show went some way to explain City’s first half frailties, with Barry and Nigel De Jong happy to sit and rarely support their attacking team-mates, with the omission of Stephen Ireland seeming more and more glaring as the evening progressed
In-fact it took till the 40th minute for Mark Hughes’ men to record a credible shot on target when Adebayor leapt higher than Steve Sidwell from a Barry corner only for Brad Friedel to tip the ball comfortably over the bar.
There was then no surprised when Ireland was introduced after just five second half minutes to replace the Dutchman as Villa continually pushed to double their lead.
Dunne forced the best of those opportunities created as he could only force his header wide of Given’s right-hand post.
The significance of the miss was more a tribute to how Dunne and Co. had dealt with City’s multimillion pound strike force at the other end and that a second goal, even with 30 minutes remaining, would have all but sealed the points for the midlands club.
And as it turned out Dunne and Villa were to be punished, as a frantic clearance by the Irishman found his fellow countryman Ireland whose threaded pass found Adebayor who played the ball back for Craig Bellamy to smash the ball into the roof of the net.
It’s a tribute to Hughes that he’s been able to get the best out of the troubled striker whether it’s been for club or country and this goal was fully deserved for Bellamy’s tireless display down City’s left-hand side.
Both side’s laid down there intent for the remaining 23 minutes by both bringing on strikers, Roque Santa Cruz for City and Emile Heskey for Villa, with the England striker replacing the barely fit John Carew.
But the changes seemed to disrupt the play more than spur either side to go and take all three points and resulted with the remainder of the match being played in a subdued manner after what had been a typically frenzied evening at Villa Park.
Both managers will have been pleased not to have given anything over to their Champions League contenders, but the quality of the play suggested that both will be pushing the elusive top four all the way this season.
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