Aston Villa fight back to beat Portsmouth

Posted Monday, April 19, 2010 by YAHOO Sport

By ALEX CROOK STATS European Football Writer=

LONDON (SE) - Nathan Delfouneso came off the bench to bag his first Premier League goal and lead European hopefuls Aston Villa to a crucial 2-1 win at bottom club Portsmouth on Sunday.

Delfouneso struck eight minutes from time as Villa came from behind to keep alive their faint hopes of grabbing a Champions League place and moved further clear of Europa League rivals Everton.

Villa boss Martin O’Neill said: “We needed to win the game and naturally I am delighted.

“It has been a really interesting weekend and I think that is how it is going to be between now and the end of the season.

“We have a difficult game at Hull on Wednesday, followed by a derby game with Birmingham, a match against Manchester City and we finish against Blackburn.

“For us to be remotely in contention we have to win every game. We are looking at getting a considerable number of points just to finish in the top six.

“We have never been out of the top seven and I have the utmost regard for the players because they keep going.”

FA Cup finalists Portsmouth, without 12 senior players, could have taken the lead after only four minutes.

Kevin Prince Boateng was given too much freedom to bring down John Utaka’s cross and Brad Friedel did superbly to spread himself and keep out the Ghanaian’s close range shot with his chest.

Pompey did find themselves in front four minutes later.

Anthony Vanden Borre got the better of Stephen Warnock down the right and his cross found its way for Michael Brown to fire into the left corner from 15 yards out for his first goal in nearly six years.

John Carew drew Villa level just six minutes later when he was allowed to run onto Warnock’s long through ball and brush aside Marc Wilson before firing into the roof of the net from six yards.

Villa came agonisingly close to taking the lead soon after as Wilson headed against his own post in trying to clear Ashley Young’s teasing centre.

Friedel made another terrific save to fingertip behind Boateng’s free kick curler 14 minutes before half time.

Carew passed up the chance to score a second four minutes before half time when his penalty was saved by David James after Carew had been bundled over by Papa Bouba Diop.

James thwarted his old club once more in the 55th minute, flying to his right to keep out Gabriel Agbonlahor’s header from another Young cross.

Villa should have had a penalty when Carlos Cuellar was tripped by James after rounding the England goalkeeper but amazingly referee Lee Probert waved away their appeals.

Just as it looked like Villa were losing more ground on their top four rivals Delfouneso popped up to poke home Emile Heskey’s flick from James Milner’s cross.

Portsmouth manager Avram Grant said: “I was pleased with the performance, especially when we have so many injuries. With a bit more fortune we could even have won.”