aston villa 1 v 0 norwich

It wasn't pretty, but we won.  A sublime move and pass by Jack Grealish followed by a lovely clean cut shot from Conor Hourihane.  It was enough ... just!

aston villa 2 v 1 brighton and hove albion

Well, where did that come from?!!! Controversy over a disallowed goal, a sending off and a last-gasp winner from the Villa!

Brighton attack from the get-go - it's clear they haven't come just to defend.  A dubious free kick is awarded against Villa and Conor Hourihane's name goes in the book. The resulting cross is met by an unmarked Adam Webster and we're one nil down a little over twenty minutes into the game.

Not everything is going Brighton's way though. Foolishly, Aaron Mooy earns a yellow card for booting the ball away to prevent Villa taking a quick free kick. A few minutes later he fells Jack Grealish on another of his trademark streaky runs, earning Mooy a second yellow card and an early bath.

Villa press forward in numbers and look to have equalised when Hourihane hits a stunner into the top of the net. The dreaded VAR comes into action and the goal is disallowed for an alleged foul by Wesley on the Brighton keeper.  This dubious piece of long-distance refereeing is met by a string of profanities from the jeering home crowd.

We do, however, bring the scores level on the stroke of half-time when skipper, Jack Grealish, bundles in an excellent low cross from Frederick Guilbert.

The second half is a real see-saw affair. Villa seek to press home their advantage only to be caught out time and again on the counter-attack by a fleet-footed Brighton. And with the clock ticking down Grealish puts in the marauding Matt Targett who slots in a lovely shot with just ten seconds left to play!!

What a match. All credit to Brighton who looked fast, dangerous and well-organised under their manager, Graham Potter. Big kudos also to their supporters who rose to applaud Tyrone Mings when his name was announced at the start of the game. It was so good to see the crowd united against the racist abuse thrown at Mings on his England debut against Bulgaria.

we're going up! - part 2: the opening goal

Villa start well with lots of promising attacks all of which sadly come to nothing.  Opportunities are missed, shots go wide and crosses fail to find an attacker.

As half-time approaches it looks as if Villa will be frustrated but then Conor Hourihane lofts a lovely pass to Albert Adomah on the right. Adomah passes back to Ahmed Elmohamady who curls a lovely cross into the penalty area. And there's Anwar El Ghazi on hand to put the ball in the back of the net.

One nil, and the half-time whistle blows!