STALEMATE’S A TURN-OFF FOR ROWETT
No wins in five as Villa Prem bid blown off course
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GARY ROWETT won’t waste his time watching the video of this game after stodgy Derby blew the chance to muscle their way into the top two.
Rams boss Rowett was grateful that his team kept their fifth clean sheet in succession to stop lowly Hull making their dominance count – but little else pleased him.
His side pummelled Hull 5-0 back in September, when Bradley Johnson (above, with Tigers’ Jon Toral) scored twice. But there was no such landslide yesterday, after which Rowett said: “I probably won’t watch that one back, if you’ll excuse me. There was a lack of energy – and quality at times – but Hull had renewed enthusiasm.
“The pitch also made it difficult to move the ball quickly. We just couldn’t get going. You get these performances sometimes. We allowed Hull to dictate the game a little bit too much.
“It was a disappointing one but this Derby side still stick their heads on it in the 94th minute, puts their bodies on the line.”
Hull look a more solid unit under new boss Nigel Adkins. He said: “We had good opportunities to win. Out of the two teams, we looked the likelier to get a victory.
“A positive is the clean sheet. This one was against a very good side. From day one, we have worked on defensive shape.”
Derby’s best chance arrived after just 25 seconds but striker David Nugent saw his effort saved by Allan Mcgregor – and the Tigers quickly recovered.
Hull missed a sitter when Jon Toral headed wide from Kamil Grosicki’s delivery and Toral later blasted over from 12 yards. LASSE VIBE piled more misery on faltering Aston Villa by extending the promotion hopefuls’ winless streak to five games.
Romaine
Sawyers opened the scoring for
Brentford and Josh
Onomah had the visitors level before the break.
But Vibe forced Villa out of the play-off places for the first time since October with his fifth goal of the season.
Steve Bruce (above) has seen Villa’s Premier League push stall with draws against Leeds, Millwall and Sheffield United alongside a defeat to Derby.
And they struggled to get going against mid-table Brentford, with Sergi Canos forcing visiting keeper Sam Johnstone into an early save with a curling skidder. Manchester United loanee Johnstone was at full stretch again in the 22nd minute, but even his 6ft 4in frame could not stop Sawyers’ pin-point strike from finding the net.
Sawyers had picked up Ryan Woods’ pass, after a Glenn Whelan error, before unleashing a ferocious drive into the bottom corner from 20 yards out. Scott Hogan was jeered on his first return to Griffin Park since quitting to join Villa in January, home fans targeting him with chants of, “You only left for the money”.
Hogan had scored 21 times in 35 appearances for the Bees before his £9million move.
And he came back to haunt his former club by creating Villa’s 31st-minute equaliser, brilliantly scurrying down the right flank to the byline before standing up a cross for substitute Onomah to power home with his head.
It was the 14th time Brentford had surrendered a lead this season – the most of any club in the Championship.
Tommy Elphick had been promoted to Villa’s starting line-up in the league for the first time this season after Chris Samba was ruled out through injury, and was forced into an emergency goalline clearance to save his own blushes.
He deflected Canos’s shot from the edge of the box past his own keeper and only just managed to get back to prevent an embarrassing own goal.
Villa’s poor defending was punished seven minutes after the restart when the ball deflected through a cluster of players to Vibe at the back post and he swivelled to poke home. Canos almost added another for the home side when he cut in from the left and hit the bar.
Keinan Davis forced Brentford keeper Daniel Bentley into a wonder save in stoppage time, sparking a goalmouth scramble which came to nothing for Villa, who are now three points off the play-off places.