Green spoils it for ton-up Billy
ASTON VILLA produced one of the comebacks of the season to shatter Chris Wilder’s Sheffield United.
They looked out of it before scoring three goals in the last 10 minutes to grab a draw.
Substitute Andre Green headed home in stoppage-time to kill the Blades’ hopes of going top.
Billy Sharp had seemingly secured that lofty position with a stunning hat-trick. Wilder’s men produced a ruthless display of class finishing but just could not hang on after a grandstand finish by the home side.
Goals from Tyrone Mings and Tammy Abraham in the last eight minutes gave the visitors a real scare – and the jitters clearly got to Sheffield United, with the leveller coming deep in stoppagetime.
Sharp and Abraham went into the game with 19 league goals apiece but it was Sharp who blasted his rival out of sight to take his tally to 22.
You could tell the visitors fancied it from the very first kick, having demolished Villa 4-1 in September.
Wilder no doubt told his men to try and hit Villa hard and he was not disappointed.
With just 11 minutes on the clock the Blades stunned the home side with a goal that had an ironic twist about it.
Sharp scored with a goal that needed technological assistance because Abraham of all people had made a desperate attempt to clear it off the line.
It was engineered by Gary Madine, who peeled away from his markers to get a head to Oliver Norwood’s corner.
He powered it towards goal and Sharp reacted quickest with an instinctive shot which the goalline cameras showed had gone over.
It was a desperate blow for Villa whose tendency to leak goals and draw too many games could well end up costing them dear.
You could sense the anxiety among the home support as the delighted Blades followers chanted, “We are top of the league”. And it was Sharp again showing just what a predator he was with a goal that he must have thought might be ruled out.
Villa goalkeeper Lovre Kalinic did not cover himself in glory but was claiming that he had got both hands on the ball.
He had made a decent block to beat away Kieran Dowell’s shot from outside the box and when Madine nodded it over him, it all started to get a bit messy.
Kalinic scrambled to get to the ball, but as he snatched at it, Sharp jabbed a foot out and poked it into the net for his 100th goal for the club. But there were no doubts when Sharp completed his hat-trick in the 62nd minute to seemingly shatter Villa with a powerful close-range header.
A lot of Villa fans had already left when Mings headed home in the 82nd minute from Conor Hourihane’s corner and, after Abraham made it 3-2, the place erupted when Green headed in the equaliser.
ASTON VILLA (4-4-2): Kalinic; Hutton, Elphick, Mings, Taylor; Jedinak (Whelan 65), McGinn, El Ghazi, Kodjia (Green 65); Hourihane, Abraham.
Booked: Hutton, Jedinak, Whelan. Goals: Mings 82, Abraham 86, Green 90.
SHEFF UNITED (4-3-3): Henderson; Basham, Egan, O’Connell, Baldock; Norwood, Fleck, Stevens; Nadine (McGoldrick 68), Sharp (Washington 85), Dowell (Cranie 74). Booked: Basham, Egan, Bladock. Goals: Sharp, 11, 53, 62. Referee: T Harrington (Cleveland).