TY BREAKER

Fender Mings seals a vital win for Smith’s relegation battlers

rummie born and elong supporter of vals Birmingham. s a tattoo to prove his allegiance nked on his calf and when he hits he net against Villa, he does not mind showing his delight.

He scored two against them in he 3-0 win at Vicarage Road a month ago and this one made it mes against the old

elped himself to three in the season Villa went down, five years ago.

And this one really was a kick in the guts with such a high value on the points from this game down at the wrong end of the Premier League table.

Deeney pounced in the 38th minute with an unstoppable header after Villa had been split open down their left flank.

Gerard Deulofeu made full use of time and space to put in an inch-perfect cross to where Deeney was waiting just six yards out to score with a bullet header

He raced behind the net to taunt his baiters among the Villa fans with a mock pained “Ooh, that must hurt” expression, which was never going to go down well.

One or two idiots in the crowd hurled coins at him.

But, in fairness to Deeney, he did not react and took it in the spirit it was meant!

Then, in the 56th minute, he so nearly grabbed a second .

He seized on to a loose ball just a few yards after Villa keeper Pepe Reina had parried a Deulofeu shot.

Deeney got his shot away, but not with quite as much power as he would have liked and Reina managed to block it with his legs.

Villa had been in danger of shipping water, but they stuck to their task admirably and got their reward when substitute Luiz fired in the equaliser.

Villa talisman Jack Grealish set it up with a neat pass out to Matt Targett and when the full-back fired in a left-foot shot, Hornets keeper Ben Foster could only parry it out at full stretch.

Luiz (right) spotted his chance, pulled back his left foot and hammered in a blistering shot, which almost ripped the roof of the net out.

And that set up the finale that the Villa fans could only have dreamt about.