Smith tastes derby joy after ‘emotional roller coaster’
behind to win 2-1 at
Sheffield Wednesday. Adam Reach put the home side in front before Derby hit back with goals from Harry Wilson and Jack Marriott. “We started very slow and weren’t at our best for big parts of the game,” Lampard said. “But we’ve been near our best at times and not got results, so it was an important change.”
Goals by Jordan Hugill and Marcus Tavernier in their 2-1 win at Brentford made it six games unbeaten for
Middlesbrough. leading by a 28th-minute goal by Lukas Jutkiewicz from a poorly defended corner.
Adams, on the end of a Craig Gardner cross, should have made it 2-0, a position from which Villa, who had looked nervous and were missing a key element of their game in midfielder John Mcginn, might have found it difficult to recover.
Instead, Adams thundered the ball against a post, play swept back to the other end of the field and, barely a minute later, Villa were level, Jonathan Kodjia sweeping the ball home after Michael Morrison’s attempted clearance from an Albert Adomah cross went straight to him at the edge of the six-yard box. Two minutes on and Jack Grealish stole in behind the defence to head home another Adomah cross for his first derby goal. The game had turned.
A penalty converted by Tammy Abraham extended Villa’s lead to 3-1 early in the second half, and although Kristian Pedersen took advantage of more sloppy marking to pull one back for the visitors, Hutton killed them off after a solo run that began inside his own half.
“We need to get back to the toughness we were showing earlier in the season,” said Garry Monk, the Birmingham manager. “This group has come a long way from where we were at the start of the season – we were being written off.
“We have been able to create more goals recently, but with that comes the danger of leaving yourself more vulnerable at the back.”
Aston Villa
Subs Booked Birmingham City
Subs Booked Referee