TEEN STAR BEN IS THE FOREST HERO
Sad Villa shocked by late winner
SEVENTEEN-year-old Ben Brereton came off the substitutes’ bench to do what Aston Villa’s £27m forward line couldn’t do – get a winner.
Brereton is highly-rated at Forest where Gary Brazil, currently caretaker boss of the first-team, has nurtured him in the under-23s.
But Brereton only made his full debut the previous Tuesday against Rotherham – and now he is a hero. Brereton came on as a 69th-minute replacement for Matty Cash and three minutes into injury time hammered in his first league goal after Britt Assombalonga had headed the ball down in a confused penalty area.
Brazil is putting himself into contention to become Forest owner Fawaz Al-Hasawi’s eighth manager with three wins out of his four games in charge as interim boss.
He is also taking Forest, after a torrid a season on and off the pitch, closer to Championship safety. They are just below Villa in the table and eight points clear of the relegation zone.
“The youngster’s got a chance and bless his heart he’s taken it,” said Brazil of Brereton. “It was his first league goal and the first of many I would hasten to add. He took his opportunity fantastically well. It just dropped for him and I’ve seen Brereton do that on a number of occasions when we’ve been working with him in the academy for the last year and a half.
“A marvellous moment for the kid and a marvellous moment for this club too.
“I know Brereton so it wasn’t brave of me to put him on from the bench. I’m not worried about the age of the player, I’m worried about the quality of the player and what he brings to the team.”
Villa had mega-money signings Jonathan Kodjia (£15million) and Scott Hogan (£12million) leading their attack.
Bruce has rebuilt this Villa team to get the best out of Kodjia with his pace and goalscoring ability – and it worked to perfection in the 19th minute when Forest’s Cash gave the ball away Villa skipped clear and Jack Grealish’s pass set-up Kodjia to take the chance brilliantly, beating Forest keeper Stephen Henderson with his right foot shot.
But Forest got back into the game through Villa keeper Sam Johnstone’s mistake. Johnstone’s form has been suspect since he signed on loan from Manchester United and he let a fizzing, low 25-yarder from Jamie Ward bounce off his chest for Assombalonga,looking for the rebound, to lift the ball over him.
On the other hand ,literally, Henderson had to make a terrific one-handed save in the 69th minute as Tommy Elphick had another chance denied and Villa were back on top until Grealish was sent off in the 79th minute for two bookable offences.
Grealish was yellow carded for kicking the ball away in the first half and then when he fouled Eric Lichaj his involvement in the game was over. “The red card helped their situation,” said Bruce, without a win since Boxing Day. “But I felt the referee couldn’t wait to send off Grealish.
“It changed the game to Forest’s way and it was one of those days when it didn’t go right for us. We were punished in the last minute, everything seems to be going against us, at the moment every mistake we make is getting punished.”