SO THANK GOD FOR KOD NOD
Villa strike late to break Brentford hearts
Aston Villa 2 Brentford 2 JONATHAN KODJIA shattered Brentford with a stunning stoppage-time smash-and-grab.
The Villa striker nodded home with seconds left of the five minutes of time added on.
Up to that point it looked like Brentford would be sitting second in the table courtesy of Neal Maupay’s double.
Maupay had grabbed what looked to be the winner with eight minutes left before Kodjia snatched two priceless points away.
Villa had gone into the game knowing victory would put them joint-top of the Championship.
Jack Grealish had a shot blocked by keeper Daniel Bentley before Villa were stopped in their tracks in the 23rd minute.
Sergi Canos exploited space down the right and crossed to the back post and, when Oliver Watkins found Maupay with a knock-back, the striker made no mistake, lashing an unstoppable shot into the roof of the net.
A few minutes later Maupay went close to getting a second when his close-range header looked certain to go in before John McGinn got in the way.
But Villa responded well and began to rattle the visitors to such an extent that Bees were lucky not to go a man down. Maupay went unpunished for a cynical stamp on McGinn and Watkins was booked for a revenge tackle on Grealish.
Henrik Dalsgaard’s challenge on Albert Adomah wasn’t too clever either but referee Jon Moss allowed play to go on and the Bees paid a heftier price.
Kodjia pounced on the loose ball, rolled Ezri Konsa, and picked his spot with a low shot into the net to equalise.
Villa should have gone in front on the hour when Adomah crossed to Kodjia, who was left thumping the ground in frustration as he volleyed straight at the keeper.
That looked to have proved very expensive when Maupay helped himself to a second eight minutes from time, poking home from close range after Orjan Nyland had parried a Watkins shot. That was until Kodjia had the last word.