FAMILIAR TALE AS CITY
GARY Rowett lost his voice at the back end of last week after presumably laughing himself hoarse at Dave Kitson’s latest media offering.
Rowett therefore had to resort to sign language after events at Villa Park and, not for the first time during his tenure you suspect, he was left expressing his emotions by the use of a thumb with one hand and two fingers with the other.
It’s been that kind of season and this was that kind of match.
Any team twice taking the lead at Villa Park, against opposition on its hottest run of form yet, surely has something to offer the promotion picture.
But equally, any team twice relinquishing that very lead still has nagging questions to answer over its promotion pretensions.
Aston Villa have more right than anyone to claim they are a Premier League club in everything but name and this looked and sounded like a Premier League occasion in everything but name.
Stoke’s part was such that while a draw was probably the fairest result, they had marginally the stronger claim to all three points.
And what a difference that would have made to their current mood, their league position and how the rest of
Stoke city
the Championship would now be regarding them.
Such statements will have to wait for another day, however, following their failure to cope with the game-saving cameo that was Villa sub Jonathan Kodjia.
It’s pronounced Codger, but there was nothing old nor cantankerous about his impact on proceedings after winning the penalty for 1-1 and scoring the equaliser for 2-2.
The final outcome was particularly harsh on the likes of Joe Allen after he, more than anyone, won the midfield battle in which Villa’s opposition included their other old Codger.
Glenn Whelan, who hopefully no longer reads The Sentinel, will have probably blushed a little after hearing his name sung affectionately by some 2,600 of his former fans, though he’d have been less enamoured by the later chant of “Whelo is a Stokie” after the rare embarrassment of misplacing a routine pass.
What impressed about Stoke’s performance was their refusal to be awed in the least by one of the Championship’s grander settings - even if Villa Park is hardly Elland Road when it comes to intimidation.
Rowett would have been purring, if a little gruffly, at their brighter attacking play which was such that a rare rendition of “Gary Rowett’s barmy army” was heard in only the 11th minute.
The Villa keeper was certainly the busier in terms of first-half shot stopping after touching Allen’s low first-time effort round his near post at the end of a sweeping move and then beating away James Mcclean’s first-time volley from Cuco Martina’s deep right-wing cross.