The Hindu : Sport / Football : Agbonlahor stars in Aston Villa’s win

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Monday, Nov 12, 2007
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Agbonlahor stars in Aston Villa’s win

LONDON: Gabriel Agbonlahor scored the winning goal moments after making a goal line clearance on Sunday in Aston Villa’s 2-1 victory over city rival Birmingham in the Premier League.

Agbonlahor cleared a header from Birmingham defender Liam Ridgewell off the line in the 85th minute. Two minutes later, he headed in the deciding goal at St. Andrews.

Villa took the lead in the 10th after Ridgewell scored an own-goal. Villa midfielder Stilian Petrov crossed the ball from the right side of the field and it hit the leg of Ridgewell and bounced into goal.

Ridgewell joined Birmingham in August from Aston Villa, where he had played for the previous seven years.

Mikel Forssell headed in a cross from Daniel de Ridder to level the score for Birmingham in the 62nd.

Liverpool fourth

Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard scored two goals in the last nine minutes and Liverpool beat Fulham 2-0 on Saturday to climb to fourth place.

Rafa Benitez’ team laboured for most of the game at Anfield, unable to match the performance in Tuesday’s 8-0 Champions League crushing of Turkish club Besiktas.

But Torres collected a big clearance from Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina, dribbled into the area and shot past Fulham’s Antti Niemi in the 81st.

Four minutes later, Fulham’s American defender Carlos Bocanegra tripped Peter Crouch inside the area and Gerrard converted the penalty.

The victory means Liverpool has 24 points from six victories and six draws. That’s three points fewer than Arsenal and Manchester United while Manchester City has 25.

West Ham cruises

Lee Bowyer scored twice and West Ham romped to a 5-0 victory at Derby to keep the Rams in last place the other Premier League game.

Matthew Etherington and Nolberto Solano also scored at Pride Park. The third goal came on a shot by American defender Jonathan Spector which went in off countryman Eddie Lewis, a Derby midfielder.

“A crazy 10-15 minutes cost us dearly and, at the end, it was men against boys,” said Derby manager Billy Davies, who was without several first choice players through injury.

West Ham’s goal romp at Derby didn’t start until three minutes before halftime.

Derby defenders appealed for handball when Bowyer collected a diagonal pass from Solano, but the referee waved play on and the midfielder ran on to score.

Bowyer provided the final pass for Etherington for the second goal in the 51st minute, and Spector appeared to score his first goal in 68 matches in English soccer for the third. Failing to clear the ball, Lewis stumbled over it as it went into the net, and it was later credited as an own-goal.

Carlton Cole set up Bowyer for the fourth goal in the 59th minute, and Solano scored from a free kick 10 minutes later.

The results: Aston Villa 2 (Liam Ridgewell 19 (own goal), Gabriel Agbonlahor 87, ) bt Birmingham 1 (Mikel Forssell 62) Derby 0 lost to West Ham 5 (Bowyer 42, 59, Etherington 51, Lewis 55-og, Solano 69); Liverpool 2 (Torres 81, Gerrard 85-pen) bt Fulham 0. — Agencies

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