Source: Team_Talk
Aston Villa v Blackburn reaction
Alex McLeish has admitted to feeling pride in taking his first walk down the Villa Park touchline before Aston Villa's 3-1 win over Blackburn.[LNB] The vitriol and animosity that had greeted McLeish's appointment as Villa manager two months ago, in light of his past allegiance to bitter city rivals Birmingham, was a thing of the past as the fans gave the Scot a reception to remember.[LNB]The 90 minutes that followed was also heartwarming for both McLeish and a 32,000 crowd as goals from Gabriel Agbonlahor, Emile Heskey and Darren Bent carried Villa to victory.[LNB]"The vibes I was getting is that (the reception) was going to be something to look forward to," said McLeish.[LNB]"People might have headlined it that I was worried, but that was not the case. I don't like to use that kind of term.[LNB]"I was really looking forward to walking down the track, and it was a proud moment for myself and my family when I did.[LNB]"Of course, everybody likes to be loved! But we know what football is like, it is a game that can be fickle, and like any manager on the planet you have to get results.[LNB]"But I have to admit the Villa fans were excellent. It was a decent crowd having played Blackburn about 12 times in the last two years."[LNB]It was actually the 11th competitive meeting between the two sides in 23 months, with Villa now having won seven of those.[LNB]The result was effectively in the bag inside the opening 25 minutes as first Agbonlahor curled a stunning opener in the 11th minute.[LNB]When Heskey made it 2-0 soon after with his first goal to end a 13-match drought stretching back to January 2, the writing was on the wall for a poor-looking Rovers side in the first half.[LNB]The fact they pulled one back through Morten Gamst Pedersen's close-range header in the 52nd minute came out of the blue.[LNB]Villa then temporarily lost their way before Bent restored the two-goal cushion and sealed the three points in the 67th minute.[LNB]"It was a great result for us, with some very good moments in the game. I was very pleased with the players, and getting three goals as well was terrific," added McLeish.[LNB]"It's early days. We have four good points from the first two games, and if we can keep that kind of progress going then we can have a good season.[LNB]"We know there are a lot of tough challenges ahead, but we're up for it."[LNB]For McLeish, it was his first Premier League win over a fellow managerial Scot at his 12th attempt.[LNB]For opposite number Steve Kean, though, it has been eight days to forget since the season began, with back-to-back losses sandwiching a court appearance where he was banned from driving for 18 months for drink-driving.[LNB]Attempting to extract the positives, Kean said: "I thought we started the game well.[LNB]"If we look back at the goal we gave away, the first was fantastic from Agbonlahor, but we're disappointed with the second because it took an unfortunate deflection off Pedersen.[LNB]"We then spoke at half-time about how we would come out for the second half, and I thought we were excellent, we scored the goal and Villa were on the back foot.[LNB]"The third goal then killed us because once we scored we were in the ascendancy.[LNB]"If we'd got a second it would have been game on and we could have possibly gone on to win the game, never mind draw."
