Aston Villa picked up another three very valuable points as they beat 10-man Brighton 2-1 at Villa Park.
The game got off to a fast start, with the away side having more of the ball. They were causing Villa a number of issues, and it looked certain that they would be the first team to score.
They did that in the 21st minute when Conor Hourihane was wrongly adjudged to have committed a foul. From the subsequent free-kick, the ball was floated into the box and an unmarked Adam Webster nodded in from a couple of yards out.
In the 35th minute, Aaron Mooy was sent off for picking up a second yellow card. Not many Villa fans would have been celebrating this because they have struggled when playing against ten men this season.
Villa thought they had equalised with half-time fast approaching when Hourihane smashed the ball into the back of the net, but once again, like has happened on a number of times this season, they were robbed by VAR. The VAR official deemed that Wesley had fouled Matt Ryan, but there was nothing in it at all.
Dean Smith’s men managed to level the score a few minutes later when Jack Grealish got on the end of a lovely cross from Frederic Guilbert and slid the ball home.
Villa had a lot of the ball in the second-half, but Brighton were defending well and were also causing a few issues on the counter. It looked like Villa were going to have to settle for a point, but Matt Targett, popped up with a late goal to send the Villa fans into raptures.
Here are our Villa player ratings for today’s match against Brighton:
