City rocked by Gabby’s blast

Aston Villa 4, Man City 2

ASTON VILLA manager Martin O’Neill is hoping winger Ashley Young will follow Gabriel Agbonlahor and John Carew in signing a new contract with the midlands club.

Young bounced back from being overlooked by Fabio Capello for the England squad to face the Czech Republic at Wembley on Wednesday by setting up two goals in the 4–2 home win over Manchester City.

Agbonlahor, also snubbed by the Italian, grabbed the headlines with an eight minute hat–trick in the second half but it was Young’s trickery which constantly unlocked the City rearguard.

To make matters worse for City, striker Valeri Bojinov snapped his Achilles in the warm–up and will be out for a further six months.

It follows on from the knee injury sustained against Manchester United last August which sidelined him for 12 months.

City boss Mark Hughes said: “It is a huge blow for Valeri. We are all desperately disappointed for the lad. That’s on top of being out for 12 months so it is a massive setback for him.”

Hughes bemoaned poor defending for his side’s defeat after an Elano penalty had cancelled out Carew’s opener early in the second period.

He added: “I thought we were very much in the game.

“When you come to Villa, you have to deal with the physical presence of the front guy (Carew) and the pace they have in the side and you have to deal with set plays which I think we did in the first half.

“Unfortunately we’ve then had a spell of eight minutes where we conceded poor goals, goals that could have been avoided from our point of view.”