Aston Villa 1 WBA 1:ON A DAY when Darren Bent endured the disappointment of being dropped in front of the England manager, the Villa striker provided the best possible riposte as he came off the substitutes' bench to score 10 minutes from time and deny West Bromwich Albion the victory that would have lifted them to third in the table.
All the frustration that Bent had been bottling up on the sidelines, where he had a face like thunder at times as he watched the two strikers picked ahead of him huff and puff without success, came to the surface as he celebrated the 150th league goal of his career.
Having also lost the captaincy earlier in the month, it was easy to understand why Bent was so fired up as he set off in the direction of the dugout before being mobbed by team-mates.
It was a big call for Paul Lambert to leave out the club’s record signing, especially as Bent scored against Southampton, and it looked as though the Villa manager’s decision would backfire when Shane Long, returning to the ground where he was on the receiving end of a dreadful tackle from Alan Hutton last season, put Albion ahead in the 51st minute.
There was a sense that Villa were beginning to run out of ideas when Lambert replaced Christian Benteke with Bent in the 69th minute. Neither Benteke nor Gabriel Agbonlahor looked particularly threatening, and it was easy to imagine Bent relishing the chance to prove Lambert wrong.
His eyes must have lit up when Albion failed to deal with Barry Bannan’s corner and the loose ball dropped invitingly for him to sweep a left-footed volley beyond Ben Foster with what was only his third touch of the game, to give Villa the point they deserved.
Roy Hodgson, the England manager, was still in the ground at that point. “It was fantastic,” said Bent, omitted from the England squad last month. “Obviously it would have been nice to play from the start of the game but I managed to get the goal so it gets us a point.”
“He’s got nothing to prove to me, Darren, because I know what he can do,” Lambert said. “As I’ve said before, I’ll need everybody at the football club.”
Although Albion started brightly and could have gone ahead when Long headed wide, Villa looked the more accomplished side in the first half. Ben Foster tipped Brett Holman’s 30-yard half-volley over the bar and produced an even better save to deny the same player later in the half, when the Australian’s angled shot took a deflection.
Long’s goal arrived after Zoltan Gera’s perfectly weighted pass released Morrison in the inside right channel. Played onside by Matthew Lowton, Morrison delivered a low centre that Long tapped in at the far post after Ron Vlaar had tried and failed to sweep the ball behind.
In a frantic finish, Romelu Lukaku twice came close to restoring Albion’s lead, only to be denied by the post and Brad Guzan’s reflexes – while at the other end Bent’s whipped effort flashed inches over.
