Aston Villa ... 3 Everton ... 2 Evidence as to why Premiership games are so popular in other countries but why many of its teams are found technically wanting against foreign opposition was in abundance here yesterday.
Aston Villa and Everton served up an absorbing encounter punctuated by errors that kept spectators guessing until Dion Dublin emerged from the Villa Park shadows and substitutes' bench to settle matters late on.
The mutterings of discontent among supporters that followed defeat at Birmingham City last week threatened to increase when Villa squandered a two-goal lead, before Dublin, with his 99th Premiership goal, put a smile on the faces of both his team-mates and Graham Taylor.
"Every week is a trying one in the Premiership when you lose," said the Villa manager. "And it's even more trying when you lose to your local rivals. People will say we were fortunate to win today, but we have been unfortunate not to win a couple of other games this season, so they can't have it both ways."
While Taylor beamed in undisguised relief, his Everton counterpart, David Moyes, scowled with understandable frustration as he bemoaned his team's lack of tactical sophistication in allowing Villa to snatch victory.
"We'd done the hard part by getting back into the game and looked as though we could go on and win it," Moyes said. "Then I think we might have got a bit excited. Instead we tried to be too clever when we should have closed the match down."
Villa midfielder Lee Hendrie got the opener shortly after the break. He clearly had a point to prove after not being in the starting line-up for the meeting with Birmingham. As a born-and-bred Brummie, he understood the significance of the fixture and would surely have shown more appetite for it than some of his colleagues who played.
And he wasted little time in making his submissions: just seven minutes had elapsed when Darius Vassell failed to control a low, right-wing cross from Ulises de la Cruz on the edge of the penalty area and Hendrie fired the loose ball over Richard Wright.
Villa's second, three minutes after the interval, also had its origins with De la Cruz. This time the wing-back delivered an aerial cross, Gareth Barry headed the ball back across the six-yard box and Hendrie applied the finish.
Villa's goalkeeper, Peter Enckelman, had little chance to start erasing the memories of Monday's howler until Everton roused themselves in the second half.
The only spark Everton showed in the first period came when Wayne Rooney demonstrated that, despite being just 16, he already has a firm grasp of the unacceptable side of footballing life. Beaten for pace by Vassell along the touchline, the teenager shoved the England forward on to the perimeter track and was cautioned.
Everton halved the deficit in the 51st minute when Thomas Gravesen cut inside from the left and backheeled the ball for Tomasz Radzinski. The striker's finish was so precise, Enckelman was helpless to intervene. The goalkeeper's left arm then denied Kevin Campbell but only briefly delayed the inevitable: Everton's equaliser.
From the subsequent corner, Campbell scored when he headed home Gravesen's perfectly flighted flag-kick at the near post.
Everton, however, proved just as vulnerable at corners when Dublin not so much hooked as shanked the ball home to settle the issue.
ASTON VILLA: Enckelman, Mellberg, Barry, Staunton, Johnsen, De la Cruz (Leonhardsen 75), Kinsella, Hendrie, Samuel, Crouch (Dublin 81), Vassell (Moore 82). Subs Not Used: Angel, Postma. Goals: Hendrie 7, 48, Dublin 85.
EVERTON: Wright, Hibbert, Stubbs, Weir, Unsworth, Gravesen, Tie Li, Pembridge, Rooney (Alexandersson 77), Campbell, Radzinski. Subs Not Used: Naysmith, Weifeng Li, Linderoth, Gerrard. Booked: Rooney. Goals: Radzinski 51, Campbell 66.
Referee: J Winter (Cleveland).
