Sport

Old Dublin shows young guns the way

Aston Villa...3 Blackburn..

Mon Feb 03 2003 - 00:00

Aston Villa...3 Blackburn...0Dion Dublin was so out of favour towards the end of last season that Aston Villa's manager Graham Taylor sent the striker out on loan to Millwall in the hope that he would like life with the Lions so much that they would be daft enough to take him off the Villa Park wage bill.

But after two goals here swelled Dublin's Premiership haul to nine in 12 matches, he might feel justified in sitting close to his phone on Saturday night in the expectation that Sven-Goran Eriksson will offer him a recall to the England side.

With his 34th birthday approaching, he might be a bit long in the tooth for Eriksson's kindergarten squad. But apart from James Beattie and Alan Shearer, who has retired from the international scene, there is no English-born striker in such a rich vein of scoring form.

Eriksson was just settling into his seat when Dublin rose to head home a free-kick from Joey Gudjonsson 90 seconds into the game.

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Just to prove that his threat is not all aerial, as some people might have thought, he cushioned a pass from Gareth Barry five minutes from half-time before drilling it past Blackburn's goalkeeper, Brad Friedel.

Blackburn Rovers, admittedly shorn of many of their more exciting players, were a pale shadow of the side that won here 4-1 in the third round of the FA Cup last month, Barry completing their misery with a neatly-taken goal that will have done nothing to harm his England chances either.

Afterwards Graeme Souness, the Blackburn manager, said: "We weren't at the races today. It was a miserable day for us but I was angry that Ronnie Johnsen tried to get our young defender James McEveley sent off. I thought he was a proper player but now he's just another Johnny Foreigner, like so many of them."

Guardian Service

ASTON VILLA: Enckelman; Delaney (Staunton 84), Mellberg, Johnsen, Samuel, Hitzlsperger, Gudjonsson (Hendrie 90), Barry, Moore (De la Cruz 79), Dublin, Vassell. Subs Not Used: Postma, Crouch. Booked: Barry. Goals: Dublin 2, 40, Barry 81.

BLACKBURN: Friedel; Taylor, Johansson, Gresko (Jansen 78), Curtis (Ostenstad 45), Thompson (Gillespie 70), Tugay, Flitcroft, McEveley, Cole, Yorke. Subs Not Used: Kelly, Douglas. Booked: Thompson, Johansson, McEveley, Taylor, Flitcroft.

Referee: M Dean (Wirral).