Touch of Solano brings a shine to grey day at Villa

Aston Villa 1 - Blackburn

Aston Villa's need to bring in a new striker during January was again highlighted despite Nolberto Solano grabbing a late winner against Mark Hughes' side.

David O'Leary's number one target is Southampton hotshot James Beattie with Villa - and Everton - having tabled £6million bids for the player.

A lack of fire-power is threatening to wreck a promising start to Villa's season and they had failed to find the net in nearly six hours before Solano headed home Gareth Barry's 88th-minute corner.

Juan Pablo Angel is looking a shadow of the player who scored 23 goals last season to earn a new four-year contract.

He has gone nine goals without a goal and his strike partner Luke Moore, who replaced the injured Carlton Cole, is very much a rookie at Premiership level.

Villa enjoyed more of the possession, particularly in the second half, with Solano posing their biggest threat throughout the 90 minutes with his power shooting and string of dangerous crosses.

But Blackburn are also now a side that are hard to beat under Hughes and the efforts of Barry Ferguson and Brett Emerton made life difficult for Villa before Solano struck.

Both sides were guilty of wayward shooting in the early stages but Villa were indebted to Gareth Barry nipping in to take the ball away from Garry Flitcroft after Jonathan Stead had laid the ball invitingly in his path.

Fit-again Gavin McCann became the first player to be yellow-carded after 13 minutes for a late challenge on Blackburn defender Lucas Neill.

Solano was seeing plenty of the ball and he was only just off target with a spectacular volley from Samuel's deep cross.

Then the Peruvian international delivered a teasing low cross which only just eluded the lunge of Juan Pablo Angel coming in on the left side of the Rovers area.

Villa also appealed in vain for a penalty when Dominic Matteo may have handled after Angel had won an aerial challenge.

But Angel looked short of confidence and it showed when he tried to deal with a right-wing cross from Solano.

It was the sort of ball that he would have hit first time when on song but he needed the extra touch and Friedel was able to collect.

Nils-Eric Johansson had half a chance to break the deflect when he met an outswinging corner from Brett Emerton but his header drifted past Thomas Sorensen's far post.

The woodwork came to Villa's rescue after 35 minutes from another corner by Emerton with Johansson's downward header bouncing up and striking a post.

Solano has scored a series of free-kicks for Villa in recent home matches but his 25 yarder curled harmlessly over the bar after he had been brought down by Johansson.

Angel, without a goal in eight games, had another chance in the 39th minute when he timed his run perfectly to stay onside before accepting a pass from the impressive Solano.

The Colombian took the ball around Friedel but then only succeeded in drilling his shot into the side netting.

Moore had few opportunities in the opening half but he was only just too high with a 50th minute header from a cross by Solano who remained Villa's biggest threat.

The home side tried to build up some momentum and the overlapping Solano took a pass from Angel into his stride but he failed to make full contact from a narrow angle and Friedel was able to block.

Blackburn boss Mark Hughes opted for a double substitution after 59 minutes, replacing Stead and Reid with Paul Gallagher and David Thompson respectively.

There was a rare moment of danger when Friedel when down low to his left to finger-tip Angel's drive for a corner.

But Blackburn finally cracked with two minutes remaining when Solano headed in after being first to react to a corner from Barry.