Allback fronts a Villa charge

Aston Villa 3 Fulham 1

Villa's most emphatic league win of the year came in a flourish of firsts. Juan Pablo Angel headed his first of the season before going off at half-time with a hamstring twinge. His replacement, Marcus Allback, and Oyvind Leonhardsen then came up with their first goals for the club to leave Fulham's manager, Jean Tigana, lamenting a performance he deemed "not acceptable".

It was acceptable enough for long spells, since Villa were a long time punishing Fulham with the sort of incisive finishing their manager, Graham Taylor, has been pining for. Before this rush of goals Villa had managed a mere seven in 12 Premiership matches.

"It was very important to win this game," said Taylor. "If we had lost we would have been losing contact with the middle half of the table. You could see the players knew this was a result they had to get."

It was a while before this was apparent from the sidelines, since only the skill and control of Luis Boa Morte enlivened the first 20 minutes. Then, out of the blue, Villa scored. Gareth Barry sent in a deep cross from the left which was headed away by Alain Goma, but only to Ian Taylor, loitering on the edge of the area. His shot was swift and vicious, but Edwin van der Sar clawed it away from the top corner of his net. While Fulham were still congratulating themselves, Mark Kinsella took the corner, Taylor flicked it on and Angel stooped for a header which just evaded Van Der Sar.

Villa could have had a second when Jlloyd Samuel's persistence carried him between two defenders to deliver an angled drive to the near post which Van Der Sar did well to beat away. In first-half injury time Steve Marlet headed into the Villa net but jubilation was short-lived, since an offside flag was raised.

At half-time, Taylor revealed later, it seemed he would be forced into three substitutions, since in addition to Angel, Steve Staunton had taken a blow to the jaw and Dion Dublin had taken a bad knock on his instep. Staunton lasted for most of the second half, however, while the admirable Dublin went the distance, alarming Fulham's defenders to the very end with his eager hunting of the ball.

Fulham were level six minutes after the resumption. Steve Finnan embarked on one of his enterprising runs from right-back and finished with a shot which took a deflection straight to Boa Morte. Turning his marker, the Portuguese shot across Peter Enckelman's body and into the far corner.

The Villa goalkeeper made a fine reflex save from the substitute Junichi Inamoto before Villa went in front again. Barry crossed low from the left, the ball reached Leonhardsen and while he was still pondering his options Allback came thundering in to wallop it home.

As Villa's confidence swelled, Fulham's dwindled because, claims Tigana, they need a leader on the field. They certainly looked lost when the third goal went in seven minutes from the end. Another Barry cross was met the far post by Allback and Leonhardsen volleyed it in.

Aston Villa 3
Angel 20, Allback 66, Leonhardsen 83

Fulham 1
Boa Morte 51

Half-time: 1-0 Attendance: 29,563