Aston Villa threw away a massive opportunity to take an invaluable three points at Ewood Park today and instead came away with nothing after a penalty in the closing minutes gifted 10-man Blackburn a 2-1 victory.

Gabby again got Villa off to the best of starts in the opening minutes. The in-form striker cleverly moved from an offside position just before James Milner flicked on a long ball with his head. Gabby’s shot initially looked like it was just a tad wide, but there was enough spin on the ball to divert it on target after alluding the diving Robinson’s finger tips. The ball bobbled off the post and in.

Minutes later Stephen Warnock threw himself between the impressive Di Santo’s point blank shot to prevent a certain goal. Blackburn at that point were setting out their intentions for the game – winning second ball in the box. That tactic paid off around 24 minutes when Samba picked up an opportunity to blast in from about 8 yards, Friedel helpless to stop it.

That remained the pattern for the rest of the half and into the opening exchanges of the second half – Blackburn sending hopeful balls in to the box and Villa looking to take advantage on the break.

Sam Allardayce looked to change the tactics by bringing Brett Emerton on to replace Morten Gamst Pedersen. Just minutes before the change Fabian Delph picked up a booking for what was probably a professional foul to break up a Blackburn attack taking advantage of Warnock being injured up the pitch.

Martin O’Neill responded by bringing Delph off in favour of Emile Heskey who slotted in on the left. Ashley Young moved to the right with James Milner pushing into the middle alongside Petrov. Yes, you read that correctly, that’s three players out of position in a midfield four away from home with the game tied.

However, for a while it looked like it might just work, although Emile Heskey clearly wasn’t going to offer much of threat down the left, the reworked right flank might have had an edge.

Villa’s failure to capitalise on the opportunity handed to them on 68 minutes again reveals the lack of killer instinct in this team at the moment. Vincenzo Grella, already booked during the first half, recklessly slid in on James Milner from behind. In fairness, Petrov’s sloppy ball put Milner in a tricky position and the winger did well to force Grella into his silly challenge. However, once handed a one man advantage, you’d expect most teams to be smelling blood, but Villa didn’t look like they were exactly hungry enough to be dining out tonight.

That said, Villa did look the stronger and more likely to score, but that’s the very least to be expected. Quite where a goal would come from wasn’t clear, but surely the visitors would find the necessary quality from somewhere in 20 minutes?

Disaster struck for me with 10 minutes to go when I lost my feed of the game and I probably wasn’t the only one. I doubt I was also in alone in spending the following 8 minutes in the dark more than a little concerned, despite the numerical advantage and three strikers on the pitch!

Unfortunately, my picture came back just in time to see David Dunn slotting a penalty past Brad Friedel. I haven’t seen it yet, obviously, but apparently Richard Dunne was penalised for handball in the area.

With 4 minutes of injury time indicated it was clear that Blackburn would retreat and Villa’s best hope, aside from adopting the home team’s tactic of pinging hopeful balls into the box, would come from a set piece.

It never came and Blackburn will be simply thrilled with the three points. Did Villa deserve to lose? Probably not. But they didn’t really deserve to win either and that’s probably more important.

Overall, pretty disappointing to lose some ground on Spurs and Citeh, with Arsenal looking to gain on us, when the chance was there to keep pace with the leaders. How valuable those points could have been as the next two fixtures are Citeh and Chelsea coming to Villa Park.

That said, Wigan have beaten Chelsea 3-1 at home today, so anything can happen!!