I said I’d be happy with a point before kick off and I would have been too. And with five minutes or so left on the clock I began writing just that, but then Gabby popped up in injury time and forced a rewrite I couldn’t be happier about!

The game got off to the worst possible of starts after Robbie Keane took advantage of Ashley Young’s failure to leave his post quickly enough at a corner and blasted in from point blank while the back line were helplessly calling for offside.

Villa looked decidedly fragile for the 20 minutes or so that followed, I feared what would happen if we fell further behind. Carlton Cole giving Collins and Dunne a torrid time during many moments of the first half was ominous.

But the lads gradually eased their way back into the game, the confidence grew and it only seemed to confirm the inevitable when Darren Bent nodded in an equaliser around 25 minutes in. Mark Halsey felt there was a shove as Bent leapt for the ball and chalked it off. Wrongly too I think. It looked like it might be one of those days after all.

No one let their heads drop though, they pushed and got their reward a little more than 10 minutes later when Bent cleverly slipped between centre backs, a glancing header meeting Luke Young’s cross to divert the ball past Rob Green. Mention should be given to Emile Heskey for pouncing on ponderous defending to win possession back and Ash for supplying the other Young with a simple ball.

The first half finished in even fashion by most measures then.

Second half

Villa were out the blocks quickly in the second half, clearly determined to take control of the game. West Ham seemed to crumble in response, but despite some clever build up play leading to one or two quality chances, the stalemate could not be broken.

As the game drifted into the final 20 or 30 minutes, with Avram Grant already forced to use all his substitutes, the question of whether Houllier felt he could go for the home side’s throat naturally bubbled to the surface.

The answer came in the 78th minute when Gabby came on to replace Emile Heskey and it paid off little more than a minute into injury time when he was there to nod in Ash’s right sided cross to send the visiting fans and team into absolute raptures.

And the rest of us too.

A fantastic victory that has lifted us into the top half of the table (at least temporarily; several sides below us have a game in hand) for the first time since September, but more importantly should just about kill off any fears of relegation. No, we’re not guaranteed to stay up yet, but even the most pessimistic of pessimists would surely struggle to see it happening now.

I believe this was the first win we’ve grabbed from a losing position this season in the league. It’s the first injury time winner since Ashley Young scored that goal at Goodison and I’m also told it’s the first goal from a substitute this season too. I could buy that.

Such factoids may serve as testimony to how poor our season has been, but they surely feel all the sweeter coming now, at this stage and in this position.

Anyway, time to relax – I mean really relax – post-match for the first time in very long time. Another first! Well, sort of.

Manc derby at Wembley to watch. The first of four classicos over the next couple of weeks later tonight. Today is a good day! Soak it up!

And I think I should save a final word for West Ham; the heartbreak for their fans must be enormous, they’ve had to endure enough since those clowns took over the club. Unfortunately, if there is a winner, there has to be a loser. Now I feel 100% confident that their survival will not come at our expense, I’d like to wish them the best for the games they have left and hope they stay up.

It doesn’t look good for them though, I wish it could come at the expense of the owners’ former club, but they managed to take a huge step towards survival themselves today with a 2-0 win over Sunderland.

Still, you can’t have everything, I’m not going to let that take the shine off today for me.

UTV