Defiant Richard Dunne can save Aston Villa

WBA 0 Aston Villa 0

Phil Barnett
Monday 30 April 2012 11:30 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

The Aston Villa goalkeeper Shay Given believes fit-again defender Richard Dunne will have a key role to play in the battle for survival.

Dunne, captaining Villa in the absence of Stiliyan Petrov, made his presence felt after being sidelined for more than two months with a broken collarbone by helping Villa to a clean sheet in Saturday's draw at Albion.

It kept Alex McLeish's side three points above the bottom three ahead of next weekend's home game with Tottenham and the trip to Norwich.

Given said: "It was amazing to have Richard Dunne back in the side. He had only trained a couple of times. For him to play was beyond the call of duty. His performance against Albion showed how immense Richard is for the club. Even just seeing him with the captain's armband on gave everyone a huge lift before the game."

Given produced a stoppage-time save from Peter Odemwingie's volley to deny Albion victory.

"It was a big save by myself at the end. I didn't have anything to do for most of the game and that is of great credit to Dunne and [Carlos] Cuellar in front of me."

Man of the match Dunne

Possession WBA 50% Aston Villa 50%

Attempts on target WBA 7 Aston Villa 5

Referee M Clattenburg (Tyne & Wear)

Att 25,984

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in