Elegance of Djorkaeff not enough for Hughes

Blackburn Rovers 2 Aston Villa

Mark Hughes is already looking back fondly at his honeymoon period as Blackburn Rovers manager. Just four games into his new job and already there are tell-tale signs of some potential problems. Correction: make that here-and-now trouble.

A point away from the Premiership's relegation places and out of the Carling Cup, Blackburn failed to make the most of their fortune yesterday and could get only a draw against Aston Villa, a result that is unlikely to ease worries in this part of east Lancashire. And, given that the visitors hit the post and the bar and had a "goal" disallowed, the situation could have been significantly worse.

Villa took the lead through Juan Pablo Angel and, although Barry Ferguson and Brett Emerton edged Rovers ahead, you would have had needed the most biased of Blackburn eyes to begrudge Olof Mellberg's equaliser in the 80th minute. Hughes goes off to manage Wales against England next Saturday knowing he is leaving plenty of work behind him at Ewood Park, especially with his back four - although that could be said to apply to both teams. "We conceded again at a set-piece," Hughes said. "It cost us on Monday against Charlton and it cost us again today." Villa's manager, David O'Leary, was equally unhappy: "What we did was defend badly. If you make elementary mistakes you tend to get punished."

Hughes has begun his changes, most notably the signing of Youri Djorkaeff, but you can have as many World Cup winners as you like up front and they will amount to very little if you match them with dozing dunderheads at the back. So it was that after 25 minutes Blackburn were behind.

Angel's run was clever but not mind-blowing, yet the Blackburn defence made it look like a work of genius. They were watching and not moving. A pass from Ulises de la Cruz found the Villa striker, and he hit the ball first time beyond Brad Friedel's dive into the far corner. The inquest into the goal at the Blackburn training camp will not be pretty.

"Are you Burnley in disguise?" the Villa fans taunted the home support and, as Blackburn had offered little but endea-vour until this point, you could see their point. However, that changed after 29 minutes with a delightful turn by Paul Dickov that left Mellberg trailing, and when the Scot sped to the byline and delivered a close-to-perfect cross to the near post, an equaliser followed. Ferguson, from a range of two yards, just could not miss.

Which was in contrast to Villa, who did everything but score until Mellberg came to their rescue. Lee Hendrie hit a post following a barnstorming run by Carlton Cole, Angel hit the bar - although why the referee did not blow for a push by him was a mystery - and the Colombian striker also had the ball in the net only for the effort to be ruled out for offside.

It was immediately after this disallowed "goal" that Rovers took the lead when Djorkaeff, raiding on the left, slipped a delightful pass through to Emerton, who beat Thomas Sorensen at his near post with a clever flick with the outside of his foot. Villa were fuming. "We made more than enough chances to win," O'Leary said.

But with 10 minutes remaining, the visitors got their just reward when Gavin McCann's corner was headed back at the far post and Mellberg side-footed in the equaliser from six yards out.