Shane Long declined to speak as he limped away from Villa Park but it is easy to imagine the West Bromwich Albion striker would have agreed with Paul Scharner's thoughts. "You could see the first 10-15 minutes they tried very hard to kick Shane," Scharner said. "I think they got away with it and Shane left the field. It looks like if you are scoring three or four goals at the beginning of the season, and are always a threat, then defenders look at you."
Alan Hutton did much more than look, and whether Long was singled out for special treatment or not, there was no escaping the fact that the Aston Villa full-back was extremely fortunate to remain on the pitch for a reckless challenge on the Albion player. He seemed determined to take the man as well as the ball and had both feet off the ground when he ploughed into Long. It should have been a straight red card but the referee, Phil Dowd, did not even award a free-kick.
To make matters worse, shortly after Long came back on to the pitch after receiving lengthy treatment, Hutton kicked him again. This time Hutton was shown a yellow card, although that was little consolation for Long, who was still limping from the first incident and had to be withdrawn.
The Republic of Ireland international is due to undergo a scan on Monday to ascertain the severity of the injury, with Roy Hodgson, the Albion manager, fearful that Long has sustained knee ligament damage. The Football Association has, however, indicated it is highly unlikely Hutton will be punished for what Hodgson described as a "wicked challenge" because the rules do not allow retrospective action against a player if the official sees the alleged offence at the time, which Dowd did.
Although two wrongs do not make a right, Hodgson could be forgiven for saying that, because of Hutton's lucky reprieve, he felt little sympathy for Villa when Chris Herd was sent off in controversial circumstances later in the first half, following an altercation with Jonas Olsson. Villa are considering whether to appeal against the dismissal, which appeared harsh, although they would have to prove to the FA that Dowd made a serious and obvious error. This promises to be difficult because the television evidence is inconclusive.
Olsson maintains that Herd made contact with him. "Herd kicks back and then hit me on my thigh," said the Albion defender, whose goal shortly after Herd's dismissal cancelled out Darren Bent's early penalty. "If you ask [Herd], he will think it is a bit harsh but I think he will agree it was a foul. The linesman sees it, he is in a good position, and decides to act on it, and credit to him for taking a decision like that. It was a needless thing for [Herd] to do. When you do that in those areas, you get punished more."
Chris Brunt had a chance to bring parity from the penalty that followed but the ball has yet to be found from the kick that he sliced horribly wide. "I think it's in my back garden," said Brunt. At least he atoned for his faux pas. It was a Brunt corner that Olsson headed in on the stroke of half-time and another corner from the Northern Irishman led to Scharner sweeping Albion in front early in the second half to secure a first league victory at Villa Park since 1979.
It was never going to be easy for Villa with 10 men but Alex McLeish must have been dismayed with the lack of fight that his players showed in the second half. "We didn't really get huge control of the game and lacked inspiration," said the Villa manager. "I did stress to the players that we could still win it. I've done it before. You have to believe. But the equaliser knocked the stuffing out of us."
