3-3

*Bouncing Villa make late point*

Aston Villa maintained their run of late-season form with a comeback last night from 2-0 and 3-2 down to deny Charlton a victory that they were holding on to gallantly with 10 men for almost an hour.

Five minutes from time, within seconds of Paul Merson hitting the bar from 35 yards, Mark Kinsella broke away and put Charlton ahead. Then in the last minute Lee Hendrie squeezed in a second equaliser.

With quarter-of-an-hour left Darius Vassell, one of two half-time substitutes, weaved down the right, beating two men, cut in and shot past the heroic Sasa Ilic at the near post for Villa’s first equaliser. David Ginola, the other substitute, had scored Villa’s first goal.

Football’s vogue phrase this season among managers has been “on the bounce”. John Gregory may have started it, though at the time Villa settled for even one win on the bounce. But they came here unbeaten in seven and sniffing Europe after Ginola, a late substitute, turned Saturday’s game for them against Everton.

It was not enough though, to earn the Frenchman a start. The only change was Steve Staunton for the injured Gareth Southgate. It did little to bolster the defence though he could hardly be blamed for Charlton’s lead on the quarter hour.

George Boateng lost possession in the centre circle, Shaun Bartlett and Jonatan Johansson exchanged passes and, as Bartlett closed for the tap-in, Boateng did it for him.

Alan Curbishley was looking for a bounce back and got it. After Good Friday’s bad result at Bradford he warned his players they had the five remaining games to nail down their positions for next season.

It was looking good for Charlton until 10 minutes before half-time when Richard Rufus, up in attack, lunged late on Mark Delaney and was sent off. It was Graham Poll’s ninth red card of the season, maintaining his top billing.

Before Charlton could regroup, Paul Merson struck Ilics’s left-hand post and Ian Taylor put the rebound over a gaping goal. Before the interval, though, Charlton had gone two up. As tempers began to fray, Staunton held back Robinson and Claus Jensen converted the penalty.

Not surprisingly Ginola was on for the second half in a double substitution and in 12 minutes he had swept in Hendrie’s pass to reduce the lead. By the 65th minute Ilic had brought off two stunning saves, point-blank from Dublin’s header and high to his left to Merson’s drive and Charlton were hanging on by a thread.