*John’s leveller makes Villa pay for prodigious profligacy*

The Holte End spluttered in pained disbelief, but choking in the seething second city derby is rapidly becoming a common theme to undermine those in claret and blue.

Aston Villa awake this morning deflated and with the joyous taunts of Birmingham City’s fans still ringing in their ears. Nothing has separated these two sides in their meetings this term, though Stern John’s equaliser deep into stoppage time here leaves the impression that Villa’s traumas against their bitter rivals have spilled into a second season.

The sight of David O’Leary bickering with a disgusted home fan at the end reflected the sense of angry anti-climax among the majority. “Too many of my players stopped playing for the last half-hour,” growled the Villa manager.

Last year this fixture ended in ugly scenes with the home side down to nine and defeated. Progress has been made since but, in the bitter circumstances, retaining a sense of perspective proved impossible.

The 100th league spat between these sides should have been settled long before its frantic finale. The hopeful whistles had been shrill for over four minutes when Darren Purse punted into the Villa half, the excellent Mikael Forssell leapt above Dion Dublin to flick on and Clinton Morrison spun to spit a close-range shot at goal. Thomas Sorensen did well to palm that out, only for John to ram the loose ball into the roof of the net.

Steve Bruce bounded on to the pitch as if re-enacting Brian Kidd and Sir Alex Ferguson’s madcap celebrations once sparked by his own headed injury-time goal for Manchester United against Sheffield Wednesday some 11 years ago. A smattering of fans did the same. “I thought he’d shanked it,” said the visitors’ manager. “Stern, single-handedly, did more than anybody to get us into the Premier League with eight goals in 15 games after he joined us. I’ll always be grateful to him for that.”

Now he has another reason to enthuse over a player who has a knack of conjuring late goals. Villa were less amused, fuming at the length of stoppage time. Their mood was exacerbated by Robbie Savage’s suggestion that Jeff Winter had added on that much only because Villa failed to return possession after City had kicked into touch for Lee Hendrie to receive treatment five minutes from time. How they must regret that gamesmanship.

In truth - and it says much for the mediocrity of the Premiership that Villa have motored from relegation zone to the fringe of European qualification within weeks - the home side will be baffled as to how they do not awake this morning in sixth. For an hour here they battered the Blues, establishing a two-goal advantage to deflect attention from their otherwise prodigious profligacy.

Darius Vassell was the worst culprit, even if he plundered early. Sorensen’s throw and Ulises de la Cruz’s charge had Hendrie feeding Nolberto Solano on the right flank, with the Peruvian’s cross bypassing the clutter in the middle. Damien Johnson should have cleared but he was robbed too easily by Gareth Barry, who squared calmly for Vassell to side-foot into the gaping net.

By then Purse had nodded against his own post as City creaked. Vassell, scuffing a shot from Solano’s pass then forcing Maik Taylor to deflect away a point-blank header, should have added to Villa’s first home league goal in a derby for 21 years.

That frustration was eased two minutes from the restart when the England striker’s cross deflected from Purse to the edge of the area, where Thomas Hitzlsperger battered across Taylor and into the corner. The German’s hammer of a left foot has a reputation for good reason.

“We hadn’t turned up,” bemoaned Bruce, and the disinterested Christophe Dugarry least of all. “Villa could have been out of sight, so I had a few words with my lads and reminded them that they were in a derby.” Where his half-time encouragement was wrecked by such a prompt concession, the subsequent introduction of Morrison and David Dunn did the trick.

Savage, an infuriating presence who is yet to taste defeat against these opponents in 16 matches for Leicester or Birmingham, provided the spark on the hour with a slide-rule pass laid off by Morrison for Forssell to steer the goal he deserved beyond a static Sorensen and into the corner.

The revival should have been checked by Vassell - latching on to Hitzlsperger’s header but lobbing over - and, shamefully, by Juan Pablo Angel, whose lazy finish wide of the far post from Luke Moore’s pass was inexcusable.

John provided the late punishment. “To come back like that felt better than beating them 3-0 and 2-0 last year,” added Savage.

Those embittered Villans might agree.