Football hey. It just has a way of delivering sweet sweet karma when you need it to. After Jack Grealish was disgracefully punched by a Birmingham fan in the first half, he has only gone and scored the goal has won the derby for Aston Villa.
Grealish deserves huge praise to how he dealt with the whole situation at just 23-years-old. He is a credit to his club and showed great maturity and composure not to retaliate when he could have lost his head. His teammates also showed great restraint as the fan ended up on the floor, surrounded by Villa teammates.
It would have been a mess in there as the Villa players held each other back whilst the Birmingham players also helped calm the situation down. Grealish fortunately got back up and continued but that was certainly the flash point of an unspectacular first half as the two teams went in level.
In the second half, Grealish stood up and made the difference. Picking up the ball on the edge of the Birmingham box, he stepped towards goal and fired the ball into the bottom corner to put the visitors ahead. This sparked crazy scenes in the away end as Grealish jumped in to celebrate with his fans after what had happened in the first half. It was nervy finish but the Villains held on to move them just four points away from the play-offs.
Raheem Sterling was quick to praise the Englishman tweeting:
‘Karma at its best well done @JackGrealish1’
That came after he had put: ‘Idiot of the year... congrats on your lifetime ban’ regarding the fan who assaulted him during the first half.
Gary Neville also tweeted his disappointment at the incident saying:
‘The club are going have to take a huge punishment for this to act as a deterrent in the future . A Points deduction or Empty stadium for 10 games!’
However, Villa fans can now put that whole debacle behind them and celebrate three points thanks to this goal.
Jack Grealish scores a well-deserved goal 👏
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