Contributed by Korben O’Brien | Editor: Dan Rogers
Villa are back on the road this Wednesday evening, making the short trip across the Midlands to face Martin O’Neill’s Nottingham Forest at the City Ground.
Jack Grealish was the hero on derby day in the second city, with his karma strike enough for Villa to secure a 1-0 victory against Birmingham City at St Andrews.
LAST TIME OUT
A tight first half showed little in the way of clear cut chances in front of goal in what was a decidedly scrappy encounter.
The opening minutes of the fixture will be unfortunately recalled for an unsavoury incident, whereby the now jailed Paul Mitchell ran onto the field and assaulted Jack Grealish.
Jack
On his first Derby Day appearance at St Andrews, Jack Grealish proved to be the major difference between the sides as his goal on the 67th minute was enough to settle matters.
Drifting into the six-yard area from a position on the left he struck a firm left footed shot low across goal, beating the diving Lee Camp before nestling into the bottom corner. Cue wild scenes in the away end.
Marvelous Mings
On a day when Super Jack took most of the plaudits, the performance of Tyrone Mings was simply immense. Indeed, Mings was awarded MOTM in our ratings.
Social media was awash with words like ‘impeccable and colossal’  to describe the key influence Mings had over the 90 minutes; he was a major factor by putting in a solid performance to lead us to victory.
The centre-half has already won over many with a string of outstanding performances, a strong social media approach when interacting with fans and not to forget his powerful defensive displays. The Bournemouth loanee is proving to be a very astute signing.
Derby Double
The 1-0 victory over Birmingham meant Villa had completed a league double over their our rivals this campaign, having previously run out 4-2 winners at Villa Park. It was also our first victory at St Andrews since our relegation.
FOREST
Villa now face fellow play off chasers Nottingham Forest who have won three of their last six games at the City Ground.
It’s another massive, season defining week ahead for Aston Villa with two vital fixtures starting with Forest and promotion rivals Middlesbrough [Saturday] as Smith looks to re-ignite a charge for the play offs. With results being favourable on Tuesday evening, the gap is now reduced to only 4 points.
Naturally, any win over Forest would reduce this to just a solitary point and with it, give Villa everything to play for.
PREDICTIONS
This is going to be [once again] another tough game as it is two teams going head to head in order to try and build play-off momentum.
Korben’s Prediction:
Nottingham Forest 2 Aston Villa 2 – Jack Grealish and John Mcginn scoring for Villa.
Villa Underground Prediction:
Nottingham Forest 0 Aston Villa 2 – Tammy Abraham to score both for Villa.
Key Facts
- Aston Villa league position – 9 th ( 51 points)
- Nottingham Forest league position – 8 th ( 53 points)
- Nottingham Forest Last six – WDDWLW
- Aston Villa Last six – DLLDWW
- Villa have won two of our last five games Vs Nottingham Forest
- Our last fixture vs Nottingham Forest in November 2018 ended in an emphatic 5-5 draw at Villa Park
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