Wolves 1 Aston Villa 2:GERARD HOULLIER and Emile Heskey should come as a package. The striker was at his most prolific under Houllier's management at Liverpool, where he averaged a better strike rate than anywhere else during his nomadic career, and all the signs are their reunion at Aston Villa could be just as successful, reports Stuart James at Molineux.

After coming off the substitutes’ bench to inspire Villa to victory over Blackburn Rovers in midweek, Heskey scored a splendid 88th-minute winner to settle this West Midlands derby.

It was the first time Heskey has scored in back-to-back games since he joined Villa from Wigan Athletic 20 months ago and the quality of his goal against a resilient Wolves side could only be admired.

Stephen Warnock’s centre was delivered with height rather than pace but Heskey climbed superbly, towering above Christophe Berra, the Wolves central defender, before thumping an emphatic header beyond Marcus Hahnemann and into the corner of the net.

Houllier has seen it all before but the same cannot be said for Villa’s supporters. This was only the 11th goal the striker has scored for Villa – he managed twice as many in his first full season under Houllier at Liverpool. Heskey rolled back the years and used pace and power to tear at the heart of the Wolves defence before releasing Marc Albrighton, after the ball had broken kindly to him following Jody Craddock’s challenge. Albrighton delivered a fine cross towards the back post where Stewart Downing, timing his arrival perfectly, ghosted inside Kevin Foley before ramming the ball home from inside the six-yard box for Villa’s first goal. For Houllier, it was another example of why Heskey should not be judged on his goalscoring alone.

Mick McCarthy said Heskey’s winner was a “great header” but the Wolves manager argued that Warnock, who created the goal, “should not have been on the pitch” after he brought down Kevin Doyle in the second half when on a yellow card. “It was a real attacking opportunity for us,” said McCarthy, whose misery was compounded by the sight of Adlene Guedioura leaving the field on a stretcher after a clumsy late challenge from Steve Sidwell.

The Wolves manager was full of praise for his players after they recovered from a poor first 45 minutes to take the game to their opponents and deservedly draw level. With Fabio Capello watching from the stands, Matt Jarvis chose a good time to score his first goal of the season, although the England hopeful would not dare to claim that he meant it after his inswinging cross from the left eluded everyone and drifted into the far corner of the goal.

Wolves looked the more likely of the two teams to go on and get three points after Jarvis’s goal but with two minutes remaining a break on the Villa left culminated in Warnock and Heskey, two former Liverpool team-mates, continuing their old manager’s perfect start.

“I like the way my team responded when they were tired and under pressure. We were not the best at times but we worked as a team, which is a good base to start from,” Houllier added.

Guardian Service