Annihilation by Villa: Aston Villa 6-1 Brighton photos
Well, that could have gone better. Rubbish result, rubbish performance, rubbish train strike, rubbish traffic on the M40 home afterwards. The only saving grace of Aston Villa 6-1 Brighton were a creative set of fan photos from the annihilation.
Most Albion fans though the trip to Villa Park would be tricky. Brighton have a poor record against Villa, winning just once in this fixture going back the best part of 40 years to when Maggie Thatcher was on the throne.
But even with such low expectations, nobody would have predicted the day would end with a heaviest away defeat since the 6-0 hammering at West Ham United in April 2012.
Things began unravelling when Villa took a 14th minute lead. Pervis Estupinan went walkies, Matty Cash duly exploited the resulting gap in the Brighton defence and his low cross was tapped home by Ollie Watkins.
The normally reliable Joel Veltman was at fault for goal number two as he conceded possession cheaply. Villa broke and Watkins finished off the move to double the home side’s advantage.
Villa added their third goal in the space of 12 minutes shortly after… or rather Brighton did it for them. A comedy piece of defending from Estupinan saw him stumble into a Moussa Diaby shot to divert it past Jason Steele and in for an own goal.
Substitutes Joao Pedro and Ansu Fati combined early in the second half to give the Albion a lifeline, the on loan Barcelona forward scoring his first goal in Brighton colours.
Any hopes of a comeback were extinguished, however, when Watkins completed his hat-trick on 65 minutes. Villa were then given an alarming amount of space in midfield from which they added two more late on, Jacob Ramsey and Douglas Luiz joining Watkins and Estupinan on the scoresheet.
Never dull following the Albion, is it?
If you have any photos you would like included in our Aston Villa 6-1 Brighton gallery, please e-mail them to wearebrighton@hotmail.co.uk or tweet them to us @wearebrighton
