Analysis of Villa 3 Blackburn 1

Emile Heskey stepped off the bench to be greeted by a familiar chorus of scornful derision from Blackburn supporters.

Big mistake.

For once, the striker who specialises in not scoring goals delivered a quite devastating impact to a fumbling Villa performance to ensure his old mentor Gerard Houllier made a winning start to his Villa Park reign last night.

It was an important win too.

Houllier had left himself vulnerable to attack by fielding a pick-and-mix selection so indicative of these early Carling Cup rounds and, for an hour, it looked as if it would cost him and the club a spot in a competition they can genuinely think about winning.

And there aren't too many of those these days.

But it's not how you start it's how you finish. Villa turned the tie upside down with three goals - good ones, too - to give a much-needed sense of a fresh start after the unsteady weeks following Martin O'Neill's departure.

Heskey, a player whose fortunes are perceived to be in decline, found himself at the heart of the revival, a happy development which will not do Houllier any harm.

It was during the new Villa manager's Anfield regime, of course, that Heskey was catapulted from the comfort zone of his Leicester upbringing on to the big stages in an £11million deal 10 years ago.

There is a theory that this quiet and introverted forward, whose early, rampaging game at Leicester echoed the raw power of a Regis, was inhibited by the demands of Liverpool and has never been the same since.

But, having gone backwards in the final 12 months of O'Neill's regime, last night's evidence suggested Heskey is delighted to see the Frenchman back in his dug-out.

"With Emile," said Houllier, "it is all about confidence."

Heskey's has been given a clear injection by the appearance of a man who was once prepared to spend so much money on him.

Replacing a labouring John Carew after 58 minutes, Heskey's first touch was to control a sublime pass from Ashley Young as Villa finally answered their new manager's half-time message to play with more fluency, pace and forward momentum.

His second touch both surprised and delighted Villa Park in equal measure.

Bearing down on the left hand side of the area, Heskey aimed a precision, left-foot angled shot across Blackburn goalkeeper Mark Bunn to register his team's equaliser.

It was a sweet moment, not least as an answer to the visiting fans who were still half-way through a chorus of "Heskey is s***" when the goal arrived.

There was more. Much more. Heskey's body language and conviction were unrecognisable from the faltering figure to whom Villa fans had become accustomed.

The sharpness in movement and thought was illustrated in the 76th minute with a slick demonstration of the centre-forward's other key game component, re-cycling the ball.

The control and pass to Nathan Delfouneso out on the right got his young colleague heading forward for a near post cross that Ashley Young somehow squeezed past Bunn's left hand with a stooping header.

Heskey and Young then applied the coup de grace for the Frenchman barely a minute later when the pair broke through Rovers for the final time, Heskey supplying a superb low service across the face of Bunn's area which his partner tapped home from close range.

It was a turnaround that, frankly, you would not have suspected possible based on the first hour of the game. Indeed, as scientific a manager as Houllier will doubtless have been grateful that his players obligingly gave him a tour de force of their weaknesses and strengths in his first outing.

But the success of that Heskey-inspired last half-hour means Villa will go to Molineux on Sunday for the second derby of a West Midlands dozen in a much more uplifted state of mind.

As much as Heskey's appearance propelled Villa forward, it was probably a stretch too far for the sponsors to name him man of the match after such a late arrival.

That must surely have been claimed by Young, who even when Villa were struggling always looked the most likely source of a goal.

Struggle they did, falling behind to a 33rd minute hammer from Gael Givet which left Villa limping to the interval seemingly more confused than inspired by the new regime of Houllier, Gary McAllister and Gordon Cowans.

Perhaps an unfamiliar line up, beginning the game in a 4-3-3 pattern, contributed to their unease.

But Houllier's switch to a more orthodox shape worked for his team, with Barry Bannan relishing a different role out on the left leaving Nigel Reo-Coker and Steve Sidwell to man the central areas.

The Villa manager will have been disappointed to have lost Gabby Agbonlahor to injury so early into this initial outing, while Carlos Cuellar enjoyed his rare opportunity to show his capabilities as a specialist central defender rather than an ill-at-ease right back which previous boss O'Neill strangely foisted upon him.

And so the Houllier Era is underway with a meteor shower of messages about the good and not so good of his new station.

But if his arrival has brightened Heskey's fading star, Villa fans will believe anything is possible.

By Martin Swain