Aston Villa 2 Man Utd 3 - match analysis

Alan Hansen famously wrote off a Manchester United team packed full of youngsters the last time Villa claimed a league victory over the Red Devils on home soil at the start of 1995-6 season.

As it turned out the kids were alright despite that 3-1 defeat at Villa Park thanks to goals from Ian Taylor, Mark Draper and Dwight Yorke. More than alright, in fact, as they went on to be crowned Premier League champions at the end of that campaign to rub the ex-Liverpool defender and Match of Day pundit's nose in it.

Now the kids wear claret and blue and despite the doubts over Lambert's decision to ship out the old guard, invest in youth and start again there are further positive signs of progress in this thrilling, albeit gut-wrenching, defeat.

There had been murmurs of discontent a few weeks back after Villa's worse start to a season for 43 years (sorry to bring that up again) and the club are still only one place above the relegation zone.

But the away victory over Sunderland followed by this brave display has shown that Lambert's faith in the crème de la crème of talent from the football league and hungry foreigners from lesser leagues could turn out to be visionary rather than misguided.

The early optimism which greeted the Scot's appointment has certainly been restored. If Lambert can get his players to match this performance level on a regular basis then a mid-table finish awaits.

It was Austria international Andreas Weimann who led the way for the home side, whose average age was 24.

Weimann timed his runs to perfection and finished in style with goals either side of the break which looked to have given Villa their second win over United in 34 matches.

Villa took the lead when Belgium striker Christian Benteke, who continues to impress, showed great strength to shrug off the attentions of Chris Smalling after he broke down the left flank on the stroke of half-time. Benteke's cross picked out the run of Weimann and he smashed a shot past United keeper David De Gea, who failed to react in time, into the roof of the net.

Villa made an electric start to the second half and Weimann bagged his second five minutes after the interval when he finished off a sweeping move on the counter attack.

Stephen Ireland spread the ball out to Gabby Agbonlahor on the right wing and he delivered an inch-perfect cross into the six-yard box for the unmarked Weimann to tap past the helpless De Gea. The ground erupted and it was no more than Villa deserved after some fine attacking play.

It seemed that United's 17-year Villa Park stranglehold had started to be loosened. However, Sir Alex Ferguson had picked the right time to play his joker.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who could have been in the Villa dugout had things turned out differently in the summer, used to be the man that Ferguson turned to in his hour of need, but Javier Hernandez has since become the latest prince for the comeback kings. The half-time substitute's first goal came from a beautiful Paul Scholes pass which was lifted over the top of the Villa defence in the 58th minute for the Mexico international to chase. Hernandez outpaced Villa centre-back Ciaran Clark and got the ball out from under his feet to find the corner of the net from eight yards out.

And the striker, who had replaced a below-par Ashley Young at the interval, was unfortunate not to be awarded United's equaliser five minutes later when he was picked out by cross Brazilian full-back Rafael Da Silva. Hernandez sidefooted a volleyed the ball back across goal which deflected off Villa captain Ron Vlaar, who awkwardly tried to get out of the path of the ball, and into the net.

Weimann was presented with the chance to restore Villa's lead in the 66th minute when he powerfully headed Barry Bannan's cross from deep, but was denied by De Gea.

Villa had largely kept Robin van Persie quiet but the £24m striker struck the crossbar twice in the space of a minute as United searched for a winning goal.

And the Holland international provided the expert delivery from a free-kick to enable United to seal the points and break Villa hearts with three minutes to go.

Van Persie's curling ball was met by Hernandez who got in between Matthew Lowton and Vlaar and directed a diving header past Brad Guzan into the corner of the net.

Remarkably, this victory over Villa from 2-0 down was the eighth time this season United have overturned a deficit. There's always next season – and Villa's youngsters will be a year older and a year wiser.

By Timothy Abraham