Pictures and report of Stoke 0 Aston Villa 1

Weimann coolly slotted home after the break to give the claret and blues all three points away from home, in a pleasing start to the campaign for the players and manager Paul Lambert.

They spent most of the early exchanges trying to keep former Barcelona starlet Bojan Krkic in check, the Spanish international showing dazzling feet before sending a shot into the side-netting.

Stoke had the best of the early action, with Villa prepared to put their foot in when necessary.

But the visitors were beginning to press and should have nicked the first goal after 14 minutes, after indecision in the Stoke defence.

Goalkeeper Asmir Begovic and Erik Pieters left the ball to each other on the edge of the penalty area and Kieran Richardson stole in to square for Gabby Agbonlahor.

The striker should have buried the chance from six yards but, somehow, mis-hit his effort wide.

He was so embarrassed he protested for a corner, vainly claiming his muffed shot had taken a deflection.

Villa were encouraged, though, and Stoke needed their skipper Ryan Shawcross to be at his best. He stood up tall to bravely get in the way of a shot from new-boy Aly Cissokho.

But Villa nearly shot themselves in the foot before half-time, when goalkeeper Brad Guzan spilled a shot from Phil Bardsley.

Guzan was relieved to see Philippe Senderos hack the ball away, before Krkic could latch onto the rebound.

Within five minutes of the re-start, Villa were ahead, Charles N'Zogbia starting danger with a neat turn on the edge of the box.

Marc Wilson had blocked Weimann's shot on the edge of the area, but both he and Stephen Ireland hesitated.

Weimann didn't and belted a right-foot shot that smashed through Begovic, due to its power.

The Austrian forward celebrated enthusiastically in front of the travelling fans, with good reason. He only scored once away from Villa Park throughout the whole of last season.