Bristol City come from behind to see off Aston Villa
Tammy Abraham netted his fifth goal of the season as Bristol City came from behind to beat Aston Villa 3-1 in front of a sell-out 21,000 crowd at Ashton Gate.
Jack Grealish fired the visitors in front in the fifth minute, connecting sweetly with a waist-high right-footed volley at the far post after Leandro Bacuna had crossed from the right.
But just before the hour mark Lee Tomlin's curling shot from the edge of the box was only parried by Pierluigi Gollini into the path of Abraham, who controlled the ball before tapping home from close range.
Two minutes later Abraham's through ball split the Villa defence and Joe Bryan showed great composure to slide a low shot right-footed past Gollini from 12 yards.
Tomlin wrapped up the points with a trademark free-kick from just outside the box eight minutes from time after substitute Callum O'Dowda had been brought down.
It was the proverbial game of two halves, with City rallying after a poor opening 45 minutes.
There was no Jonathan Kodjia in the home squad amid rumours that the Ivory Coast international was about to be transferred for a fee of around B#14 million, Derby among several clubs interested.
At half-time City announced the signing of Nottingham Forest winger Jamie Paterson on a three-year contract and introduced him on the pitch.
Villa dominated the first half and could have been out of sight by the break.
The visitors had to make an early change when left-back Aly Cissokho went down injured and was replaced by Jordan Amavi, but soon looked in control.
Jordan Ayew shot inches wide on 25 minutes with Villa dominating possession
Three minutes later a Ross McCormack free-kick from the left cannoned just past a post off a defender.
Richard O'Donnell saved from Ayew on the half hour and it wasn't until the 40th minute that Luke Freeman put in City's first goal attempt, a low shot from outside the box that brought a diving stop from Gollini.
On the stroke of half-time another McCormack free-kick curled narrowly wide with O'Donnell rooted to the spot in the middle of his goal.
Freeman put in the first shot of the second half, but was again off target before Ayew was guilty of a poor miss, firing wide of the near post with McCormack well placed in the middle.
City's two-goal salvo came out of the blue and suddenly it was the hosts on top as Hordur Magnusson headed wide.
At the other end O'Donnell saved well from Grealish amid a glut of substitutions from both managers.
Tomlin's goal had many of the 2,500 Villa fans heading from the exits, with the inevitable taunts of "is there a fire drill?" coming from celebrating home supporters.
Source : DSG
Source: DSG