Scharner gives West Brom victory

Paul Scharner scored in the second half to give West Brom a much needed win against Aston Villa. However, the match was full of controversey, with referee Phil Dowd giving away two penalties and a red card.

Villa took the lead through a Darren Bent penalty, but the sending off of Chris Herd altered the match in the visitors' favour, with goals from Jonas Olsson and Paul Scharner giving them all three points.

The Villans started strongly with Darrent Bent missing a golden chance to put them in front inthe 5th minute. Barry Bannan could not make contact on his shot, but the ball came to an unmarked Bent, who shot over the crossbar from eight yards out.

Albion lost Shane Long through injury only after 20 minutes with Somen Tchoyi coming on in his place.

They conceded just three minutes later as a result of confusion between Steven Reid and Ben Foster. Reid attempted to chest the ball back to his keeper, but the ball was stolen by Agbonlahor, who was brought down by Foster. The referee awarded a penalty that was duly dispatched by Darren Bent to give Villa the lead.

The home side were putting in a strong performance, but were reduced to 10 men after midfielder Chris Herd was unfairly sent off in the 35th minute for an off-the-ball collision with Olsson in the penalty area.

Brunt stepped up to take the resulting penalty, but ended up shooting wide.

However, the visitors equalized on the stroke of halftime, with Olsson heading the ball home from a Chris Brunt cross.

Olsson tried the same shot in the second half, but this time he headed over the bar to keep the scores level.

Given was in fine form, saving a drive by Mulumbu to keep it 1-1.

Albion soon made their numerical advantage count, with Paul Scharner volleying home in the 57th minute after Agbonlahor failed to deal with Brunt's corner.

Peter Odemwingie had a chance to make it 3-1 in injury time, but miskicked the ball with an open goal in front of him.

The match gave West Brom their first victory at Villa Park in 32 years and pushed them up to 10th in the table. Aston Villa stayed in 8th spot, but might get overtaken as Norwich City and Arsenal both have games in hand.

West Brom have now put in a decent string of results, collecting 11 points from their last six games.