Premier League: Aston Villa 1 West Brom 2

Paul Scharner scored a second-half winner as West Brom defeated Aston Villa 2-1 in a controversial Midlands derby at Villa Park.

Austrian Scharner fired home after getting on the end of Chris Brunt’s corner to give his side a second consecutive victory and extend their unbeaten run to four matches.

However, the match will be remembered for a number of refereeing decisions which saw Alan Hutton escape a red card for injuring Shane Long and Chris Herd sent off for fouling Jonas Olsson inside the area only for Brunt to miss the spot kick.

Villa had taken the lead early on after a mix-up from Ben Foster and Steven Reid saw the former bring down Gabriel Agbonlahor inside the area, with Darren Bent stepping up to score.

The visitors responded well to the setback and the match turned back in their favour when referee Phil Dowd gave them a penalty after being told by his linesman of an alleged stamp by Herd on Olsson inside the area.

Replays showed it to be a harsh decision on the midfielder.

Herd was sent off for his act, but the Villa fans were ecstatic to see Brunt slice the spot kick well wide.

Shay Given then had to save well from Somen Tchoyi’s powerful shot on the edge of the area.

West Brom still had time to level the scores before the interval as Olsson out-jumped James Collins to head home Brunt’s corner from the right.

The second half started in more subdued fashion but West Brom soon managed to get on top once again.

Given had to palm away Youssouf Mulumbu’s shot from the edge of the area then Olsson headed over another Brunt corner when he should have scored.

But the visitors were soon in the lead after yet another corner, this time from the left. Brunt’s delivery found Scharner in the area and he managed to scoop his shot above Given on to the underside of the bar and into the net.

Villa manager Alex McLeish responded by bringing on Emil Heskey from the bench for the disappointing Charles N’Zogbia, but it was nearly a third goal for the visitors after Villa once again failed to defend a corner adequately.

Collins then flicked a header wide from a rare Villa attack, but West Brom looked comfortable in defence and held on for the win.