Villa hammer home desperate message to Pompey

Aston Villa heaped more misery on Portsmouth on Saturday as their 2-0 victory inflicted a sixth Premier League defeat of the season on the 2008 FA Cup winners.

Goals by former England Under-21 captain James Milner and England international striker Gabriel Agbonlahor were enough to see off a poor Portsmouth side, who have seen several of their stars leave for other clubs.

Villa were firmly in control at half-time after Milner and Agbonlahor had scored.

Milner made no mistake from the penalty spot after Stiliyan Petrov was felled in the area by Nadir Belhadj and then Agbonlahor, who has recently taken up doing more work in the gym to work on his body, rifled in a superb goal with a 20-metre shot.

Portsmouth must have rued the fact that they had sent one-cap England wonder David Nugent to Premier League rivals Burnley – for whom he scored a double on Saturday in their 3-1 victory over Sunderland.

Villa’s own preparations had been disrupted by a training-ground dispute between manager Marton O’Neill and talented midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker, who was aggrieved at being substituted in last weekend’s Birmingham derby.