Rocket man blasts off

There is also a lot to be said for a group of players who, trailing 3-1 to a rampant team on its way to the top of the Premiership, possess the strength of character and the ability to fight back to within inches of claiming a point.

Michael Ricketts' double against Peter Schmeichel -- his seventh and eighth goals of the season -- confirmed the Reebok 'Rocket' as the most potent uncapped striker in the Premiership while the relief on the faces of the Villa players, management and fans when the final whistle sounded was an acknowledgement of how close Wanderers had been to maintaining their proud, unbeaten away record.

But Ricketts is as ruthless in his assessment of a result as he is in his disregard for goalkeeping reputations and, after enhancing his own status with the first and last goals of a highly entertaining game, he waved aside the praise and consolation as irrelevancies.

"It's not about personal performances," he said, ignoring the inevitable plaudits afforded to a true blue Birmingham boy scoring against the Villa.

"Results are what count and we haven't got the result we wanted.

"On the whole, I thought we deserved a point so we have to be disappointed."

Disappointed but not down.

Ricketts has as much confidence in his team's ability to stay the pace in the Premiership as he has in his own finishing skills, which are looking more impressive with every goal he scores.

And he has a ready answer for anyone suggesting Wanderers are still in a false position.

"Definitely not!" he responds with the same clinical sharpness that added Schmeichel to the names of Seaman and Barthez on the list of illustrious stoppers who have found him just too hot to handle.

"We are where we are on merit. We've done it with ability, character and a lot of hard work -- and some very good players as well."

Ricketts is fast becoming the one everybody is talking about.

Having tipped him strongly for England, Sam Allardyce suggests that, at 22, he has the world at his feet. He certainly believes he now has goalkeepers -- however esteemed -- at his mercy.

"That's seven now," the Wanderers' boss said, reckoning only his Premiership goals and marvelling at the confidence with which he beat the towering figure of Schmeichel with less than 90 seconds on the clock.

"He had trouble getting the ball down but his composure is there for everybody to see. The biggest man in the world coming out at you and sliding it into the bottom corner ... one on ones are very difficult to score but Michael doesn't miss many."

Per Frandsen has no hesitation in acknowledging fellow Dane and former international team-mate Schmeichel, even now within a month of his at 38th birthday, as the best goalkeeper in the world. Seeing him beaten so comprehensively makes him more confident than ever that Ricketts can hit the target regularly enough to keep Wanderers away from relegation trouble.

"With Michael in the side you always know he can get you a goal," Frandsen said after delivering the pass that paved the way for that stunning first strike. "Then we only need to keep a clean sheet and we've got the points.

"He's a fantastic finisher. He showed that last year and he's shown it this year."

Not 100 per cent reliable, it has to be said. For, if he had taken the chance on the stroke of half-time when he failed to find the power or the accuracy to beat Schmeichel at close range, Ricketts might have gone home with the match ball and Villa might not be sitting on top of the table. But name a striker who never misses!

Like the best, he refused to let one squandered opportunity knock him out of his stride and the determination on his face when he reached into the net and grabbed the ball after converting Ricardo Gardner's cross to put the frighteners on John Gregory 15 minutes from time was a clear sign that he still felt at least a point and possibly a hat-trick was on the cards.

Wanderers were sore after losing on their travels for the first time since April 16 when they were derailed at Crewe.

They accepted they had been beaten by the better team -- one of the most entertaining Villa sides of modern times -- but, having gone as close as they did to salvaging a point (Gudni Bergsson left Villa Park agonising over a last gasp "air shot" when Ricketts teed him up with a flick on) they had good reason to feel hard done by.

Juan Pablo Angel made the most of being allowed a free header to cancel out Ricketts' opener and Darius Vassell confirmed Villa's superiority three minutes before the break -- not the way Steve Banks hoped his Premiership debut would pan out.

Nevertheless, having seen Ricketts go so close, Wanderers felt they were still in with a shout but a minute into the second half they were devastated when Blackburn referee Eddie Wolstenholme pointed to the spot after Moustapha Hadji went sprawling in an aerial challenge with Gardner.

Banks, who had saved the last two penalties he had faced, was close to making it a hat-trick but Angel's second of the game appeared to have put Villa on Easy Street.

"It was an awful decision," Ricketts fumed. "I got myself booked for arguing but I had been fouled in the build-up to their (first) goal and I was furious.

"We showed some character to come back from that.

"I had a header over and Gudni only missed by a couple of inches."

Allardyce had been forced to make changes to the core of his team with Jussi Jaaskelainen and Mike Whitlow suspended and Paul Warhurst injured.

And, although their replacements -- Banks, Djibril Diawara and Gareth Farrelly -- were all mentioned in dispatches, the teamsheet for the Everton game on Saturday is likely to tell its own story.

Whatever the verdict on the first Villa goal (the keeper looked at his defenders, they glared back at him) Banks recovered from a painful whack on the head from Vassell in the first half to produce sensational saves from Angel and Lee Hendrie in the second to keep Wanderers in the game. Ditto his hero Schmeichel.

He could not deny Ricketts but he showed his class when he palmed away a Rod Wallace shot that would have seen the fightback -- sparked by a switch to a 4-4-2 formation -- start 15 minutes earlier.

And, as impressive as Gregory's boys looked at times, they might have struggled to hold out.