Aston Villa (4) 7 Wimbledon (1) 1
Johnson 22, 26, 38, Reeves 12 og, Saunders 48, 67 pen, Yorke 83; Barton 11.
SATURDAY afternoons are for football and weddings. At Villa Park the blessed union of Brian Little and Aston Villa was celebrated by someone old, someone new, something borrowed and someone blue.
Villa's 4-3 reverse at Wimbledon in November, having led 3-1, was the final straw that broke Ron Atkinson's back. Since then Little has lost only four of his 16 matches in charge and lifted his side from the relegation places to 11th. On Saturday, this gradual improvement climaxed in the 7-1 destruction of the strangely toothless Dons.
The vindication of the new came as Little's major purchase, Tommy Johnson, began to justify his £2 million fee. In the matchday programme he had spoken of getting used to the pace of the Premiership and how the scoring floodgates would open when he managed that first goal. He fulfilled his own prophecy with a pacey hat-trick.
He had to share the honours, however, with the old stager Dean Saunders, who scored a pearler from 30 yards and tucked away a penalty. He believed that was his hat-trick moment but his first 'goal' was borrowed from a significant deflection off Alan Reeves, who will have to take the unwanted credit.
Which all left Hans Segers feeling more than a little blue in the Wimbledon goal. After conceding the penalty with a trip on Ian Taylor and letting in seven, what price on the reappearance of Peter Shilton for this weekend's FA Cup tie against Liverpool? But considering recent circumstances, laying odds would perhaps be inappropriate.
Dwight Yorke completed the rout - courtesy of Johnson and Saunders, naturally - to justify the champagne given to Little prior to the game for his January Manager of the Month award.
Ironically, Johnson's 16-minute three-card trick was sparked off by the long-term knee injury to Wimbledon's most famous son John Fashanu. Thus allowed to play in his favoured central role, rather than as a right-winger, Johnson displayed an attractive array of skills as he scored with a bullet header, a run on to Oyvind Leonhardsen's defensive error and a goal-line tap-in.
The watching Fashanu, who had earlier been presented with an award for his previous services to the Dons, must have been dismayed by their lack of spirit, Crazy Gang or otherwise. Their afternoon was best summed up when substitute Jon Goodman headed wide with the goal at his mercy. Manager Joe Kinnear vowed afterwards that the club would never be humiliated in such a way again. Liverpool beware.
The vows binding Little to the Villa faithful were more upbeat. After that opening seven-match itch as he waited for his first victory, the results and the playing style have been hugely impressive. And his judgments in the transfer market have come up trumps also with the good form now of Johnson, Gary Charles - who laid on the first goal for his former Derby colleague - and the influential Taylor. The £4 million spent has secured not only Premiership survival but also an encouraging future.
This, seemingly, is a marriage made in heaven and a timely one given that the next visitors to Villa Park are the manager's old club, Leicester.
Aston Villa: Bosnich, Charles, Staunton, Teale, McGrath, Small, Taylor, Yorke, Saunders, Johnson, Townsend. Subs Not Used: Richardson, Fenton, Spink.
Wimbledon: Segers, Barton, Elkins, Jones, Reeves, Harford (Perry 72), Thorn, Leonhardsen, Ekoku, Holdsworth (Goodman 72), Cunningham. Subs Not Used: Sullivan.
Att: 23,982
Ref: B Hill (Market Harborough).