Agbonlahor is Villa hero

The England Under-21 international had cleared a Liam Ridgewell header off the line 60 seconds earlier - and then charged down the pitch to turn home Ashley Young's cross.

A Ridgewell own goal had given Villa the lead, but Mikael Forssell came off the bench to level matters before Agbonlahor settled the outcome with three minutes left in this Barclays Premier League match.

Villa looked the more threatening side in the opening 45 minutes, via the power of fit again target man John Carew and the pace of Young - and it needed a couple of sharp saves from City goalkeeper Maik Taylor to keep his side in contention.

It was a different story after the break as Blues dominated for lengthy periods and looked the more likely to win, once Forssell had equalised.

But Birmingham-born Agbonlahor broke the hearts of the home team, and then he and his Villa team-mates threw their shirts into the massed ranked of their fans in celebration at the final whistle.

The game sparked into life after nine minutes when Villa took the lead via an own goal from their former defender Ridgewell. Stiliyan Petrov whipped over a low cross from the right wing, and the ball hit Ridgewell's knee and flew past Taylor into the corner of the net.

Blues boss Steve Bruce opted for a half-time substitution, bringing on striker Forssell in place of Palacios and the change paid dividends After 62 minutes when Fabrice Muamba picked out the run of Daniel De Ridder, and his first-time cross was met by Forssell - whose bullet header gave Scott Carson no chance.

Nigel Reo-Coker missed a golden chance to restore Villa's lead when he fired wide from six yards out when completely unmarked - but Agbonlahor finally settled the issue.