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Join Mat Kendrick and Lisa Smith as the cover Aston Villa's Carling Cup clash against Cardiff

ONCE again it took a free Brummie to settle the showdown between certainly the Second City's most expensively assembled team and arguably its most expensively assembled crowd.

In the build-up to the derby, Blues boss Alex McLeish attempted to swing the pendulum of pressure in Villa's direction by insisting that his big-spending rivals were the favourites to win this clash.

And, shrugging off the mind games, his Villa counterpart Martin O'Neill chose instead to have a dig at Birmingham's prohibitive prices with St Andrew's tickets for away fans costing almost £50.

But ultimately, after Brum's fierce rivals looked like matching each other pound for pound, it was one of the few players on the pitch who cost nothing and one of the few locals who paid nothing to get in who grabbed the glory. Gabby Agbonlahor.

And not only was Agbonlahor free, after coming through the claret and blue ranks, he was also left completely free to head the decider in the same Railway End net as his dramatic winner almost two years ago.

Suddenly 50 quid seemed like a bit of a bargain for the 3,000 delirious Villa visitors behind the goal.

Talk about smash and Gab.

IT'S a shame that Villa's most famous fake fan Tom Hanks is even less likely than fellow American General Krulak to take a seat at St Andrew's today.

(No, it's not because the multi-millionaire Hollywood A-list actor has been priced out of affording a ticket).

Hanks could do with attending a match like this afternoon's to boost his crumbling claret and blue credibility and familiarise himself with the club he light-heartedly professes to love.

But more importantly the world famous movie star could pass on a cautionary tale to one of Villa's 'Big' players, former Bluenose Emile Heskey, to be careful what you wish for.

For the film in which Hanks made his name, 'Big', has parallels with the situation current claret and blue scapegoat Heskey finds himself in ahead of today's return to St Andrew's.

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