McGinn and Grealish featured as Villa beat Championship opponents Blackburn 2-1 at Villa Park on Saturday.
Blackburn Rovers manager Tony Mowbray has spoken about Aston Villa duo John McGinn and Jack Grealish, telling the Lancashire Telegraph that one of his youngsters will benefit from having played against “such players”.
On Saturday, Villa Park hosted the 1995 Premier League champions but they were one goal down after just eight minutes as McGinn played a neat ball to Anwar El Ghazi, who in turn put it into the path of Tammy Abraham for a simple tap-in and his 22nd of the season.
Villa then doubled their lead just after the hour thanks to Tyrone Mings, with McGinn once again involved as his pinpoint cross was met by the on-loan Bournemouth defender to head home his second goal at the Holte End.
Blackburn did strike back through Amari’i Bell, but it proved just a consolation in the end as Villa ran out 2-1 winners, the Birmingham Mail giving McGinn a 9 out of 10 and describing him as “magic”, while Grealish also did well and got a 7.5 for his efforts.
Mowbray name-checked McGinn and Grealish while talking about Lewis Travis, who has come in leaps and bounds this calendar year, going from potentially leaving on loan back in January to starting 13 of Rovers’ last 15 matches (Lancashire Telegraph).
“It was a great challenge for young Travis to play against such players,” said the 55-year-old. “I’m sure it’s a big plus for him.
“I told him that whichever player he came up against, one is a pocket dynamo who can roll you with his body and moves it on to his left. The other is sheer class with the ball, picking the right pass time and time again.”
Indeed, the outlet reports that Mowbray felt the partnership of Grealish and McGinn were the best Rovers have come up against this season, adding: “Undoubtedly. You could feel their quality on the pitch… we couldn’t get near them really.”
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