It just had to be him, didn’t it?
Jack Grealish shrugged off the vicious and disgraceful attack he was subjected to at the start of the Second City Derby on Sunday afternoon in stunning fashion by scoring the winner for his Aston Villa side in the second half.
Grealish was attacked nine minutes into the match at St. Andrew’s by a fan who had run onto the pitch from the corner flag.
The man approached Grealish from behind at which point he threw a punch at the midfielder’s head.
https://twitter.com/SoccerAM/status/1104717709567295490
His furious teammates immediately surrounded the supporter, who was taken away by a steward while blowing kisses to a partly-cheering crowd, before being arrested by police.
Grealish stayed calm throughout it all, however, and showed incredible maturity and composure to not only remain on the pitch after the attack but pop up with a goal in the second half.
You could not write it! 😲
After being punched by a fan in the first half, Jack Grealish opens the scoring for Aston Villa against Birmingham! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/EiBedIL2U1
— Soccer AM (@SoccerAM) March 10, 2019
Receiving the ball from left-back Neil Taylor outside of Birmingham’s box, Grealish took a few touches before hitting a low shot through a sea of bodies and into the bottom left-hand corner of home side’s goal.
It was evident for all in the ground to see how much it meant to the 23-year-old, who reacted to the goal by running jubilantly towards the Villa fans behind the goal and jumping into them alongside his teammates.
