It's just brilliant

He was, the record books will say, just a loan player at Burnley, but he became a major part of last season's squad and despite there never been any realistic chance, there was always hope amongst many Clarets that he might return.

Today though, he was playing exactly where he should be playing, on the Premiership stage, and I think we all felt as though he was one of our own as we jumped up with him after his sensational strike. I knew he was a good player, but I didn't know he could do that, his only goal for us was a scrambled winner at Stoke on New Year's Day Bank Holiday 2005.

Well done Gary on getting your place in the Villa side and with performances and goals like that I think you might be there to stay.

He wasn't the only former Claret to find the net yesterday, and it was a first ever league goal for Marc Pugh in what was his first start for Bury. He gave them the lead in the first half and this was another good goal taking the ball on his right foot, dragging it past the defender before hitting a left foot shot into the bottom corner.

Over at Rotherham they earned themselves a point in a 2-2 draw against Brentford with both home goals scored by ex-Clarets. The first was from John Mullin whilst the second came from Paul Shaw who was with us eleven years ago on loan from Arsenal.

Finally, I'm sure we all saw Brighton's first on TV this morning from their 2-1 win at Ipswich – Gifton's second for the Seagulls. He turned well in the box before hitting home although the win made little difference to their survival hopes.