A great day to be a Villa fan....and to accept John Carew's credit card at the Rocket Club

So John Carew thought the best way to remove pre-Ajax nerves was to flash his "cash" in the Broad Street Lapdancing Club, The Rocket Club.

Therefore if, when Big John comes on as a substitute against Wigan and scores a goal within minutes, do we judge the man for supposedly dodgy dealings? Or do we tell the man to go every week?

Martin O'Neill claimed the Norwegian striker's "mitigating circumstances" were unworthy of avoiding a hefty fine from the club but must have been delighted with the striker's response to being left out of the Ajax game and being benched for the Wigan game.

Villa fans must also have breathed a collective sigh of relief, and maybe a wry smile amongst the male fans when those "blood tests" O'Neill sent Carew to take for his "illness" turned out to be all clear.

Is there a lesson to be learned here? John Carew merely showed himself to be a normal man with hormones rather than the robotic stereotype of the "dumb" footballer and yet gets punished more than William Gallas being caught puffing away on a cigarette.

You can see Martin O'Neill's logic for Carew's fine due to the striker's awkward timing in visiting the club the night before Villa's biggest european game in recent memory. Yet surely his crime is no worse than Gallas filling his lungs with nicotine while driving?

All I know is, as a Villa fan, I'm oddly proud of our target man centre forward for not only showing his skills on the pitch but also showing that above all else, he's every bit as much as normal as the rest of us (who can afford the Rocket Club anyway).