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Despite largely failing to deliver in the final third for Aston Villa this season and coming under criticism from his own fans on Twitter, winger Albert Adomah was once again named in Dean Smith's starting XI for the visit of Birmingham City to Villa Park for the Second City derby on Sunday.

Having found starts hard to come by towards the end of Steve Bruce's reign, the 30-year-old wide man has started seven of the eight Championship matches since Smith was named as his successor, only missing out on the squad altogether for the other because of a knee problem.

Adomah had failed to score and provided just one assist in 14 league appearances, according to Transfermarkt, prior to the clash against Villa's arch-rivals at the weekend, and it is disappointing form that had carried over from last season as an impressive start to the campaign ended with no goals or assists in his final 10 Championship outings.

The former Middlesbrough and Bristol City man would have been desperate to make an impact in the massive fixture against Garry Monk's men though, and he certainly did that as he assisted Jack Grealish for the hosts' second goal of the afternoon in a 4-2 win.

The assist came from two key passes during his 65 minutes on the pitch before he was replaced by Yannick Bolasie, and while he also completed one dribble to show those shoots of improvement, there were other sides of his game that still let him down.

The 30-year-old left the field just after the hour-mark with a passing accuracy of 72%, having not had a shot and after failing to make a single defensive contribution aside from giving one foul away, as per WhoScored.

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Of his seven crosses attempted only two were accurate, and Smith and his men need more of a contribution from out wide if they are to push on and be involved in a promotion race over the course of the rest of the season.

With Bolasie champing at the bit behind him and Anwar El Ghazi another summer addition finding game time hard to come by, now is the time for the former Brentford boss to be ruthless and take Adomah out of the team.