Aston Villa hero John McGinn to celebrate Premier League football on brother’s stag do

JOHN McGINN will be out on another bender tonight after partying with his Aston Villa team-mates until the early hours.

The Scot was the toast of the Claret ’n Blue side of  Birmingham after scoring the winner that sent Villa back to the Premier League.

And this evening he must pick himself up and hit the town again for his brother Stephen’s stag do.

After an energy-sapping afternoon at Wembley, midfielder McGinn and his team-mates deserved to party hard.

There was a lot riding on the match. Defeat was unthinkable as the financial reality of having no more Premier League parachute payments would hit.

Star names like Jack Grealish would have been sold and cheaper, less-talented replacements brought in, setting off a gradual decline at this historic club.

But now manager Dean Smith can start building a team to rub shoulders with English football’s elite once again.

Villa belong in that company, too. Years of underinvestment by former owner Randy Lerner and some poor managerial choices led them into the Championship in the first place.

Yet they made a fantastic appointment by bringing boyhood fan Smith to the club.

His dad, Ron, used to clean the terraces.

Only two months ago, a return to the top flight seemed a long way off.

After beating Derby at the start of March, they were 11th in the table. Yet an incredible ten-match winning run saw them charge into the play-offs as they finished fifth.

And yesterday, apart from a late wobble after Derby’s Martyn Waghorn pulled one back with nine minutes left, victory never looked in doubt. Anwar El Ghazi got the ball rolling for Villa when it went in off his BACK as he attempted a header in the 44th minute.

Glaswegian McGinn doubled the lead in the 59th minute after  taking advantage of a blunder by keeper Kelle Roos to head home.

Derby pushed hard but there was to be no repeat of their  glorious comeback at Leeds in the play-off semi-final.

Now manager Frank Lampard will sit down with owner Mel Morris and talk about the future.

He will lose the on-loan trio of Mason Mount, Fikayo Tomori and Harry Wilson.

The squad is threadbare and it needs bolstering. But with Financial Fair Play rules to consider, Lamps will not have a vast fortune to spend on new recruits, unless the club can find a new investor.

It was not a classic by any stretch but Villa looked more the Premier League side than their rivals for most of the match.

Villa’s Axel Tuanzebe had a  fantastic chance to put them in front early on when he got on the end of a Grealish corner, yet miskicked.

Then Roos was lucky to get away with an awful clearance that Grealish fired over from the edge of the box when he should have hit the target.

Derby had a great chance when Jayden Bogle motored free down the right and played a ball across the edge of the box. But Mason Bennett allowed the ball to run behind him when he had a great shooting chance.

Down the other end, Richard Keogh came to the Rams’ rescue when he made a last-ditch tackle to stop El Ghazi in his tracks.

On-loan Chelsea forward Tammy Abraham showed a flash of  brilliance that almost broke the deadlock for Villa.

Receiving a pass from Conor Hourihane, he showed a lovely first touch, turned and ran before curling an effort just wide.

Derby had a chance of their own when Bogle played a pass to midfielder Mount, though he hammered straight at keeper Jed Steer.

Keogh was disappointed with himself after heading over a Mount corner — and was made to pay when Villa went in front.

Referee Paul Tierney played advantage after a foul on McGinn.

Ahmed Elmohamady sent a lovely ball out to the right for Albert Adomah.

He played it back to Elmohamady and his lovely cross found El Ghazi, who got in front of Bogle.

Villa doubled their lead in bizarre circumstances.

El Ghazi’s deflected shot spooned up, Roos went to catch it but McGinn gambled, managed to get in front of him and managed to head home off Roos’ arm.

Derby pulled one back. Tyrone Mings brilliantly tackled Waghorn as he was about to pull the trigger — but the ball ended up finding sub Florian Jozefzoon on the left. His cross was headed back by Bogle to Jack Marriott, who fired his shot goalwards with Waghorn getting the faintest  touch as the ball squeezed inside the left post.

Mings injured himself tackling Waghorn and Derby were given seven minutes of stoppage-time to salvage extra-time — but Villa held firm.

The joy on the face of  Villans’ fan Prince William  was there for all to see.

A mock-up of him knighting boss Smith went up on Villa’s Twitter account after the game.

There is no doubt Smith has the Royal seal of approval.