Villa's miserable run continues as they lose to 19th placed Manchester United after suffering another injury blighted game, this time for Derek Dougan, robbing Villa of an effective front line. Villa take the game to United throughout but simply have no cutting edge as they remain 11th following their fifth successive defeat.

Joe Mercer's Villa lose five successive games for the first time since 1958-59 under Eric Houghton which led to Mercer’s appointment in December 1958. Villa’s latest fixture is their fourth in twelve days as their wildly interrupted season delivered the inevitable fixture list congestion in the final two months of the season. As a result, Villa make it twelve wins, seven draws and twelve defeats in thirty one division one games so far this season as a campaign of such promise before the fixture interruption collapses further.