Villa return to league action and record a scarcely believeable tenth consecutive defeat. Just as Villa's luck goes they miss a late open goal to secure a draw whilst Sheffield United's winning goal comes from a 'shot' intended as a cross that deceives Geoff Sidebottom. There is no time to recover however with eight games to play in the next 23 days including the two legged League Cup final with neighbours Birmingham.

Joe Mercer's Villa lose ten successive League games for the first time in the club’s history. Villa’s latest fixture is their tenth in thirty four days after 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 seventeen defeats in thirty six division one games so far this season as a campaign of such promise before the fixture interruption comes completely off the rails and sets a record for failure that no-one could or would have predicted.