Aston Villa just about brushed aside any lingering fears of relegation with their 2-2 draw at Burnley but they certainly believe in making life difficult for themselves.

Their alarming capitulation from a 2-0 lead continued their recent suicidal attitude to their First Division future.

In the last three weeks Villa have taken only two points from the division’s bottom three clubs - Sheffield United, Wolves and Burnley.

In between, though, they have toppled Manchester United from the top of the table and that kind of enigmatic approach got a full airing at Turf Moor.

They started off full of verve and attacking ideas and ended up battling grimly for a draw, leaving manager Ron Saunders puzzled and annoyed.

“We crucified them for 20 minutes with some great football. Then we stopped paying, stopped marking them and conceded.“

Burnley showed the same masochistic tendencies in those opening stages, Mike Summerbee and Keith Newton committed howling blunders to allow Ray Graydon to score direct from a free kick in the 17th minute and Andy Gray to make it two after 20 minutes.

Not to be outdone Villa returned the compliment. Three defenders ended in a heap on the far post in trying to clear a Ray Rankin header and let Brian Flynn squeeze in Burnley’s first six minutes before the interval.

Then a couple of minutes into the second half the whole of the Villa defence stood and watched as the tiny Flynn turned 180 degrees, moved into the penalty area and smacked a shot past Burridge.

Much of Villa’s trouble stemmed from their lack of aerial ability at the back where the injured Chris Nicholl was badly needed against the dual bombardment of Hankin and Paul Fletcher.