A PIECE of magic from Cyrille Regis broke the Villa hoodoo which stretched back over 52 years. Coventry's only League win over Villa before this was in February 1937 and there were moments when Villa looked like keeping their run going.

Regis set up Coventry with a well-taken first half goal and Keith Houchen, a scorer at Tottenham on Wednesday, netted the second after an hour's play.

Villa should have been level after 55 minutes when Alan Mclnally carved through to leave David Platt a simple chance, but he fired over from eight yards.

The local derby exploded at the start with Coventry's Steve Sedgley being booked after 16 seconds for a foul on Gordon Cowans.

Mclnally was booked after eight minutes. Regis fired Coventry in front after 12 minutes from a move between Trevor Peake and Houchen.

Houchen scored the second in the 61st minute when David Speedie headed down Brian Borrows' free kick.

Villa fought their way back into the match in the 73rd minute thanks to more magic this time from Andy Gray.

He danced past three defenders before laying on a close range tap in for Mclnally to score his 13th goal of the season.