SUBSTITUTE Carl Leaburn hit a 71st-minute winner to ease Charlton Athletics’s relegation fears and underline that Aston Villa’s own First Division position still a long way from secure.

Leaburn’s shot which took a nasty deflection off defender Derek Mountfield, was a strange affair which Villa players protested should not have been allowed.

Home defenders simply stopped playing in anticipation of a free kick as Andy Peake stumbled on the ball and appeared to handle it.

But it ran loose to Leaburn who had replaced Garth Crooks just four minutes earlier and the substitute’s low shot hit Mountfield and found its way under Nigel Spink’s body and just inside the near post.

Villa fans responded by sarcastically cheering Spink’s subsequent touches of the ball but in truth it was only the goalkeeper who prevented an even more embarrassing defeat.

He turned aside goal-bound efforts from Paul Williams and Crooks and also did exceptionally well to hold Steve Mackenzie’s blistering drive in mid-air.

And with the Holte Enders drifting away in disillusionment Spink brilliantly turned a last-minute Williams header onto the post with Villa’s defence at sixes and sevens.

Those close calls underlined just how ineffective Villa were for Charlton only occasionally displayed much desire to vary a game based on sound defence and midfield organisation.

Former Manchester City and Arsenal centre half Tommy Caton drove the visitors into a ninth minute lead after Spink had blocked a Williams header and Villa spent the majority of the first half going nowhere pass after pass went astray.

Just when their supporters were despairing of ever seeing a worthwhile attacking move though Villa produced one on 39 minutes to draw level through Gordon Cowans.

For once their was touch of constructive football as David Platt with his back goal played a neat return pass to Kevin Gage whose low hard cross was turned home by the alert Cowans.

With the forceful Gage driving only just wide few minutes later the home side looked to have snapped out of their lethargy but sadly it was not to be.