ASTON Villa's pursuit of Liverpool is growing hotter by the minute. Yesterday they cut the gap to one point with games in hand as David Platt's goal brought them their ninth consecutive home league win. To make their attack more serious, they achieved this latest win without ever approaching their best.

It is an old footballing cliche that if you win when not playing well you are a good side. By that criterion, Villa must be a very good team, because for long spells Wednesday, who are now right back in relegation trouble, looked the more assured team, and the result was a harsh one for them to swallow.

Apart from an excellently worked goal, only the class of Gordon Cowans and some moments of inspiration from the dangerous Tony Daley gave them any cause for concern.

In the first half in particular Villa looked nothing like championship contenders, and were if anything lucky to be level at the interval, only two wild mis-kicks by Dalian Atkinson preventing Wednesday from capitalising on a performance which belied their lowly position.

Villa had moments, mainly begun by Cowans, of their progressive football, with Turner finding plenty of early employment as sweeper. In one six minute spell he was four times forced to race from his goal to prevent Olney and Ormondroyd exploiting Cowans' searching passes played in behind the defence. Olney continued to look Villa's most likely source of goals, but once Daley's early flurry faded he was too often left to make bricks without straw as Villa totally failed to mount the type of sustained pressure expected from a team in their position.

Apart from the excellence of McGrath, the defence too looked strangely uncertain on a sticky surface resembling a particularly gooey plum duff, inspite of the efforts of the ground staff, who were still treading down divots fifteen minutes before kick off. The big Dane, Kent Nielsen. had a horrible time as Hirst turned him almost at will, but the sight of Kevin Gage, with time and room to turn and play the ball forward, electing to pass back to Spink, bespoke a crisis of confidence.

It all looked as if defeats twice in ten days at the hands of lowly second division Middlesbrough, even in a mickey mouse competition like the Zenith Data Systems Cup had left its mark on the Villa psyche. Had Wednesday taken the chances on offer it would undoubtedly have been even worse.

After only eleven minutes Hirst went past Nielsen as if he wasn't there to cut in on Spink. Spink could only beat out his cross-shot straight to Atkinson, but with the goal gaping the forward mis-kicked grotesquely.

Atkinson's misfortunes continued as he cut out Mountfield's under-hit back-pass, but at full stretch could only run the ball out of play. He was more culpable as Hirst went past three defenders and crossed low, Atkinson flailing wildly and failing to make contact as the ball ran across his path.

By half-time Palmer too had found enough time to leave Platt and come forward to send a header over Spink's bar as even McGrath showed signs of fallibility and Villa came under some sustained pressure. Wednesday, however, were unable to turn their superiority to account, and after Carr had gone agonisingly close with a deliberate shot to the far post, Villa at last put together the kind of move of which they are capable when on song.

It was begun, unsurprisingly by Cowans, whose vision shone out on a murky afternoon, his searching pass inside King sending Daley free at last. Daley brushed past King to advance up the byeline and cut the ball back for Platt to fire it home through a crowded area. A championship goal, if totally out of character with everything which had preceded it.

The goal finally produced a call-up for Trevor Francis, who replaced Worthington to whistles, boos and jeers from a crowd remembering his former allegiance to Birmingham City. Francis left Birmingham almost exactly eleven years ago to become Britain's first £1 million player.

This time he could not reproduce the early season form that brought him a hat-trick on his last visit to Villa Park, and although Wednesday laid siege to the home goal in the closing stages, nor could his colleagues.