GARRY Thompson announced his arrival to assist Crystal Palace's relegation fight with a fourth minute goal that puts a big dent in Aston Villa's First Division championship hopes.

Thompson, now 30, and a former Villa striker was signed from Watford only three days ago and became an instant hit when he scrambled the ball home to leave Villa missing the chance of moving six points clear of Liverpool at the top of the table.

But Villa manager Graham Taylor was neither impressed nor alarmed.

"Scrappy goal typical of the game," he said. "But don't ask me who will win the title. I haven't got a clue."

Taylor admitted: "We are just not equipped for the sort of game Palace gave us. They squeezed up on us and kept using the off-side trap. A challenge for us was simply to play some football but it didn't work."

Villa remain at the top although challengers Liverpool have two games in hand, but Taylor's consolation is that he feels his team will not be facing rivals of Palace's rugged style in the seven matches which remain.

"We are better when other teams try to take us on with a more technical approach," he said.

"At the end of the day here we didn't play well but might still have done enough to earn a point".

In fact Villa were never able to find their stride against Palace's high-spirited spoiling tactics especially after Thompson's early goal.

Palace manager Steve Coppell admitted: "Our intention was to knock Villa out of their stride in the first 15 minutes and then make sure their quality players did not perform."