GARY SPEED struck seven minutes from time to rescue Leeds at Villa Park.

The Welsh international midfielder took decisive advantage of a mix-up in the Villa defence between Paul McGrath and Nigel Spink to squeeze a pass from Villa old boy Steve Hodge under the goalkeepers body and rob home striker Dalian Atkinson of the glory.

Just minutes earlier Atkinson had put Villa ahead with his second goal of the season, doubling his output for all of last term when he was restricted to just 14 starts through a knee injury.

Speed's late reply was just about what Leeds deserved in a game of high quality but lack of goalmouth action until the closing stages. to rescue England winger Tony Daley's pace was a constant problem to Leeds who again left out £2 million signing David Rocastle and then lost David Batty through injury at half time.

Villa also suffered an injury blow when last season's top scorer Dwight Yorke hobbled off in the 28th minute.

Leeds manager Howard Wilkinson said afterwards: "I can remember when we have played as well as this. but I can't remember when we've played better.

"There were certainly no cheap victories to be won out there. I thought it was a great game played at a tremendous pace and Villa played very well in the first half. We had to be at our best defensively.

'We had the better of the second half but got a real kick in the guts when Villa scored. We needed to show a lot of determination to come back and I would suggest that we showed it throughout."