Norwich leapfrogged over Villa to stay right in the title hunt.

Centre half Polston struck in the 81st minute to secure a Canaries double over Villa after they had won 3-2 at Villa Park in November.

He converted from close range after Villa keeper Mark Bosnich pulled off a desperate save to keep out a Gary Megson point-blank header from lan Crook's corner.

It was the perfect response from Mike Walker's side after Saturday's 3-0 defeat at Wimbledon.

But it was night of despair for Villa, who had that great championship feeling after going two points clear at the top at the weekend.

And Garry Parker felt most wretched of all after a glaring miss in the 68th minute that would have put Ron Atkinson's men ahead.

The strong-running midfielder burst through the middle on to Ray Houghton's superb ball, rounded goalkeeper Bryan Gunn and then steadied himself to shoot from the edge of the six-yard box.

Two defenders had scurried back but even so Parker looked destined to score but was then left holding his head in disbelief after pulling his shot badly wide.