Nick Henry's 29th minute goal kept alive Oldham's slim hopes of prolonging their top flight stay.

And two goal-line clearances kept Villa out - Dean Saunders cracked a 25-yard free kick against the cross-bar. Oldham barely survived the resulting scramble and were even more fortunate from the resulting corner, Saunders flicking Paul McGrath's header off his chest for a left foot volley which Redmond again scythed off the line.

From the start there was an air of resignation about Villa.

"The most disappointing thing is that they (United) will now run out easy winners when it has been nip and tuck all season and we wanted to keep it that way right to the end." Manager Ron Atkinson said.

"I sensed something earlier in the week and didn't do anything about it. I felt a number of our players thought the championship was beyond them and it showed today.

“We didn't have any belief in ourselves. I just had the feeling after the Blackburn defeat that they thought it had slipped out of their grasp.

"I hope we get in a position where we can have another crack.

"When we sit back, we're probably think it's been a good year for us. But I don't like not finishing off on a high.

“The big crowd here has been brilliant to us and we would have liked to have given them something to have taken home with them.

"All credit to Oldham. They came and battled, they scrapped but it was nothing we did not expect."