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WOULD you believe it, Villa supporters have suddenly been transformed into football purists!

Finishing runners-up in style last season, it seems, was perfectly acceptable, but Villa's current occupancy of second place is clearly not enough to satisfy the Holte End critics.

Having feasted on gourmet football for 12 months or more, the fans are finding their team's fast food menu just a little hard to swallow.

They booed at half-time on Saturday, and there was further derision from the terraces when Villa continued to serve up stale and overdone offerings deep into the second course.

Villa performances, it has to be said, have ceased to provide the glow of satisfaction we had almost begun to take for granted.

But if a serious championship assault is to be mounted, the fans will have to accept that the attractive fare they have come to expect will not always be on offer.

Four consecutive Premiership wins have now been recovered without Atkinson's outfit once suggesting they really have what it takes to dislodge Manchester United from the head of the table.

If Saturday's victory over struggling Sheffield United was arguably the least convincing of those four displays, though, at least Villa's hunger for success has not diminished.

It would have been so easy to let Saturday's match drift aimlessly towards the goalless draw the Blades had set out to achieve. Thankfully, that is not Villa's way.

Flair and imagination may be in short supply, but urgency is most definitely not, and Guy Whittingham's 76th minute winner was a just reward for an afternoon of hard labour.

Whittingham, as we know, has hardly set the place on fire since his £1.2 million summer move from Portsmouth. He has scored only three times for Villa, but each of his goals against Everton. Arsenal and now Sheffield United has helped to secure important wins.

Whittingham is starting to look more of a Premier League player with each appearance.

Sadly, he was one of the few successes of a miserable 90 minutes, with Mark Bosnich, Shaun Teale and Garry Parker the only other players to do themselves real justice.

Substitute Parker, unsettled by his infrequent first team opportunities, clearly felt he had a point to prove when hemade his entrance 17 minutes from time.

Villa had previously mustered no more than a handful of quality moves.

Yet the eager Parker ignited his team's creative spark to such an extent that he was voted Man of the Match by sponsors Air Mauritius.

The midfielder's contribution was so significant that he will surely be among the first names on the team sheet for Wednesday's home match against Southampton.

If the Saints repeat the negative stance adopted by Dave Bassett's bores, a flash of inspiration may well be needed to provide Villa with three more points.

And Parker is the man most likely to provide it.