VILLA last night returned to the graveyard of last year's championship aspirations and breathed new life into a season which had been dying on its feet.

Alan Shearer's clinical 10th-minute strike may have condemned Ron Atkinson's men to their seventh Premiership match without a win, but that hardly seemed to matter.

While Blackburn revelled in the dizzy heights alongside Manchester United at the top of the table, Villa returned home with the quiet satisfaction of having proved an important point.

On the ground where their title hopes were rubbed unceremoniously into Lancashire turf almost 12 months ago, the Coca-Cola League Cup holders more than matched Kenny Dalglish's high-fliers for most of an entertaining contest.

True, they still have only one goal to show for their endeavours over the last 630 minutes of Premiership football.

All the signs at Ewood Park though were that Atkinson has a sound base on which to follow up the Coca-Cola Cup triumph with a sustained title challenge in 1984/5.

Motivation may have been something of a problem since that glorious day at Wembley a couple of weeks ago, but once the cutting edge is sharpened, there is little question that Villa can re-emerge as a Potent force.

Strangely enough, it was after a Dean Saunders back injury had forced them to abandon their successful Wembley tactics that the visitors really blossomed.

Saunders had spent the first half fighting a lone battle upfront as Villa strung five players across midfield but were never quite able to provide the support he needed.

But when the Welsh striker failed to appear for the second period, Villa reverted to a conventional 4-4-2 and looked far more effective.

Skipper Kevin Richardson had already got through a phenomenal amount of work and suddenly his graft was complemented by substitute Ray Houghton’s guile.

Houghton, out of favour in recent weeks, displayed all the hunger of a man determined to make Ireland’s World Cup squad as he announced his arrival with a succession of sharp and intricate passes.

And with Dalian Atkinson and youngster Graham Fenton pushing into their more accustomed forward roles, Blackburn had to endure a fair amount of discomfort before the final whistle brought them both relief and delight.

One superb move almost brought an equaliser in the 50th minute, Atkinson laying off Houghton’s piercing through ball for Fenton to drill a ferocious drive which Tim Flowers brilliantly turned away or a corner.

It was a world-class save which even upstaged the one Mark Bosnich had produced to tip round Tim Sherwood's stinging low drive after only five minutes.

Blackburn, oozing confidence and knocking the ball around with awesome accuracy, were the undisputed masters of those early stages and it was no great surprise when they went in front.

Jason Wilcox's left wing cross was headed down by Mike Newell at the far post and the ball spun off Shaun Teale's knee allowing Shearer to thump an angled drive beyond a helpless Mark Bosnich for his 33rd goal of the season.

Shearer and Newell though were subsequently rendered ineffective by the classy Teale and his defensive partner Ugo Ehiogu, rated by Atkinson as arguably Villa’s best player after an uncertain opening 10 minutes.

It was just a pity Villa could not find the finishing touch to some of their highly impressive approach work.