It should have been calked the Premiership snatch of the day.

How Villa came to lose this game after dominating proceedings for so long was nothing short of a travesty.

Tony Cottee’s late goal for strugglers West Ham provided them with a victory they scarcely deserved and their first win of what will be a very difficult season.

Cottee marked his return to Upton Park with a classic poacher’s goal four minutes from time.

Ron Atkinson was less than pleased with Villa’s second reverse in 72 hours, following the disappointment of their 1-0 UEFA Cup defeat against Inter Milan.

Harsh words were spoken in the dressing room afterwards with Atkinson emerging to say:

"If you are going to get up there with the champions you have to win these matches.

"We did enough to have won, and, with no disrespect to West Ham, you have to win at places like this if you want to go for major honours.”

John Fashanu should have sealed the three points four minutes before Cottee’s goal.

The £1.35m striker was put in the clear following a powerful run down the middle by substitute Dalian Atkinson and hopelessly squandered his chance with only goalkeeper Ludek Miklosko to beat.

“A bad miss by Fash?

"He could have got down on his knees and put the ball in with his head. What went wrong was that it fell to his feet." Said the Villa boss wryly.

Dalian Atkinson though the had scrambled an equaliser in injury time with the ball crossing the line, but he was adjudged to have been offside.

Sadly, Villa’s old habit of failing to really punish opposing sides was all too evident and that’s the reason why they came away empty handed.

They cannot be faulted on the quality of their approach play or their passing. But they just do not get the ball into opponents’ penalty areas quickly enough.