DWIGHT Yorke slammed in the fastest goal of the Premiership season and Savo Milosevic grabbed a late double sucker punch to put Villa into second spot.

But few scorelines will be as misleading as this, with only a brilliant, one-man resistance by Villa goalkeeper Mark Bosnich denying home boss Ron Atkinson a comeback against one of his old clubs.

Coventry have now won just once against no-hopers Manchester City all season, but surely have too much quality to go down. Mind you, they never make life easy for themselves and just 13 seconds were on the stopwatch when their first touch was for John Filan to pick the ball out of his net.

Milosevic, Yorke and then Mark Draper worked the ball out to lan Taylor on the right and his curling cross was met by Yorke, who plunged through a dopey defence to head home his fifth goal of the season.

Yorke has been a revelation since being convened to a striker by Brian Little and, as he orchestrated wave after wave of scintillating attacks, a third straight win on their short trips to Highfield Road looked assured.

Coventry were lucky when an offside flag wiped out Milosevic's effort from another simple move in the 12th minute. And if the Young Serb and Villa’s England contender Draper had been more composed for their excellent chances later, the game would have been well over before the break.

The home side were strong on individual flair, but lacked Villa's organisation and missed much of their punch without the injured Dion Dublin. However.

they were still able to exploit the absence of influential Villa defender Paul McGrath and inspire the sort of barnstorming performance Bosnich occasionally produces.

He parried away a cracking shot on the run by Ndlovu, saved point-blank from Paul Telfer and then dashed off his line to charge down another Salako breakthrough.

Ugo Ehiogu had his share of luck, conceding only a yellow card and a free kick for his tackle behind on Ndlovu in the 24th minute, when the home fans demanded red and a penalty. He then deflected a Telfer header just past his own post.

Hall's angled drive in the first minute of the second half produced another good save from the flying Bosnich, who was then hurt in an awkward fall after coming a long way to fist clear the corner.

Atkinson sent on the 38-year old Gordon Strachan to try to retrieve the game, but Milosevic sank them in the last six minutes.

He scooped home his second goal for Villa since leaving Partizan Belgrade in a goalmouth scramble after Gareth Southgate had a shot blocked.

And Milosevic was left totally in the clear two minutes later to convert Yorke's low cross from the left.

Coventry could pay an unexpectedly high price for defeat after a linesman drew referee Alan Wilkie's attention to an object allegedly thrown at Bosnich when he went behind his goal to retrieve the ball in the 56th minute.

After the game. Villa boss Brian Little said he never lose faith in Milosevic. "He has an unbelievable amount of ability. his touch is immaculate and he has a great appreciation of a pass." he said.

"But it's going to be hard for Savo and Dwight Yorke to score a lot of goals because we ask so much of them and our demands often mean they end up in wide positions.

“But they are developing their understanding and we're very pleased with the partnership at the moment.

"Savo's learning all the time and the second goal showed how keen he is to get in to score."

Coventry's former Villa manager Ron Atkinson raged: "We spent all week working on defence and then we concede a goal like that after 13 seconds through sheer stupidity.

"There are no excuses for that, first kick of the match with everyone behind the ball. - We gave ourselves a chance to get back in it but Bosnich made two or three good saves but then I would expect nothing less from him.”