Villa arrested their slide from the championship chase as Savo Milosevic's seventh goal of the season was enough to secure their first Premiership victory of the year.

Villa have sorely missed the injured midfield trio of Andy Townsend, Mark Draper and lan Taylor.

Yesterday, England defender Gareth Southgate and Republic of Ireland international Steve Staunton formed a makeshift midfield alongside Sasa Curcic.

But it was Milosevic, firmly back in favour at Villa Park after his on-off move to Italian club Perugia collapsed before Christmas, who was the architect of Sunderland's eighth league defeat of the season. Nobody picked him up as he collected Bosnich's clearance deep in the Sunderland half in the 36th minute. He steadied himself before firing in a low shot that took a deflection before flying past Perez and into the bottom left-hand corner of the net.

The same striker could have made it 2-0 seconds later when his cross-shot eluded Perez and the incoming Yorke only to trickle past the post.

Villa grew in confidence as Sunderland's attacks met with stern resistance and were unlucky not to be awarded a penalty when Curcic tumbled in the area under pressure from Richard Ord.

Former Villa full-back Dariusz Kubicki tested Bosnich from 30 yards before being substituted as Sunderland threw on Martin Smith and later Craig Russell in a bid to find the equaliser.

Milosevic was sent racing through on goal on two more occasions only for the French keeper to beat him to the ball.