2-4

*Collymore compounds the folly.*

Villa are beginning to look like the man who built his house on sand. If the challenge of John Gregory’s team for the championship is to amount to anything more than a nine-week wonder they will surely have to re-dig their foundations.

They also need to reassess the true worth to the side of Stan Collymore, whose outrageous foul on Liverpool’s Steve Harkness at Villa Park on Saturday and subsequent second yellow card and dismissal for a retaliatory shove on Michael Owen, who had tackled him knee-high, confirmed the maverick tendencies of this talented but wayward player.

The Football Association could charge Collymore with misconduct after studying the video replay of an over-the-top lunge which saw Harkness carried off with damaged knee ligaments after 11 minutes. Happily the incident did not spoil the Premiership’s most entertaining spectacle of the season so far; helped, it must be said, by mutually inept defending.

The masterful finishing of Robbie Fowler, who announced his return to full form and fitness with a hat-trick, dominated an exhilarating exhibition of attacking football from both teams and inspired Liverpool to the victory which ended the league leaders’ 12-match unbeaten Premiership record.

A sharp header which owed everything to anticipation and positioning, a shot potted with a pool hustler’s assurance and a first touch which made his third goal a formality confirmed Fowler as one of the country’s most dangerous strikers.

Yet Villa, despite conceding two goals in the first six minutes, might have saved or even won the match had the skill and vision of Paul Merson been backed by a return to the defending which saw them let in a similar number in their first nine league games.

“Strikers win matches, defenders win championships,” Gregory had declared after Villa forced an efficient scoreless draw at West Ham five weeks earlier. Since then the truth of those words has, quite literally, been brought home to him. His team have now conceded nine goals in three matches at Villa Park.

Celta Vigo, whose 3-1 win ended Villa’s interest in the Uefa Cup, first exposed a flaw in Gregory’s defence and here Paul Ince caught it ball-watching at a corner as he headed past Michael Oakes after two minutes. Liverpool, like Vigo, then proceeded to tear Villa’s cover to ribbons with a quality of passing and movement which bemused Ugo Ehiogu and preyed on the inexperience of the 17-year-old wunderkind Gareth Barry.

Yet the problem for Villa lay equally in midfield where, without the suspended Ian Taylor, they simply could not cope. Villa have been setting the pace primarily through their ability to hold narrow leads, but since Dion Dublin’s arrival from Coventry Gregory’s decision to sacrifice numbers in midfield to accommodate both Dublin and Collymore up front has upset the team’s balance.

Whereas Collymore is profligate, Dublin continues to prosper. Having hit a post in the first half he kept Villa in the game at 2-1 early in the second with an excellent goal, beating David James with a perfectly struck shot on the turn.

After Fowler restored Liverpool’s two-goal lead Dublin tapped in another from Collymore’s low cross, only for Fowler to complete his hat-trick three minutes later. Even with 10 men, after Collymore’s departure, Villa might still have denied Liverpool victory had James not pushed Dublin’s penalty past a post.

James had been penalised for bringing down Julian Joachim, a Villa substitute. Within a minute Phil Babb, beaten by Joachim’s pace, appeared to repeat the foul but the referee Peter Jones did not award a second penalty.

This leniency hardly compared to the yellow card shown to Collymore after his challenge on Harkness when practically everyone was expecting red. The pair had a history of animosity going back to Liverpool’s previous visit here in February when Collymore marked Gregory’s arrival as manager by scoring twice against his former team-mates in a 2-1 win.

After that match, Collymore accused Harkness of racial abuse, Harkness told a Sunday newspaper that Collymore had threatened to break his leg, and three hours of attempted mediation at the players’ union failed to get the players even to shake hands.

“I think there was an element of grudge, don’t you,” Gregory admitted later. “Collymore was probably lucky to stay on, in all honesty.”

Collymore insisted his tackle had had nothing to do with the previous match. “If it had been anyone else I would have gone for the ball in exactly the same way,” he said.

Gerard Houllier, reluctant to allow this overshadow the first signs of a Liverpool revival since he assumed sole charge, was not prepared to condemn Collymore. “I’m sure he will regret it himself,” he added. Had Graeme Souness still been a member of the opposition Collymore might have regretted being allowed to stay around until the Owen incident brought him a second booking.

A one-match ban means he will miss Villa’s next home game, against Manchester United, in a fortnight. Four days later they travel to Chelsea and Arsenal are at Villa Park the following Saturday. By then the championship should have a better idea of what the pre-Christmas pretenders, and their manager, are made of.