*Gregory gallant as Villa plumb new depths*

Aston Villa’s championship pursuit is dead and the inquest has already started. John Gregory did not spare the team whose performance was “the worst I’ve seen in all my life, as a player and a manager”. Nor did he spare himself in a summation that was part accusatory, part confessional.

Villa’s manager could have kept the finger pointed outwards rather than at himself after such a spiritless and artless display. The fact was that a relegation-threatened Coventry won with conviction and panache; Villa made them look like the Spanish sky-blues of Celta Vigo.

According to Gregory, Villa will now be lucky to perform in that European competition next season, let alone the Champions League. “Frankly we are in deep shit. If the three teams at the top mess up I’ll be very surprised.”

How has it come to this, after a 3 1/2-month unbroken reign at the summit? Loss of form, and injuries - Villa lost two players by the 44th minute here - were inevitably cited but Gregory could have offered more excuses. For example the impending loss of Mark Bosnich and the uncertain future of Stan Collymore, at best irritating distractions and at worst debilitating. Villa’s £7 million record signing has started only eight Premiership games this season, scoring only once.

Gregory blames himself for not guarding against the trough of form, the falling-away which the sceptics said was inevitable even when, as Gregory said, “everyone was playing to their limit”. One point has been gleaned from the last 15. “It’s come together at once: loss of form, loss of key players. As a manager you have to be ready for that. It’s something I’ve not done very well.”

The search for signings before this month’s deadline continues - “it’s down to me to bring players in” - and Gregory thinks he was too cost-conscious in his transfer thinking before injuries bit. Yet it is not he who can be accused of peseta-pinching over the projected £12 million purchase of Juninho, a player of invention to spice a team stamped Made in England.

Gordon Strachan was not gloating, even if “we were very good at times”, when he pointed out that “we knew there was no point in playing the percentage game against Villa”. He was referring less to safety-first tactics than to confronting Gregory’s team on their own terms: direct and predictable. The outcome was a winning performance of variety and superior individual technique.

Villa’s captain Gareth Southgate and Riccardo Scimeca were exposed by the combination of Darren Huckerby’s power and John Aloisi’s alertness. The midfield was one-dimensional, particularly with Paul Merson restricted to the right flank. Up front Julian Joachim ran hard without reward, since his partner Dion Dublin represented only nuisance value against his old club given his groin trouble.

Dublin, according to Gregory “is desperate to play” despite obvious discomfort. Gregory suggested that the hard option, surgery for Dublin and a six-week absence, might be pursued now rather than later.

The willing Dublin at least brought Villa back into the game, albeit briefly, with his first goal of 1999, a fiercely struck penalty after a dubious award against Richard Shaw.

Strachan’s sense of injustice at this point was heightened by Uriah Rennie’s earlier refusal of a much clearer offence when Huckerby was shoved by Scimeca in the area. But fortune favoured the better team. Aloisi’s two goals, a superbly placed shot and a volley, demonstrated his scoring desire and George Boateng’s own brace proved Coventry’s enter-prise in releasing midfielders at every opportunity. So Coventry broke out of the relegation zone - and out of the psychological shackles of an astonishing 63 years of league failure at Villa Park.


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*Villa on the slide as Aloisi strikes*

Patriots hoping to see Aston Villa’s once all-English team stay among the championship contenders saw their dreams all but trodden into submission in the rain-lashed surface of Villa Park yesterday.

Coventry, playing with remarkable authority, made history by winning here for the first time in 24 attempts with two goals apiece from John Aloisi and George Boateng. After four straight defeats, Villa hoped they had stopped the rot last weekend when they slugged out a goalless draw at Wimbledon.

Alas, it did not start the way the unchanged Villa wanted. Gordon Strachan had instilled passion and belief in his team which showed one change from that beaten last week, John Aloisi in for the injured Noel Whelan. Where Dion Dublin hesitated, he ran.

Coventry settled first and took the lead through Aloisi after 25 minutes. Grayson, with a 25-yard shot wide, had broken Villa’s gloom, but when Aloisi fed Steve Froggatt and kept running, they had no answer.

A well-flighted pass picked him out and he turned on his left foot away from Scimeca to steer a low shot beyond Michael Oakes. Villa were punctured again three minutes later when Darren Huckerby outpaced Scimeca and was apparently hauled down by the defender. Uriah Rennie, the referee, waved play on; but it was a dubious decision.

To make matters worse for Villa manager John Gregory, he was forced to use two of his substitutes before the interval. Mark Draper came on for Ian Taylor after half an hour and Gareth Barry for Steve Watson, who was taken off on a stretcher with an injured left knee. And Simon Grayson was booked. No wonder, the manager was stalking the touchline.

It was a perfect scenario for Collymore, stress permitting, and he duly arrived early after 57 minutes. By then, however, Hendrie had joined Williams in the referee’s notebook, George Boateng had fired Coventry two up and Dublin had pulled one back from the penalty spot.

The football was as changeable as the weather, but Gregory remained impassive. Boateng’s goal came when Huckerby crossed low from the right and, as Scimeca collapsed at his feet, he lifted a shot-on-the-turn into the net. Four minutes later, Mr Rennie saw Shaw foul Joachim who appeared to lose the ball himself and fall over. Dublin, finally, did something right with a powerful 12-yarder from the spot. Aloisi’s second goal came when he beat Southgate and volleyed Froggatt’s free-kick home.

Collymore did hit the post for Villa before Boateng wrapped it up for the Sky Blues, advancing onto a Gary McAllister pass. At that, Strachan turned from Mr Angry into Mr Nice while Gregory’s body language admitted defeat.