The health of Aston Villa took another turn for the worse last night after recklessly tossing away a two-goal cushion to add another unhappy footnote to their spectacular fall from grace.

John Gregory’s ailing side should have been home and dry but, just as the breaks were screeching on their plunge into mid-table obscurity, Leicester exposed more chinks in the armour to extend Villa’s miserable sequence to 10 matches without a win.

An ignominious run yielding two points from a possible 27 had left Villa suffering a severe case of the bends in recent weeks. Their metamorphosis from Premiership front runners to direction-less also-rans have left them without a victory since January 18, and goalless in their previous three attempts.

Almost bizarre, therefore, that it should take only 79 seconds before Villa took the lead. Julian Joachim’s right-wing delivery was innocuous enough but Matt Elliott slipped at the vital moment and, although Dion Dublin could not bring the ball under control, Lee Hendrie was waiting behind him to drive a left-foot shot past the exposed Kasey Keller.

Villa’s goal led a charmed life at times during an action-packed opening. Tony Cottee, presented with a crystal ball before kick-off in recognition of his 200 top-flight goals, missed a far-post header he would normally gobble up, and Alan Wright saw one clearance ricochet off Cottee’s backside beyond the stranded Mark Bosnich only to pass up the opportunity for a place in the archives of What Happened Next? by drifting inches wide of the goalkeeper’s left-hand post.

Another quickfire opening reaped its dividends for Villa at the start of the second half when Alan Wright’s 49th minute corner was headed across goal by Ian Taylor for Julian Joachim to hook the ball home.

But Leicester’s resilience is no secret. Robbie Savage brought them back into the match with an audacious lob on 62 minutes, and the ubiquitous Cottee took his personal tally to 201 with a typically predatory header nine minutes later. If Leicester had taken their chances, it could have been much worse for Villa.