*Villa savour life in the fast lane*

What a difference a few weeks can make. Just over three months ago John Gregory looked the odds-on favourite to win the seasonal sack race after Villa lost to Coventry at Highfield Road.

Now, after Ugo Ehiogu’s first goal in 15 months had condemned Coventry to their fourth successive defeat, Villa are seventh in the table and looking realistically at a place in Europe, with a forthcoming FA Cup semi-final to boot.

This was not a great game, nor a particularly convincing win against a woefully out-of- form Coventry, who have now lost six of their last seven games.

But Villa’s fans will not be too concerned, especially after their side laid to rest the humiliation of Coventry’s 4-1 win here just over a year ago, their first ever league victory at Villa Park.

Colin Hendry, newly arrived at Coventry, had his work cut out against a lively Villa attack prompted by the busy Paul Merson.

Merson’s running, passing and crossing created most of Villa’s chances. The game was barely 90 seconds old when his short corner resulted in Alan Wright picking out Ehiogu unmarked at the far post, but the Villa defender tried to play the ball inside rather than go for goal and the chance went begging.

Undaunted, Merson continued to ferret away for openings and crossed for Ian Taylor to head over the bar. It was one of many openings for the home side. Magnus Hedman was forced to save smartly from both Taylor and Julian Joachim, while Hendry blocked a fierce effort from Benito Carbone..

Hedman was by far the busier goalkeeper, and his best save came in the 23rd minute when he tipped over a thundering 25-yard half-volley from his former team-mate George Boateng.

By that stage, Coventry had not had a sniff of goal, but in the 31st minute Robbie Keane had a great chance to open the scoring, only to mis-hit John Eustace’s cross from 10 yards.

Villa finally broke the deadlock in stoppage time when Mustapha Hadji fouled Delaney wide on the right. When Merson swung in the resulting free-kick, Ehiogu rose above Hendry at the far post to power home a header.

Coventry manager Gordon Strachan replaced Keane with Noel Whelan at half-time, but his side still struggled to make headway against a defence superbly organised by the consistently excellent Southgate.

At the other end Julian Joachim was given a simple chance to increase Villa’s lead when Eustace’s attempted back-pass fell woefully short of Hedman. The Swedish goalkeeper saved his team-mate’s blushes, though, by coming out quickly to get a foot to Joachim’s stabbed shot and turn the ball away for a corner.

The game slowly petered out as a spectacle, although Whelan went close to snatching a barely-deserved equaliser in the closing minutes when his snap-shot on the turn flew just over the bar from close range.