Villa win for the second time in four and have now lost just once in their last seven under Graham Taylor to secure their Premier League safety with a game to spare.

Villa now have 12 wins in 37 top flight games under Graham Taylor this season.

Marcus Allbäck scores his 4th in 4 to earn Graham Taylor a 15th win in 50 Premier League games since replacing John Gregory. 

Steve Staunton, 34, makes his final appearance in a Villa shirt before moving on to Coventry City on a free transfer in August 2003. Staunton had played for Villa in two spells between 1991-92 and 2002-03 making a total of 348 appearances in a Villa shirt (332 Starts). That fantastic contribution to Villa however was sadly overshadowed by Staunton’s controversial decision to leave Villa on a Bosman free transfer in 1998. Without that there is no doubt Staunton would have been rated as one of the great Villa servants. As it is he will remain respected rather than admired for his record of W145 D92 L111, 20 Goals, 37 Assists, 28 Bookings and 2 Red Cards across his Villa career. Ironically, his career hiatus with Liverpool afforded him a significant increase in wealth but just 58 appearances across 3 seasons during which time in a Villa shirt he could realistically have moved into the top 10 all time appearance holders for Villa.   

Finnish goalkeeper Peter Enckelman, 26, keeps his 20th clean sheet on his 67th and final game in a Villa shirt before moving on to Blackburn Rovers for a fee of £194,000 in January 2004. Villa had paid TPS Turku £513,000 for Enckelman’s services in February 1999 and would prove a statistically strong ‘keeper but a less than confidence boosting presence between the sticks. Undoubtedly best known for the refereeing error he was on the end of in September 2002, Enckelman had the support of both his full time managers with Graham Taylor making him the club’s #1. Whether that was a good long term move or an accident waiting to happen is difficult to tell, what isn’t is that the incident at St Andrews’ meant Enckelman was always on borrowed time at Villa and his career stalled into a nose dive with just 45 appearances for Blackburn and Cardiff over the following 7 seasons. Enckelman left with a record of W23 D18 L26, 74 Goals Conceded at a rate of 1.10 goals per game (1.19 in League football) and 20 Clean Sheets (20%) (25% League)

Midfielder Öyvind Leonhardsen, 32, makes his 23rd and final appearance in a Villa shirt before moving on to FC Lyn Oslo on a free transfer in July 2003. Leonhardsen was another of Taylor’s surprising signings and in truth he underwhelmed throughout his time with Villa to leave with a record of W9 D7 L7, 3 Goals, 2 Assists and 2 Bookings.

Joey Guðjónsson makes his 10th appearance in a Villa shirt (8 Starts) to make it W4 D42 L4, 1 Goal, 2 Assists, 4 Bookings and 1 Red Card so far in his Villa career.