Enckelman errs after Ginola's equaliser

Perhaps Peter Enckelman was already feeling the presence of Peter Schmeichel, but Aston Villa's young goalkeeper handed Slaven Belupo a 2-1 victory with a bad error in a dramatic finish to their Intertoto Cup third-round match in Croatia yesterday.

The Finn allowed a low shot from Goran Gersak to slip from his grasp in the dying moments to leave Villa playing catch-up in the return leg on Saturday. Would David James have done that? Who knows, but Villa supporters will now be certain, if they were not already, of the wisdom of signing Peter the Great from Sporting Lisbon on a free transfer.

It was the sort of error that might have turned John Gregory's stomach had the manager not missed the trip to Croatia with a bout of food poisoning. Kevin MacDonald, who runs the reserve team, and Villa's chief scout, Ross MacLaren, were in charge.

Enckelman could do nothing about Slaven's opener after an hour, when Pavo Crnac took advantage of slack marking at a corner to head home (Where was Gareth Southgate?), but what made the Finn's late error all the more galling was that only a few minutes earlier David Ginola had indulged in his own dramatic celebration of Bastille Day. The Frenchman, having risen from the substitutes' bench in the second half, made a spectacular breech in the Slaven fortress with a drive from 30 yards.

In their pursuit of a Uefa Cup place Villa may yet be grateful for away goals counting double, and in the circumstances Ginola's strike was worth two. Their £9.5m Colombian striker Juan Pablo Angel was not playing and Mustapha Hadji and Hassan Kachloul, Villa's Moroccan summer signings from Coventry City and Southampton, respectively, were away on international duty.

Villa might have had an early penalty when Dion Dublin went down and were unlucky when their Turkish defender, Alpay Ozalan, headed Lee Hendrie's free-kick against a post after 20 minutes. But the Slaven striker Renato Jurcec rattled the cross-bar with Enckelman beaten 10 minutes later and, five minutes after that, the midfielder Damir Muzek shot wide after forcing his way into the area.

Dublin's final contribution was a weak shot when set up by Paul Merson on the stroke of half-time. He did not come out after the interval and might have felt relieved to be out of it as Slaven pinned Villa back. The pressure was rewarded with Crnac's goal.

Slaven looked like winners and, after the Franco-Finnish finale, they duly were. Next time perhaps Ginola will start and Enckelman will not. But hindsight is a valuable asset when taking the Schmeichel.