Allback's sanctuary for Villa

Aston Villa 1 Sunderland

This match featured one already-relegated team, although for long stretches it was hard to believe that Sunderland were the side who will be in the First Division next year. However, Aston Villa's fears of joining the Black Cats and their fellow west midlanders West Bromwich at that level next season were finally laid to rest with 10 minutes of a poor game remaining.

Substitute Joey Gudjonsson passed to Marcus Allback, and the Swede had enough power on his shot to beat Mart Poom and score his fourth goal in four games, despite the Estonian getting a hand to the ball.

The Villa manager Graham Taylor admitted to the fans that it had been "a frustrating season", words which were greeted with a mixture of jeers and cheers, before he led his players around the pitch for a lap of honour. Honour, however, is pushing it a bit as this was only Villa's second win in 11 Premiership games, which had meant relegation was still a possibility before kick-off. Reacting to the jeers, Taylor said later: "Somebody booing you because you have had a bad season? What do you expect them to do?"

Without Allback's goal, the wins for Fulham and West Ham would have dragged Villa's nerves right down to the quick for their last game at Leeds next Sunday. As it is, 21 years after winning the European Cup, they will at least stay in the top flight. Villa fans live with constantly readjusting their sights.

Sunderland's current stint in the Premiership has lasted four years, and in that time Villa had failed to beat the Black Cats, so Allback's strike, his sixth of a season when he has not always shone, was well-timed indeed.

This defeat also confirmed what everyone already knew, that Sunderland are the worst team in the history of the Premiership. With one game left, Mick McCarthy's men cannot even equal Watford's previous lowest ever total of 24 points but the former Republic of Ireland manager said: "We had chances to win the game but we can't think it's all bad luck. It was a good performance considering where we are."

Proof of that came with eight minutes gone when Gavin McCann latched on to Peter Enckelman's poor clearance and he forced the Finn into a fine save after trying his luck from 25 yards.

Earlier Villa showed some fight when Darius Vassell curled a shot just past Mart Poom's post. That was unlucky, but then, with 10 minutes gone Allback simply displayed bad finishing when he had time but dragged his shot wide.

Carelessness began to creep into Villa's game and when Steve Staunton gave the ball away before the interval Kevin Phillips was allowed to run half the length of the pitch and force a diving save from Enckelman to his right.

Thirteen league defeats in a row was the Black Cats' form before the game but Kevin Kyle very nearly gave them sight of a rare victory while the game was scoreless. A hopeful ball in by McCann found the Scot, whose volley dipped and grazed the crossbar before Allback showed him how to finish.

Aston Villa 1 Sunderland 0
Allback 80

Half-time 0-0 Attendance: 36,963