Aston Villa put on yet another drab home performance on Tuesday evening as they fell to a 1-0 defeat against fellow strugglers Manchester City.

After a poor opening to the match, City's Silvain Distin tested Sorensen with a powerful header and minutes later it was Milan Baros' turn to cause a scare at the other end.

In front of a crowd of only 26,000 and with the atmosphere alomost non-existent, the game failed to come to life and the only other chances in the half came by way of Baros and Angel who failed to take advantage of typically comical goalkeeping from David James.

As the second half got underway it was clear that there was only ever going to be one winner as Villa sat back and were let off twice as Barton and Riera wasted great chances when well placed.

However, after Gabriel Agbonlahor had tested James for Villa, the visitors responded immediately as ex-Villan Darius Vassell turned Mellberg and fired the ball past a wrong-footed Thomas Sorensen to break the deadlock.

Villa pushed forward in the closing stages and even had the ball in the net, only for Kevin Phillips' equaliser to be unjustly ruled out for offside.

The poor decision from the referee's assistant took the wind out of the Villa sails and in front of one of their worst-ever Premiership attendances, they fell to yet another defeat.

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