By Ryan Ghee
October 7 2005

Aston Villa's worst ever start to a Premiership campaign continued as they put on a drab display and were deservedly beaten by Middlesbrough. Aston Villa looked shaky from the start as Yakubu raced through on goal within a minute only for Sorensen to deny the striker.

After the early scare, Villa seemed content to just keep the ball and it wasn't until the 13th minute that they created a chance of their own. Berger's free-kick was half cleared by the Boro defence and Wilfred Bouma, looking for his first goal in Villa colours, fired the ball over from 18 yards out.

Neither team created another clear-cut chance until the 33rd minute when Middlesbrough striker Yakubu made the most of Bouma's poor clearance as he smashed the ball past Sorensen in the Villa goal.

Juan Pablo Angel almost replied immediately for the Villans as he narrowly missed the target wih his powerful header after 36 minutes and Sorensen was called into action just seconds later to deny Rochemback and ensure the defecit was only one goal going into the half-time break.

Aston Villa started the second half brightly as Luke Moore scored his second goal in as many games. The youngster, filling in for the injured Milan Baros, latched onto a poor clearance before calmly slotting the ball past Jones in the Boro goal.

Patrik Berger almost gave Villa the lead just 4 minutes later as his strike came back out off the foot of the post.

The visitors then took control of proceedings and were rewarded when ex-Villa player George Boateng gave them the lead for the second time in the match. The unmarked Dutchman met a deep right-wing corner and drilled the ball past the helpless Thomas Sorensen.

Aston Villa then looked for a way back into the game but despite having most of the possession, they never looked capable of breaking down the Boro defence.

With only two minutes remaining, Jlloyd Samuel brought down Boateng in the box and Yakubu stepped up confidently and slotted the ball home for his second goal of the game.

With the match already lost, Villa pressed on in injury time and scored a consolation as Davis drilled the ball in from the edge of the box.

With almost a quarter of the Premiership season gone, Aston Villa find themselves sitting a lowly 16th in the table and only 3 points ahead of bottom team Everton. With the local derby aginst Birmingham only two weeks away, David O'Leary must ensure that the team puts on a much-improved performance, otherwise they risk facing yet another humliating defeat against their bitter rivals.