Charlton plummet continues as Davis keeps Villa on the up

ASTON VILLA CHARLTON 1 0 A VICTORY over a Charlton team on a four-game losing spree may not be much to crow about, but when you have Deadly Doug’s disapproving presence looming over you, you have to take everything you can get.

In this case it was double deadly, as the Aston Villa chairman’s visage was on video screens in two corners of the ground, advertising an impending book signing.

For large parts of this game frostbite felt like the only thing that was impending, but Steve Davis at least banished those thoughts momentarily. With 21 minutes to go the midfielder lashed home a left-footed shot after Milan Baros had hit the crossbar to give Villa the win and send Doug home happy as well.

Until Bent went close again six minutes before the interval, that was an isolated opening for the visitors who were largely pinned back inside their own third of the pitch for the first half.

First Gavin McCann, inside two minutes, sent a header over the crossbar and the former Sunderland midfielder then saw Stephan Andersen touch his well-aimed shot around the post soon after. Andersen came good again four minutes before the break when he blocked Milan Baros’s close- range shot after Kevin Phillips provided the pass.

With Villa having won only twice at home in the league since January you would have thought manager David O’Leary would want as many options as possible in front of goal, but with that in mind the whereabouts of Juan Pablo Angel was a mystery.

Up front, most of Villa’s best work came from Baros, who led the line with imagination but had no luck.