Villa 2 Middlesbrough 3: Match report

From the opening stages Villa were poor and were under the backfoot. So by the time Yakabu opened the scoring on 33 minutes it was a good reward for their hard work.

Villa opened the second half quite lively, and Luke Moore grabbed an equaliser after only five minutes of the restart.

It was the youngsters second goal in two games, coming from only his second start.

However, it took 15 minutes for Villa to turn their good possession and good play into a Middlesbrough goal. After poor defending in the box from Rochemback's corner, Boateng was allowed to fire in the goal to give them the lead.

And it only got worse four minutes from time, when substitute J'Lloyd Samuel gave away a penalty that was cooly put away by Yakabu.

Steven Davis grabbed an undeserved consolation for Villa in the fourth minute of stoppage time.

David O'Leary made an odd change when replacing De la Cruz with J'Lloyd Samuel in the second half and then later on bought Bakke on for Freddie Bouma.

I think it might be time we began to look towards finding a manager that knows how to win before we get sucked in the relegation zone. Which shouldn't be too long.

Villa: Sorensen, De la Cruz, Mellberg, Ridgewell, Bouma, Milner, Davis, Barry, Berger, Angel, Moore. Subs: Taylor, Samuel, Cahill, Djemba-Djemba, Bakke.