Liverpool undone by Taylor

LIVERPOOL'S pursuit of Manchester United at the top of the Premier League hit a sticky patch at Villa Park yesterday. Just when a mud pie of a pitch was threatening to produce a scoreless stalemate Ian Taylor won the game for Aston Villa with a goal seven minutes from the end.

Liverpool's second league defeat in a dozen matches, and their fifth of the season in the Premiership, keeps them four points behind United as the contest approaches a critical stage. There was a period in the second half yesterday when Roy Evans's team moved up a gear and looked capable of reducing the gap to a single point, but with even Robbie Fowler's finishing unusually awry they were unable to exploit their growing ascendancy.

Villa, whose season was starting to drift, have now won three times in four games and are again pushing for a place in Europe. Yesterday's victory will have given them added satisfaction after losing four successive encounters to Liverpool in league and cup with 11 goals conceded and none scored.

In fact it was the first time Aston Villa had scored against Liverpool in 503 minutes of football, and the first time Liverpool's defence had been penetrated in the league in the 580 minutes which had elapsed since Roberto Di Matteo's winner for Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on New Year's Day.

For a long time yesterday such statistical niceties seemed irrelevant. A match which promised much in the opening quarter hour spent the rest of the first half palpably failing to deliver, and most of the second refusing to reflect an improvement in the spectacle in terms of goals.

This was partly due to a surface which hampered accurate passing and broke up the flow of the game. Yet both defences were solid almost throughout, and Mark Wright had an outstanding match for Liverpool.

In addition, Steve McManaman had difficulty operating through the usual channels until late in the match, so assiduously did Villa's midfield block his forward runs. The upshot was that not much of consequence was coming through to Stan Collymore and Fowler, and when it did both struggled to find the target. Collymore twice wafted the ball over the bar in the first IS minutes, but Fowler was guilty of a more blatant miss 15 minutes from the end when he did the same from the six yard line.

Much of Villa's game is about getting the ball quickly up to the feet of Dwight Yorke or Savo Milosevic and seeing what the close control and tight turns of either player will achieve. Against Mark Wright, Yorke found it difficult to achieve anything of consequence.

In fact Villa might have fallen behind three minutes before halftime when Mark Bosnich dashed out of his goal as Dominic Matteo played the ball up to Fowler and stranded himself near the left hand touchline. Fowler's precise shot from an acute angle might or might not have gone into a gaping net either way Villa were grateful that Gareth Southgate had dashed back to clear it.

With Patrik Berger replacing Collymore eight minutes into the second half, Liverpool began to pass the ball in a more positive manner. Aston Villa's shooting was predominantly long range, and when the ball did reach Ian Taylor in the penalty area McManaman's challenge forced him to shoot wide.

Ironically, a mistake by McManaman led to Taylor's winner in the 83rd minute. He allowed Alan Wright to gain possession on the left and, after two defenders had lunged in with Yorke to meet Andy Townsend's cross, the ball again ended up with Taylor, who this time did not miss.