IT IS an indication of AstonVilla's so called disappointing season that they can attract a full house for the visit of one of the Premiership's worst teams, win, ultimately at a canter, and reinforce their drive for another sortie in Europe.

Dave Watson has been entrusted with the task of banishing the lingering - and real - threat of relegation, a subject this 35 year old Everton loyalist verbally confronted as fearlessly as any of his on field challenges. The captain and caretaker manager sees three successive home games as offering Everton the chance to leap to respectability, seasoned Everton watchers cannot see even a Goodison Park win coming.

Curiously, Everton's confidence drained away after going ahead. That took 14 minutes, by which early stage Watson should have been celebrating a three goal start to his managership. Graeme Stuart failed twice, on the first occasion baulked by Michael Oakes's magnificent save, before David Unsworth almost apologetically scored at his second attempt in a melee.

Everton's response was to trade unforced errors with Villa in a first period of extraordinary inaccuracy. Savo Milosevic grotesquely failed to connect with a Dwight Yorke cross. Four minutes before the interval Ugo Ehiogu sliced an intended shot across goal where the Serb headed home, to his obvious personal relief.

Villa attacked with only mild menace, and yet Everton's defence collectively faltered twice in four minutes early in the second half. The wall built for Steve Staunton's free kick 20 yards out left an inviting, large gap for the defender to fire through. Neville Southall was cruelly exposed when Ehiogu's routine knock down found Yorke and Milosevic with the freedom of the six yard box. Yorke's mis hit shot then deceived the veteran goalkeeper.