Villa goal drought mystifies Taylor

Blackburn Rovers 0 Aston Villa

After all the hype surrounding the Battle of Britain, the phoney war descended on Ewood Park.

As Graeme Souness said repeatedly during Blackburn's journey to Scotland to play Celtic, the Uefa Cup is not a priority but it appears to be casting a debilitating shadow over his team's performances in the Premiership. Blackburn's two most listless displays have come immediately after trips to Europe, although last Thursday "Europe" involved a journey up the M6 to Glasgow.

"We got home at four o'clock on Friday morning and there was the emotional factor of playing Celtic," Souness, the Blackburn manager, said. "But that is the price on the ticket and those who started in Glasgow found it very hard to reach the same level here."

It should be said that Blackburn looked sharp enough during the first half-dozen minutes in which Peter Enckelman tipped Andy Cole's header on to the top of the crossbar but few Blackburn supporters who had seen their team overcome Leeds, Newcastle and Arsenal in recent weeks would have realised this one flash of excitement would represent the highlight of a barren afternoon.

There were odd moments when the game threatened to lift itself above the banal. The sight of David Thompson or Damien Duff skipping through tackles put you in mind of students of the Royal Ballet putting in an appearance at a school disco but, minute by minute, they were dragged down to the same level.

Nobody was quite as insipid as Dwight Yorke. It was his 31st birthday, he was playing against his former club and had he scored it might have put Graham Taylor, the man who discovered him as a 17-year-old in Tobago, close to the sack. Football loves these kind of stories, but Yorke never came close to writing it.

Having scored one goal outside Birmingham this season, Aston Villa do not expect much on their travels. Since Taylor's future was said by some to hang on three fixtures away to Manchester United, Blackburn and Oxford in the Worthington Cup, two points from the first two hurdles would be welcome, although the Villa manager winced when he recalled Dion Dublin's failure to convert Gareth Barry's cross from eight yards, which he claimed was unquestionably the chance of the match.

"The points we get are not appreciated because they are not moving us up the division," said a manager who has seen his side fail to score in eight of their 12 games. "I don't think I have managed a team with such a run of low scoring. It's becoming a bit mystifying.

"We have had some quite incredible misses. In our 11 previous games only three teams have outshot us," said Taylor, who listed the six strikers he has on his books, none of whom has scored more than one Premiership goal. "Throughout my managerial career, my teams have generally scored and conceded plenty of goals. But this may be becoming a psychological barrier."

Blackburn Rovers (4-4-2): Friedel 6; Neill 5, Taylor 6, Short 5, Johansson 7; Thompson 5 (Tugay 5, 75), Flitcroft 4, Dunn 5 (Gillespie 5, 65), Duff 7; Yorke 3 (Ostenstad 5, 65 ), Cole 6. Substitutes not used: Grabbi, Kelly (gk).

Aston Villa (3-5-2): Enckelman 7; Delaney 5, Mellberg 6, Staunton 7; Leonhardsen 4, Taylor 5, Kinsella 4, Barry 6, Samuel 5; Angel 3 (Moore, 5, 70), Dublin 5 (Crouch 4, 75). Subsitutes not used: Hitzlsperger, Johnsen, Postma (gk).

Referee: M Dean (Merseyside) 8.

Bookings: Blackburn: Duff. Aston Villa: Moore, Barry.

Man of the match: Duff.

Attendance: 23,004.