BLACKBURN 2, ASTON VILLA 1

SO WHERE was the fight this time, Martin? Where was the desire to crack heads when the top four were in touching distance?

Only at the death, when ref Mark Clattenburg gave the game-deciding penalty, did his players replicate their training-ground antics.

How they moaned at the injustice. How unlucky that Clattenburg pointed to the spot when Richard Dunne jumped with his hands up and blocked an overhead kick from Franco Di Santo.

In his own penalty area. With a shot that was on target.

It didn't feel as controversial as the reaction it provoked, when James Collins and Dunne for once stood united in the defence of something.

Or when Villa boss Martin O'Neill started citing new rules and forgot his team's bad old habits.

Like easing off, like underestimating the opposition... the kind of failings that mean you can kiss goodbye to any hope of getting among the big four.

The real sting for Aston Villa was that they could not even manage a point against a struggling side who finished a man short; that the real heart was in Big Sam's side.

Vince Grella can have few complaints with his sending-off, 22 minutes from time, with this game in the balance. A second foul on James Milner had followed a first-half cynical trip on Gabby Agbonlahor.

Neither the sending-off nor the penalty should hide Villa's failings, nor their plain ordinariness.

O'Neill's side did not come cheap, yesterday's lot leaving little change from £70million. But they didn't look it. They looked bitty, clumsy and lacking any sort of fluency.

Only Milner's predictable energy offered them any salvation. But around him there was nothing.

John Carew plays the game when he wants, Agbonlahor has still to refine his undoubted pace and, in the centre of midfield, Stiliyan Petrov and Fabian Delph looked too light to deal with Rovers' physical power.

And then there was the worrying sight of Emile Heskey, deployed initially as a substitute - fellow reserve Nigel Reo-Coker had left his boxing gloves at home - and then brought on to the left side of midfield.

Are we back to those dark days? Of Heskey hurtling up and down the wing? It felt like a backward step and is one of the few headaches looming for England boss Fabio Capello. He can only hope Heskey can find some form.

Even Agbonlahor's opening goal, after just three minutes, was fortuitous.

The England forward raced on to a clever Milner flick but his angled finish was mis-hit and bobbled almost apologetically on to the left-hand upright as keeper Paul Robinson watched in despair.

From there, the ball had enough momentum to limp over the goal-line.

It should have been the platform for victory. But it wasn't. Instead, Rovers were led by the immense frame of Christopher Samba who stood up to the early adversity and by the 24th minute they were rightly level.

Again Dunne was culpable. Ryan Nelsen lumped a clearance back to where it came from, Dunne could only head the ball into the path of Samba, and with his 6ft 7in he was not found short, cleverly stabbing in a right-footed shot.

The other Dunn, David - who has a rare licence to roam in the rigid structure of boss Sam Allardyce's side - revelled in the role.

He was denied by a stunning reflex stop from his former team-mate Brad Friedel just past the half-hour mark.

He shot over from a clever Brett Emerton back-heel and then, with a minute remaining, he was coolness personified to send Friedel the wrong way from the penalty spot.

Blackburn's victory, only their second in the league this season, was fully justified, despite O'Neill's protestations.

Like a punch on the nose, that has to hurt.

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